I was out and about again yesterday. I thought I’d head in a direction I hadn’t been before, so I took myself east from Eltham along Shooters Hill. That whole area is crammed with lovely little parks and patches of ancient woodland. About halfway through my trundle though, I came across a wide open piece of grassland called East Wickham Open Space: from the outside it looked lovely, with lots of well maintained paths leading across it. The problem was I couldn’t get onto it, because the entrance I’d come across was blocked by a gate which I couldn’t get through in my powerchair. I thought I’d go round and looked for another way in, but they were all blocked by the same kind of gate. They’re obviously intended to prevent cyclists going through at speed, but if you’re a wheelchair user there is no way you can get through, especially if you’re in a large cumbersome powerchair, and especially if you don’t have anyone with you to help. It almost felt like guys like me had been deliberately prevented from entering.

I must say I was rather disappointed. The park looked quite lovely, but for all the progress London has made towards accessibility recently, it seems that there are still parts of the metropolis which we wheelchair users still can’t get to.