Königsallee wheelchair accessibility

The Königsallee is a public street and free to enter at any hour. The four pavements along its length are paved and level. Plan to stay on whichever side of the canal your destinations sit on, because the canal itself only has crossings every few hundred metres. Accessible toilets and lifts cluster in the department stores at each end of the boulevard.

The Königsallee runs north to south just east of the Altstadt and Carlstadt. The two Stadtbahn stops on the boulevard itself are Steinstraße/Königsallee at the north end and Heinrich-Heine-Allee at the north-east corner. Both have lift access between street level and the Stadtbahn platforms.

From Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof, the simplest route is Stadtbahn U71, U72, U73, U78, or U79 to Steinstraße/Königsallee. The trip takes about five minutes and drops you at the north end of the canal.

Pick a side before you start. The east side runs the luxury fashion houses and the larger department stores; the west side runs banks, the Schadow-Arkaden shopping mall, and the Kö-Galerie. Both sides have a continuous tree-lined pavement, and the two outer pavements are wider than the two inner ones along the canal.

The canal-side pavements are paved with smooth slabs; the outer pavements (along the shop fronts) are similarly paved but narrow under heavy crowds. Crossings between the two sides come at the north end (Theodor-Körner-Straße), at Steinstraße, at Trinkausstraße, at Bahnstraße, and at Königsallee/Graf-Adolf-Straße at the south end. Spacing between crossings runs roughly every 200 metres.

The major department stores on the Kö (the Schadow-Arkaden at the north and the Kö-Galerie at the south) both have lifts between every floor and accessible toilets. Most of the standalone luxury shops have a ground-floor sales floor with a step or two at the door; the larger ones are step-free or ramped at the entrance. Ask staff for help with the accessible toilet location; signage is not consistent across the boulevard.

Several cafés have terrace seating along the canal in summer. The terrace levels are usually a single low step up from the pavement; staff can pull the table out to the pavement if you ask. The Tritonenbrunnen fountain at the north end and the swans on the canal are both reachable from the canal-side pavement at grade. Benches sit every fifty metres or so along both canal-side walks.

Width: about 87 metres facade to facade, the widest street in Germany. Length: about 1,000 metres of canal between the north and south ends. Pavements: four, paved and level, with curb-cuts at every cross-street. Admission: free, the Kö is a public street. Closest Stadtbahn stops: Steinstraße/Königsallee, Heinrich-Heine-Allee. Accessible toilets: in the major department stores; ask staff for directions.