One of the best museums in Britain for wheelchair access turns out to be Bethnal Green’s own V&A Museum of Childhood, a national survey shows.

It has beaten such prestigious venues as Tate Britain, the main V&A, British Library, Southbank Centre, Imperial War Museum, National Gallery and Natural History Museum.

But the museum in Cambridge Heath Road, which has had major works carried out in the past five years, has been pipped into second place by the Science Museum in South Kensington.

The UK-wide survey carried out by Revitalise, the charity that does holidays for the disabled and their carers, found more than half the nation's cultural venues still don't have all staff trained in disability awareness. Most were also not equipped with hoists.

"Yet we're impressed with the efforts to make these culture venues fully accessible," Revitalise chief executive Chris Simmonds said.

"Disabled households spend £249billion every year in Britain, so these venues should make sure some of it is spent with them."

One-in-four venues are now 90 per cent accessible, compared to one-in-10 in the charity's first survey in 2014.