How we check

What we check

Every place in the guides is a real business or site that we have been able to find on an official page. For each one we look for:

• An official source. The venue's own website, or an operator, council, national park or tourism-board page. Where a place has no website we say so rather than link to a third party.
• The right name and place. The page names the venue, and the address or coordinates agree with what is mapped on OpenStreetMap or Wikidata.
• Signs that it has closed. The website loads, is not a parked or for-sale domain, and does not say the business has closed, moved or changed hands. We also compare against closure tags that OpenStreetMap contributors have added.

Places that fail these checks are removed or left out. Places we could not verify, because a site blocked automated access or did not load, are either dropped or kept without a website link, and the source log says which.

What "Checked on" means

A "Checked on" line gives the most recent date we have on record that a person or one of our scripts confirmed the points above for that page: the venue websites opened, names matched and closure signals looked for. The date is read from our audit logs and data files when the site is built. If we hold no date for a page, no line is shown, because we do not estimate one.

It does not mean that every detail on the page was re-checked on that date, or that opening hours, prices or availability are current. Always confirm those with the venue before you travel.

Latest checks, by section

Where our facts come from

• Official pages: venues, operators, gov.uk, NHS, National Rail, councils, national park authorities and the national tourism boards where they can be read.
• Wikipedia, Wikivoyage and Wikidata for background and for finding websites, paraphrased and credited under their licences.
• OpenStreetMap contributors for map positions and for closure tags.

Each guide keeps a source log of the pages opened. Where a site blocks automated access we do not work around the block: we say so and link to it.

What we do not verify

• Opening hours, ticket prices, fares and availability. These change often, so we link to the official page instead of copying them.
• Show run dates and event dates, except where an organiser's own page states them, and then only as it stated them on the day we read it.
• Quality, service or atmosphere. We do not visit every place and we do not publish ratings.
• Step-free and other access details beyond what the venue says on its own page. They are shown as reported; check with the venue about your needs.
• Rules that depend on your situation, such as visas, entry requirements and health advice. We link to the official guidance and do not give advice.

How checks are kept up to date

People re-check pages when we change them, and scripts help in between. They look at every venue website politely (one request a second to any one site, with an honest user agent, and respecting each site's robots.txt) and list the ones that no longer load, have moved to another domain, look parked or say they have closed. A person then reads each flagged page and decides what to change. Nothing is changed automatically.

Report a problem

Every place card and page has a "Report a problem" link. You can tell us a place has closed, a detail is wrong, a website link is broken, a photo is wrong, or access information is wrong. We read each report and check it against the official source before changing anything. You do not need to give your name, and an email address is optional (only needed if you would like a reply). See the report form for exactly what is sent and to whom.

If we find a mistake we fix it on the page. See also our editorial policy and contact page.

Money and independence

Venues cannot pay to be listed or ranked higher. Some booking links may earn us a commission when they are switched on, and any paid content is labelled. Read the affiliate and sponsored content disclosure for the current position.