We are driving into London from Kent this Sunday to an event at the Tower of London. All very lovely except we just found out that the half marathon is taking place and the usual route we'd take via Deptford, Surrey Quays etc, is all closed. This means we have to go down the Old Kent Road and up Tower Bridge Road. We have a car parking place booked just outside the road closure area, south of Tower Bridge.
Does anyone have any experience of how bad the traffic is likely to be? I'm assuming it's not such a big event as the London Marathon but really I have no clue what to expect, traffic-wise. Crawling along at a snail's pace I can cope with, as long as it keeps moving. Traffic at a standstill for hours is a different matter. We had originally planned to arrive at 9:30am but in the light of this would be prepared to arrive at least an hour earlier, maybe even two.
An alternative is to come into London via the Blackwall Tunnel/Commercial Road/Aldgate and over London Bridge. DP frequently drives part of this route to work but I don't know if that would be equally hellish because of the half marathon. Plus we'd have to pay the congestion charge then too.
All help/advice gratefully received! We'd normally use public transport but it's not an option this time.