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Access Policy

York Fine Arts is committed to providing the highest standards of service and the widest possible access to its collection and our galleries. As such, we have provided the following information that outlines access to our gallery, as well as any access limitations and how we work to overcome them.

Car Parking and Vehicle Access

York city centre is pedestrianised from 10:30am-5:00pm 7 days a week, so on-street parking and direct vehicle access is largely unavailable within these hours. Saying this, blue badge holders may park on Blake Street, Lendal, Goodramgate, Colliergate and Castlegate for up to 3 hours during these pedestrianised hours. Loading and unloading is permitted on Low Petergate for all vehicles outside of pedestrianised hours, which can be useful when collecting larger pieces of artwork.

There are multiple car parks available within approximately 0.3 miles of the gallery. These include:

Q-Park Shambles, 6-minute walk to the gallery.
Bootham Row car park, 7-minute walk to the gallery.
Union Terrace car park, 9-minute walk to gallery.

York also operates a convenient park and ride scheme which many visitors find useful. There are several park and ride car parks around York’s outer ring road, including Monks Cross, Poppleton Bar and Grimston Bar. This service costs £2.90 per adult, with two under 16’s travelling free with each adult ticket, as of January 2018. Park & Ride buses are frequent, low-floor and wheelchair-accessible.

Train Station / Taxi Rank

York Fine Arts is situated 0.6 miles from York Station, an approximate 13-15-minute walk. There is a taxi rank directly opposite the main entrance to the station. Depending on traffic, a taxi can take between 6-10 minutes, with taxi fares varying. Taxis are unable to access the road leading to the gallery during the above mentioned pedestrianised hours; so drivers will most likely drop off customers at York Minster, which is less than a five-minute walk to the gallery via Low Petergate.

Main Entrance

The main entrance to the gallery is located at the front of the building, level with the street. Double doors open inwards. In warmer months, both doors are usually open; however, in winter months, both doors or one door may be closed. Should you require double door access, please notify a member of staff, who will be more than happy to help.

Inside the Gallery

The gallery is spread over three floors and consists of five different rooms. The ground floor has a mainly unobstructed floorspace, with adequate room for wheelchair and mobilised scooter access.

The upper galleries are accessed by staircases that are approximately one-metre wide. Due to the historic nature of the building, there is no lift available, which limits access for wheelchair and/or mobilised scooter users or visitors with limited mobility. As such, York Fine Arts is happy to bring artwork down from the upper galleries upon request. The gallery also has a tablet available for visitors to view the full selection of original paintings and a selection of bronzes, sculpture and signed limited edition prints on our website, helping them to better view and select artwork which may not be present on the ground floor. In addition, the gallery also offers a free and no obligation home viewing service for all artwork upon request, which is a convenient option for those unable to make a visit to the gallery.

Seating is available throughout the upper galleries and is available for visitors to use and enjoy. Due to limited space, there is no permanent seating for visitors downstairs; but the gallery is happy to provide temporary seating upon request.

Due to the historic nature of the building, the floors throughout do have minor steps, dips and rises, but is overall quite level. Nevertheless, the gallery recommends that care be taken throughout, particularly for visitors with limited mobility.

Toilet/ Changing Facilities

There are no public toilet or changing facilities at the gallery. The nearest accessible public toilets and baby changing facilities are located on Clarence Street at the Union Terrace car park.

Guide dogs / Disability Assistance Dogs

All well behaved dogs are very welcome at the gallery, whether assistance dogs or family pets.

Website

York Fine Arts maintains a user-friendly, up-to-date website that features our full range of original paintings, as well as a selection of bronzes, sculpture and signed limited edition prints to provide another access channel for those wishing to view the gallery’s collection.

Wherever possible, a combination of colours and fonts are purposefully sized, selected and contrasted to be easily readable. Lage, high-resolution images are also provided for each artwork to provide the best possible viewing experience for all visitors to our website. Additional photographs are also available upon request.

Home Viewing Service

In addition to our website and two physical galleries, the gallery also offers a free and no obligation home viewing service for all artwork upon request, which is a convenient option for those limited by access issues, unable to make a visit to the gallery or who would simply prefer to view artwork in the convenience and comfort of home.