Accessibility
Ensuring that our events are accessible to everybody is really important to us at Sunday Assembly London.
What to expect at an Assembly
Assemblies are held at Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green on the first and third Sundays of the month (watch out for five-week months!). We usually take a break in August.
When you enter the building, you’ll come into a café/bar area, where our front of house volunteers will be on hand to welcome you. Tea, coffee and squash will be available from 10:30am.
Shortly before 11am, we’ll open the doors into the main room and invite you to take a seat.
The host will introduce the theme of the Assembly. The Sunday Assembly band will then lead us in singing two songs: the lyrics will be displayed on screen and we encourage everyone to sing along if they feel able to. Those who are able to stand to sing. Some people choose to dance as well!
The host will then invite everyone to sit for the main talk. Most talks are accompanied by a slideshow presentation; some also include an interactive element. This segment lasts about twenty minutes.
After the main talk, the host will introduce our Moment of Reflection – a period of approximately a minute and a half of silence to allow you to reflect on the day’s theme. We usually also dim the lights for this segment.
The host will then introduce our guest poet or performer. Performers have previously included singers, dancers, instrumentalists, and even a magician. This segment lasts 10 minutes.
We then sing another song, before the host invites donations. Assemblies are free to attend, but we rely on donations to cover essential costs such as venue hire, refreshments and insurance. We pass around a bucket for cash donations, and there will also be volunteers roaming with card readers. Creating community is at the heart of what we do so we encourage everyone to chat with the person sitting next to them whilst donations are taking place.
Then comes the Community Notices section, where a member of the community will share what events are coming up. At the end of this section, we invite anyone in the community to share any personal news, achievements that they’re proud of, or events that they’d like to invite the Sunday Assembly London community to.
We then end the Assembly with a final singalong.
After the Assembly, we serve drinks and biscuits in the café/bar area. Our front of house volunteers will be on hand to answer any questions you have; they’ll also be happy to introduce you to longer standing members of the community if you’re feeling a bit shy!
Access to the café/bar area, main room and toilets is step free, with wide doorways.
Access to the stage in the main room is via one step.
There are no toilets in the main room – they are at the end of the bar nearest the front door.
If at any point during the Assembly you would like to either leave the main room, go to the toilet, or leave the building altogether, a member of the front of house team will accompany you, as it is a condition of our venue hire that we don’t allow visitors into the bar/café area unaccompanied.
The room can get quite loud during the communal singing. Members of the community often clap (and sometimes cheer) when a speaker or poet is introduced, and after a talk or performance.
If you need a quiet space, you’re welcome to go and sit in the café/bar area: please don’t be concerned if one of our front of house volunteers comes with you – it’s a condition of our venue hire that we don’t allow visitors into the bar/café area unaccompanied, but they’ll be happy to keep their distance if you’d prefer to be left alone.
There is no natural light in the main room.
A number of community members are neurodivergent. Please feel free to bring fidget gadgets, noise cancelling headphones etc, or to move around the room if you need to.
We regret that we’re not currently able to provide BSL interpretation at our events.
If you need a seat at the front to enable lip reading, but don’t feel comfortable asking someone who is already seated to move, please let one of our front of house volunteers know.
Although there are proven mental health benefits to a lot of the activities that we offer, such as being part of a community and communal singing, we aren’t a mental health charity. However, a number of our volunteers are mental health first aid champions and are able to signpost to sources of support for a variety of mental health needs.
Did we miss something?
If you have any access needs which we haven’t covered, please get in touch with