crazycat I can't speak highly enough about the birth centre at Epsom. It's a separate set of midwives who are just simple amazing, with a very different attitude to the main labour ward. Theres a private postnatal room (although only 1 postnatal room for 2 birthing rooms though that may have changed now - I think they were due to open another). I was the fifth person to give birth there and am hoping so much to use it again. I was 7cm by the time I went in and in transition, although I didn't know it at the time. I was in a bit(lot) of a panic/state - so much so they couldn't get me to stand/sit still long enough to take my pulse/blood pressure as I was stamping around swearing and singing jingle bells. Two midwives on duty were amazing - lights right down, essential oils burning, nice calm music on, got me in the pool and within 15 minutes I was totally relaxed. It was an experience I have looked forward to repeating which says a lot about how great it was. DD was born at 9am and we were taken to the postnatal room across the hall about 10am. There's a kitchen where you can help yourself just across the hall, and an en suite bathroom with a shower. We stayed all day to get breastfeeding established. As we left at 9pm ish another baby was born in one of the birth suites and a midwife came running out in absolute joy shouting "another baby" - the fact the midwives were obviously so thrilled to be part of the births when they must have seen thousands was heartwarming.
The main ward is still terrible as far as the stats go and my experiences with it. We ended up being called back into a&e the next day with DD because they'd (main labour suite) had misread her blood results for jaundice and ended up making her have extra tests and stress us out completely for nothing. The consultant at Epsom was also rude, dismissive and a complete chauvinist. The midwives I saw during pregnancy at Epsom were totally uninterested in birth plan/labour or discussing any of that in advance which is another reason why I'd not planned to give birth there. When we had he labour ward tour they were not keen on active birth/moving around/natural pain management and I got the impression they very much wanted you strapped in a bed the entire time. The breastfeeding support is poor - community midwives and hv's all missed dd's tongue and lip tie multiple times - so I ended up going private which saved us after 6 weeks of hell. Of 5 others in my antenatal group only 1 had a labour on the main ward without interventions/complications. (I went in for monitoring (unnecessary) when my waters broke and the midwives on the main labour ward was so bloody negative insisting I wouldn't go into labour naturally and they'd see me back in twenty four hours to put me on a drip 
)
Interestingly while in the postnatal room after DD's birth we overheard an 'argument' between the birth centre midwives and the main labour ward midwives. The birth centre midwives were wanting to move a lady in labour from the main labour ward into the birth suite and the labour ward midwives were trying to stop them, insisting she would need pain relief and the pool/gas and air wouldn't be enough for her and she would 'fail'. (The birth centre midwives won, they brought her to the birth suite and that was the baby born just as we were leaving). It was very telling about the difference in attitudes between the two teams.
The one thing I would say, although everybody is different, Is that I wouldn't want to drive any distance while in established labour. We had a 1 minute drive to the hospital and being stuck in a seat in the car while having contractions was NOT FUN