Parking in London

[Gathursty]

What is parking in London (zones 1-4 geographically) like between 7pm and 7am on Saturday/Sunday outside of NR stations?

 

[W-on-Sea]

Impossible to generalize about (apart from anything else, parking restrictions vary widely from borough to borough and neighbourhood to neighbourhood).

If you specify some areas you might consider parking in, then the possibility of useful advice arises. I think your question as phrased is far too wide to answer meaningfully, at present....

 

[Gathursty]

I'll just really be pulled up long enough to pop out and take a picture but as London is a different kettle of fish to Manchester and with almost everywhere with a double yellow or red line, I wouldn't like to turn round a corner and see someone put a ticket on it.

Specifically, I'm thinking north of the Thames, bounded by the A406 and the A10 and the Great Western Mainline but not within the congestion zone.

 

[radamfi]

Surprisingly, some parts of central London allow free parking from Friday evening until Monday morning, such as the area south and south-east of Victoria station.

The best thing to do is to look at parking maps from the relevant councils to check restrictions, e.g. Westminster, Camden, Islington, Haringey etc.

 

[Mojo]

Parking outside of the daytime in Westminster is actually much easier than in many other cities as it has a fair amount of single yellow lines which are largely unrestricted between 1830 and 0830.

http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/transportandstreets/parking/wheretopark/onstreet/syl/

 

[Titfield]

You don't have to see someone at your vehicle putting a ticket on it "to get a ticket".

CCTV can provide proof of wrong doing and the first you know you have been done is when the ticket comes through the post....

 

[Gathursty]

The only time I'll say I'd rather meet a warden than have Big Brother hiding behind a screen. The warden could be reasoned with and the CCTV may not show a relatively obscured/defaced/nonexistent sign detailing the regulations of parking in such places as it can't see where you are looking from.

 

[the sniper]

I went on a random middle of the night sight seeing drive around central London a couple of weeks ago, iirc it was a Monday night/Tuesday morning. The only station I parked up at was Waterloo. At around 3:30am I just parked up near the bottom of the steps, exactly on the spot where the traffic information screen is in this Google Steetview, just in front of the Merc: http://goo.gl/maps/Cjmss

I haven't received a parking ticket, though I did get followed by one of the Diplomatic Protection Group's BMW X5's from The Mall to Marble Arch after I parked up on Horse Guards Road.

Personally I wouldn't go on a Saturday night as it'd be too busy for my liking. I'd recommend a Sunday or Monday night, as it's quite cool to drive around the (almost) empty street. There were parking places all over the city, I parked up in various places. Have a look on Streetview in advance or just look around on the night.

 

[Clip]

What is parking in London (zones 1-4 geographically) like between 7pm and 7am on Saturday/Sunday outside of NR stations?

Theres actually lots of good placces to park up the further out of the zone 1 you go. all depends how far out you want to be and also how close to a station you want to be.

 

[Gathursty]

I'm thinking of heading to Southend to tick off the last stations in Essex then in the evening go direct to Barking and follow the GOBLIN and stubs of radial routes (Wood Street, Northumberland Park, White Hart Lane, Ally Pally) it crosses towards the MML and St Albans, follow the Abbey Line/DC line towards Wembley then go west towards Ruislip, Greenford and Taplow then zoom home. I like to do quite a few in one go to justify the petrol cost.

I'd like to be either outside of the entrance in a suitable parking bay or a side street very close. I want to stay for no more than five minutes.

The handful of stations then remaining in Zone 1/2, I'll buy a travelcard or something similar for.

 

[IanD]

I'm thinking of heading to Southend to tick off the last stations in Essex then in the evening go direct to Barking and follow the GOBLIN and stubs of radial routes (Wood Street, Northumberland Park, White Hart Lane, Ally Pally) it crosses towards the MML and St Albans, follow the Abbey Line/DC line towards Wembley then go west towards Ruislip, Greenford and Taplow then zoom home. I like to do quite a few in one go to justify the petrol cost.

I'd like to be either outside of the entrance in a suitable parking bay or a side street very close. I want to stay for no more than five minutes.

The handful of stations then remaining in Zone 1/2, I'll buy a travelcard or something similar for.

As stated before, remember that all the London Boroughs seem to have mobile CCTV enforcement so you can't rely on speaking to a Warden nicely and often these are out and about well in to the evenings. In Waltham Forest, parking enforcement officers also ride about on little scooters so you don't always see them coming and before you notice they've gone!

There are lots of resident only parking zones close to Goblin stations but I think most don't apply after about 18:30 on Saturday (at the latest eg Blackhorse Road is 8am to 630pm Mon-Sat but Leyton is something like 8am to 4pm and not on Saturday) or all day on Sunday. Certainly in Waltham Forest, so Leytonstone High Road, Leyton MR, Walthamstow QR, Blackhorse Road and Wood Street shouldn't be an issue if you can find a free space or single yellows close by.

Not sure about South Tottenham but I think there is parking that would allow you to visit that and Seven Sisters in one go if you want to risk it!

Northumberland Park/White Hart Lane/Bruce Grove etc parking can obviously be affected by Spurs matches.

Harringay Green Lanes is next to a retail park/McDonalds so you should have no issue there and might be able to easily walk up to Harringay as well but may have to buy a burger.

IIRC:
Crouch Hill residents zone is M-S only until 630pm unless there's a Gooners game on. Upper Holloway is on a red route so no stopping outside. Residents parking zones on the side streets are only until 130pm on Saturdays I think.
Gospel Oak has double yellows outside but side streets are restricted Mon-Fri only.

Ally Pally has loads of free parking in Ally Pally itself or on the side of the road leading up to it after you've crossed the bridge from the Wood Green direction. Not sure about the Wood Green side itself.

Last time I was over Ruislip way the parking restrictions on side roads were at odd times (eg 3 hours in the middle of the day) presumbaly to keep monitoring simple but that was quite a while ago.

 

[Gathursty]

Thank you IanD. That is a very impressive and informative post. I'll make a note of that McDonalds as it seems I always end up in them whether it is in Alloa or Aylesbury! >.<

As for parking, it is yet another reason why I'm glad to live in a less crowded part of England!