We will be visiting London from California in late June. We know it is crazy
to have a car in London, but for our last 24 hours, it would make our lives
a lot easier to have a car while staying in South Kensington for various
reasons. How difficult is it to find a parking place on the street? Is it as
bad as Manhattan, or do you just need to go around the block a couple times?
And is S. Kensington (by the Gloucester Rd. tube stop) considered within the
central district where the levee is assessed?

Thanks very much for your reply!

Jon S.
Berkeley CA

In article rViOb.88294$xy6.160243@attbi_s02, Jon Squire
writes
We will be visiting London from California in late June. We know it is crazy
to have a car in London, but for our last 24 hours, it would make our lives
a lot easier to have a car while staying in South Kensington for various
reasons. How difficult is it to find a parking place on the street? Is it as
bad as Manhattan, or do you just need to go around the block a couple times?
And is S. Kensington (by the Gloucester Rd. tube stop) considered within the
central district where the levee is assessed?

Thanks very much for your reply!

Jon S.
Berkeley CA


Non resident street parking is more or less impossible to find for
periods of longer than 2 hours. Use one of the car parks that open 24hr
and pay through the nose for the pleasure. Imperial College is one that
springs to mind - approx US$55 per day.
--
Andrew
Electronic communications can be altered and therefore the integrity of this
communication can not be guaranteed.
Views expressed in this communication are those of the author and not
associations or companies I am involved with.

Non resident street parking is more or less impossible to find for
periods of longer than 2 hours. Use one of the car parks that open 24hr
and pay through the nose for the pleasure. Imperial College is one that
springs to mind - approx US$55 per day.

Check that though, with all of the Building work going on, not sure if the
car park is open to the general public at the moment. Might be staff only.

Jaime

Jaime wrote:
Non resident street parking is more or less impossible to find for
periods of longer than 2 hours. Use one of the car parks that open
24hr and pay through the nose for the pleasure. Imperial College is
one that springs to mind - approx US$55 per day.

Check that though, with all of the Building work going on, not sure
if the car park is open to the general public at the moment. Might be
staff only.

According to the Imperial College website, it's open in vacations and
weekends, but is "severely restricted". If Jon doesn't need to use the
car during the day, he could take it to High Street Kensington or
Hammersmith or somewhere else with a car park, leave it there, and return
to Gloucester Road by Underground. He needs to check that the car park
will be open at the times he wants to leave/collect the car, though.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

In article , Jaime
writes
Non resident street parking is more or less impossible to find for
periods of longer than 2 hours. Use one of the car parks that open 24hr
and pay through the nose for the pleasure. Imperial College is one that
springs to mind - approx US$55 per day.

Check that though, with all of the Building work going on, not sure if the
car park is open to the general public at the moment. Might be staff only.

Jaime


It is open to the public - I used it last week.
--
Andrew
Electronic communications can be altered and therefore the integrity of this
communication can not be guaranteed.
Views expressed in this communication are those of the author and not
associations or companies I am involved with.

In article , Richard J.
writes

According to the Imperial College website, it's open in vacations and
weekends, but is "severely restricted".

I had no problems parking there on Monday lunchtime.
--
Andrew
Electronic communications can be altered and therefore the integrity of this
communication can not be guaranteed.
Views expressed in this communication are those of the author and not
associations or companies I am involved with.

Jon Squire wrote:
And is S. Kensington (by the Gloucester Rd. tube stop) considered within the
central district where the levee is assessed?

If you're talking about the Congestion Charge, then you should be fine.
http://www.cclondon.com/download/DetailMapCCZ.pdf is the full map should
you need it.

Do you *really* need a car? Would you not be better leaving luggage at
your hotel and using taxis? That would be far cheaper than hiring a car,
and much less fraught with problems. I personally find driving in London
much more complicated than driving in Manhattan (and I've done both).

J

Jon Squire wrote:
We will be visiting London from California in late June. We know it is crazy
to have a car in London, but for our last 24 hours, it would make our lives
a lot easier to have a car while staying in South Kensington for various
reasons. How difficult is it to find a parking place on the street? Is it as
bad as Manhattan, or do you just need to go around the block a couple times?
And is S. Kensington (by the Gloucester Rd. tube stop) considered within the
central district where the levee is assessed?

Thanks very much for your reply!

Jon S.
Berkeley CA

Street parking is extremely difficult since the maximum stay is usually
2 hours. However, most parking restrictions (including resident-only
parking) is lifted in evenings, on Saturday afternoons (after 1330) and
on Sundays all day.

Otherwise you will need to find off-street parking. There is a car park
just down and across from Gloucester Road tube station, at the junction
of Queen's Gate and Harrington Road. I can't remember the prices but I'm
sure it's pretty expensive. The other main option is Imperial College
which has (expensive) off-street parking (but less of it than usual
because of construction work).

Depending on where you are staying, the Young Street car park just off
Kensington High Street may be useful (although once again expensive) and
is about 10-15 mins' walk from Gloucester Road tube station.

The congestion charge zone does not include this area.

Given the difficulty of parking, if you are renting a car it may be
easier to talk to the car rental company about your requirements so you
don't have the car until you absolutely need it. There is an easyCar
rental place on Kensington High Street, which is 15 mins' walk, a 5-10
min bus journey or 5 mins (very variable) journey one stop on the tube
from Gloucester Road tube station.

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7

Andrew P Smith wrote:

In article , Richard J.
writes

According to the Imperial College website, it's open in vacations and
weekends, but is "severely restricted".

I had no problems parking there on Monday lunchtime.

I'm amazed at that - I had assumed that since they have just cut back
parking spaces for staff members by 50%, they wouldn't let the public in
during office hours.

The money-grabbing ****ers! :-)

In message , Andrew P Smith
writes

In article , Richard
J. writes

According to the Imperial College website, it's open in vacations and
weekends, but is "severely restricted".

I had no problems parking there on Monday lunchtime.

It had a "car-park full" (or "closed") sign when I walked past on
Thursday at about 1.30pm.

--
Paul Terry