London Parking
Discussion
I'm sure there are plenty of PH'ers who live in Londonshire so hopefully you can help.
(I'm not wanting to fall foul of London Parking Wardens).
I'm visiting some friends this weekend. They do not drive so can't be much help.
On their street and surrounding streets the signs say

Does this mean Mon-Fri between the times it's Resident Permits or pay to park, but outside those times
it's free and first come first served ?
It's in the Paddington area if that makes any difference
Thanks
(I'm not wanting to fall foul of London Parking Wardens).
I'm visiting some friends this weekend. They do not drive so can't be much help.
On their street and surrounding streets the signs say
Does this mean Mon-Fri between the times it's Resident Permits or pay to park, but outside those times
it's free and first come first served ?
It's in the Paddington area if that makes any difference
Thanks
over_the_hill said:
I'm sure there are plenty of PH'ers who live in Londonshire so hopefully you can help.
(I'm not wanting to fall foul of London Parking Wardens).
I'm visiting some friends this weekend. They do not drive so can't be much help.
On their street and surrounding streets the signs say

Does this mean Mon-Fri between the times it's Resident Permits or pay to park, but outside those times
it's free and first come first served ?
It's in the Paddington area if that makes any difference
Thanks
Yes - outside of those times it's free. I always take a photo of my car and the sign in case of any problems - never needed them to date though. That said, you will be lucky to find a free space !(I'm not wanting to fall foul of London Parking Wardens).
I'm visiting some friends this weekend. They do not drive so can't be much help.
On their street and surrounding streets the signs say
Does this mean Mon-Fri between the times it's Resident Permits or pay to park, but outside those times
it's free and first come first served ?
It's in the Paddington area if that makes any difference
Thanks
That means Mon to Fri between those hours, its resident permit holders only, you can’t park there unless you have one. Outside those hours, its a free for all with no charges.
You need to match the signs to the box painted on the road. You often get multiple rules on the same stretch of road, different on either side, so its always worth while to walk up and down and see the next signs along. The most I saw was 6 different rules in a 20m section. And yes I was caught out once, I parked my car across 2 boxes. Front half of the car was parked within the rules, the back half was illegally parked, so found a lovely PCN waiting for me on my return.
And I second what Arfur says, you need to think of a few options, including paid and plan some time for driving around to look for a space. I usually add 15mins just to find parking. If time is of the essence, I go straight to the nearest NCP.
Also, don’t think you can get away with a quick 15min drop off parked illegally. Sure mostly you can, but know parking spaces are often monitored on CCTV and an enforcement officer on a scooter can arrive to ticket your car in the blink of an eye.
I was dumbfounded when this happened to me the first time. I asked the warden how he could arrive so quickly, I’d literally parked for 5 mins and gone into Starbucks to grab a coffee. He told me he was a rapid response parking warden, an illegally parked car gets observed on CCTV, he gets a call to go in and ticket it. He literally buzzed off on his scooter after ticketing my car, didn’t look at any other cars that were parked. It was targeted.
You need to match the signs to the box painted on the road. You often get multiple rules on the same stretch of road, different on either side, so its always worth while to walk up and down and see the next signs along. The most I saw was 6 different rules in a 20m section. And yes I was caught out once, I parked my car across 2 boxes. Front half of the car was parked within the rules, the back half was illegally parked, so found a lovely PCN waiting for me on my return.
And I second what Arfur says, you need to think of a few options, including paid and plan some time for driving around to look for a space. I usually add 15mins just to find parking. If time is of the essence, I go straight to the nearest NCP.
Also, don’t think you can get away with a quick 15min drop off parked illegally. Sure mostly you can, but know parking spaces are often monitored on CCTV and an enforcement officer on a scooter can arrive to ticket your car in the blink of an eye.
I was dumbfounded when this happened to me the first time. I asked the warden how he could arrive so quickly, I’d literally parked for 5 mins and gone into Starbucks to grab a coffee. He told me he was a rapid response parking warden, an illegally parked car gets observed on CCTV, he gets a call to go in and ticket it. He literally buzzed off on his scooter after ticketing my car, didn’t look at any other cars that were parked. It was targeted.
Edited by wyson on Saturday 18th November 06:27
If you want to park nearby, you can often find people who will let you park on their driveway for a fee. Check out the JustPark app.
Another thing I do sometimes (since I live west of London) is to park at Westfield shopping centre White City, as their parking rates tended to be cheaper than on street parking. Then take the tube from there to wherever I need to go. Obviously that's only useful if you don't need your car with you at all times, and if the hours you'll be visiting make it worthwhile. For me, £12 for all day parking at the weekend makes it massively worthwhile!
https://www.westfield.com/united-kingdom/london/pa...
Another thing I do sometimes (since I live west of London) is to park at Westfield shopping centre White City, as their parking rates tended to be cheaper than on street parking. Then take the tube from there to wherever I need to go. Obviously that's only useful if you don't need your car with you at all times, and if the hours you'll be visiting make it worthwhile. For me, £12 for all day parking at the weekend makes it massively worthwhile!
https://www.westfield.com/united-kingdom/london/pa...
Edited by LunarOne on Thursday 16th November 17:41
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