Queen Mary University moving day help

[Motherofchickens1]

My DS is going to Queen Marys this September (Mile end campus) and Im not sure what to do about moving him in. We are travelling from Northumberland and had planned to drive. I will have to stay over in a hotel on the Saturday night (cant afford a fortune) but am really struggling to find somewhere to park the car. Apparently we cant park in the university for more than 45 mins! I dont know the area and was thinking about getting the train and a courier to take stuff down. But this will clearly cost. Does anyone know the area, or had similar situation? Any thoughts or advice gratefully received. Im putting this in AIBU for traffic as well. Thanks in advance

Somewhere like Roomzzz has parking. It’s in Stratford so fairly close to Mile End. There might be other budget hotels in the Stratford regenerated area. It’s where the Olympics was held. Nothing will be cheap in London. If you need bargain basement you would have to stay further out. Check locations for Premier Inn and Ibis Hotel’s with Parking.

Then drive to the hall and do your drop off. Many London halls of residence have minimal parking so often you nominate a time slot. Well, that’s how DDs hall worked in West London.

We took a gamble months ago and hired a campervan (DD applied for two unis 50 miles apart), it covers transport and accommodation - DH will drop me and DD off with a few items, and return later if we can't leave it anywhere easily.

The train for three was £1,000 months ago, we'd then have accommodation for two nights (as 400 miles away) and as you say there will be extra items to get there. Campervan isn't cheap, but even with campsites, petrol, it's noticably cheaper for us. We planned ahead and booked extra time off, so if our plan failed we'd have a fun break away.

A hotel is around £120 a night. If you know it’s Queen Mary it’s easy to plan. There isn’t free parking in lots of areas around universities. It’s residents only.

You could try an air bnb but again you won’t be a resident. So don’t assume parking is available. At a hotel it will be if it says it is.

My friend parked in the big shopping centre in Stratford - is it Westfield? The tube station is next to the shopping centre and it's on the same line as the Queen Mary tube stations.

They parked there and took a taxi to halls and tube back.

Taxi was about £20, tube a couple of quid. Parking was about £10.

My ds was in halls here last year and I too worried about the 45 minute time limit. As it was, no one seemed to check. Lots of students around to help with trolleys and directions. I moved my car after about an hour to Longnor Road which is directly behind the campus. It is the road they direct you to leave by. It has absolutely no parking restrictions at the weekend so you could park there for free. It is residents parking Monday to Friday. I found a space very easily. Other roads nearby are the same.

My ds loved his first year on campus.

Thank you for all your responses, good to know there are options for us. I think the cost of train and courier will be too much so i will brave the drive and look up parking possibilities. Thanks again

I found it quite straight forward when I did it, plenty of time to unload DD although I cleared off quite quickly.
I'd look online for hotels, putting parking in your search. I think I stayed at City Hotel, but there will be Travel lodges and Premier Inns with car parking nearby.

We were the disorganised parents who were away when DDs term started. She took a suitcase with pillow and duvet and a few changes of clothes. Then I drove down the following week with all her stuff, with a better idea of what she did and did not need. We made a quick trip to Lidl to stock up on storecupboard and middleofLidl items. (They were having a back to University promotion.)

It worked out really well. She was quite pleased to see me after a week of freshers.

Street parking is usually not too much of a problem Saturdays and Sundays. However I would plan any car journey carefully, perhaps aiming to use the M25 and to then approach via A11/12, possibly A1 (or Blackwall tunnel if coming from the south east.) You really don't want to drive through the City. Ie drive round then drive straight in.

And yes 45 minutes is quite generous.

An alternative would be to use a company that provides student “kits” to be delivered straight to halls on moving in day so all you need to think about is a suitcase for clothes? My DD Uni has an arrangement with a company, check if QM has a similar arrangement

This means you could come by train and not have the monumental additional hassle and stress of parking