Getting to the O2 from M4 corridor on a Sunday night (and, more importantly, back)

[Bear]

Not strictly travel, but couldn't find anywhere better. No, I guess it is travel; whatever, please advise:

I'm taking DD to see Taylor Swift next month on a Sunday evening and need to have her back the far end of the M4 for school the next morning. So staying in London isn't an option. And rather than risk missing the last train from Paddington if we don't get out of the screaming O2 scrum quickly enough, so I'm proposing to drive and tube it.

But how far into that London to drive and where to park? Getting there on the Sunday afternoon isn't the worry, it's being able to do the getting out of town bit as smoothly as poss, so we can hit the motorway and she can start catching some zzzzs as soon as humanly possible.

I left London a fair few years ago, so I forget what late Sunday tubes and roads are like. Could we risk parking in say Hammersmith or Shepherds Bush and travel back on Jubilee & Central Lines and then peg it out the A4? Or is that being too much of a wuss? Should we drive and park closer in? And just use the Jubilee? Or even drive all the way to Greenwich on the basis that at 11pm on a Sunday evening it should be a breeze to get back to Chiswick and the motorway?

I welcome your metropolitan nous, TIA,

Bear

[PatriciaHolm]

I would prebook O2 parking and drive all the way; we always do that ( from surrey) and never have any issues

[toomuchtooyoung]

I would definitely drive all the way too. do you have a sat nav? once on a4 its easy

[toomuchtooyoung]

oh and I live in west London. not lazy just takes bloomin ages on the tube!

[Bear]

Thanks all. Just what I needed. Now here's q2: North or south of the river? My natural inclination, based on driving round town back in the day, would be south - back out through Greenwich, Old Kent Road, Vauxhall Bridge, Chelsea Embankment joining the A4 at Earls Court, but satnavs are suggesting the Blackwall tunnel, then back via Poplar, St Paul's, Tower Hill, Embankment, Westminster, The Mall and Knightsbridge. That's all very nice for sightseeing but it'll be midnight and is it really quicker?
This country bear is confused...

[toomuchtooyoung]

definitely south

[PatriciaHolm]

We often go central as DH has an enduring North Londoner's hatred of driving in the South ;-) and knows the central route like the back of his hand!

[Applefallingfromthetree2]

Bear trust your natural inclination, south of the river direct to O2 or you could stop at Surrey Quays, park in the big Tesco car park and get the tube from Canada Water( Jubilee Line) two stops to North Greenwich and O2. Might help with the traffic scrum at the end of the performance

[Bear]

Well, went south and a little slow on way there, but a breeze on way back out. Thanks.

Was indeed a bit of a scrum getting out of O2 car park but had got there early enough in the day to park near exit, so could have been worse.

Taylor Swift was remarkably good too. But I must have missed the meeting where it was agreed everyone should dress like her and carry huge cardboard letters edged with fairy lights, girls, Mums, even Dads. Er O K.