Experience of pre-booking parking in London NCP

[ABingStory]

Considering doing this in Covent Garden NCP this weekend; have priced it up and it's reasonable etc. But want to know how it works in practise - presumably you are guaranteed a space? But what if you get there and can't find a space? Or some lovely person has parked over the line and you can't get in? Does it actually work out in practice?

Hopeful Bump

Are you coming in on a Saturday or Sunday? If Sunday I wouldn’t bother with NCP at all as I’d rather park on the street. You can park on most single yellow lines and also some residents bays are free to park in on a Sunday. Tbh there’s about £15 difference between a parking ticket and the NCP car park all day anyway and the central London car parks are awful - underground, dimly lit, disgusting and creepy. I’d never go as a woman on my own. So for all day parking in one spot it’s easier just to park “illegally” in a resident’s bay and pay the parking ticket.

You could also look at Parkopedia to get a sense of where you can legally park on the street during the weekend.

But in answer to your actual question, I can’t think of any way you’d be guaranteed a space because most of the central London ones are not high tech at all so there’s no way for them to allocate you a specific space and even if they did I can’t see how they’d stop someone else from parking in it as most of them that I’ve seen aren’t manned the whole time (Tbf I haven’t specifically been to the Covent Garden one).

sorry if this is not very helpful. Maybe someone else can come along and suggest something.

Interesting @TheSnugglyDuckling thanks for your thoughts. It's Sunday and I will actually have a blue badge holder in the car with me so on street parking is a definite possibility. However I don't know the area and (because of said blue badge holder) really do need to be close to Covent Garden so it's a tough one.

We've done NCP parking a few times with prebooking and never had a problem.

How does it work @RNBrie? Do they assign you a specific space?

Have a look at the JustPark app. Loads of spaces available around Covent Garden, often much cheaper. NCP, hotels, private drives, churchyards, we use it all over the UK including London.

We did this after Christmas.
Sooo easy! We used the Parker St one near Covent Garden. If they take the booking, there's space! Don't worry.

Hi I work around the corner from c garden. Try a side street running down drury lane. Don’t park north of Covent Garden as it’s really busy or west either. And be careful of confusing signs, like business parking. Try Tavistock, Keane st or Russell st, which are all off drury lane. Or and it depends how you can walk, Lincoln’s inn field has loads of parking on a Sunday. Good luck

This is really helpful, thanks @user1494050295