London trip advice

[hetty74]

We are off to London on a day trip 22nd Dec to see a show at Alexandra Palace in the afternoon then onto Victoria to catch a bus your to see the Christmas lights at 7pm .
We’re travelling by car and had planned to park at the Ally Pally but I was wondering if anyone knows of any better places to park bearing in mind it’ll be about 10pm when we return , anything closer to Victoria? Any advice gratefully received, thanks.

do you plan to pay for parking? NCP will charge you a lot for all-day. there is no all-day street parking that I know of in zone 1 or 2. Also, Victoria is the other side of the congestion charge zone from Ally Pally - do you plan to pay to drive through the zone? going around can take ages.

your options include

• download the AppyParking app which tells you parking rules for every street in London to try to find somewhere you can legally park.
• park in an NCP lot (plan which one in advance, they are expensive)
• book a parking spot on someone's drive - there are websites where you can do this
• take public transport like everyone else in London.

Would you not be better off getting a train given your start and end points are different? Even if you drive most of the way and park somewhere along the line into London

Try the app that’s like Air BnB for parking - you can book someone’s drive for much less than an NCP or similar.

If you’re going to use public transport anyway during your day you could park safely and securely all day at Westfield shopping centre at White City, (Shepherd’s Bush) but that depends on the usual route you’ll drive into London. The indoor shopping centre is huge and spacious with high ceilings and is always beautifully decorated too.

For all info on public transport check out tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

White City shopping centre has good links via 2 x tube stations and a bus station.

Thanks for all the suggestions , will check them out .
According to the website car parking at the palace is a suggested donation of £3 but doesn’t state for how long . Thanks again.

yes, Ally Pally does have some £3 parking but it might be all full. so don't rely on that as your only option.

From memory the parking at Ally Pally is on the opposite side of the hill to the station and its defiantly a steep climb up you may want to miss this on a late return. I dont know what parking is like at Brent Cross area with redevelopment but finding parking close to a tube station / rail and the north circular be your best bet.

As Timperleybell said, it's a long steep walk from Alexandra Palace station up to the car park - don't be misled by the distance on a map, it doesn't show the incline.

If you’re going to use the Ally Pally car parks I’d suggest getting there early. I’ve been past so many times when they’ve been full and turning people away.

Where will you start your journey? Sometimes it works out better driving to one of the zone 6 tube lines stations and parking there.

If you park at Ally Pally parking at the bottom of the hill would be a good idea for retrieval. The best route to Victoria from there would be to get a W7 or W3 bus to Finsbury Park and then straight down the Victoria line. The Victoria line is the quickest route across London. But as people are saying the parking at Ally Pally might be quite restricted. Otherwise you could park in the roads north of the park, Dukes Avenue, Methuen Park, Elms Avenue etc. Or south Danvers, Warner or Redston Road - though check if these have parking restrictions.

Parking nearer into town is tricky with parking restrictions etc. Its okay for short periods but expensive for whole days. NCP is very expensive.

Sorry I’ve only just seen these later posts . We’ve had a look on a parking app and plan to park near Arnos Grove ( to avoid the ULEZ charge) and catch the tube to Wood Green then walk to Ally Pally . We’ll then head back to Wood Green to go into central London.
As it happens we’re off to London tomorrow so will be able to do a dummy run without 3 kids in tow .
Thanks for all the advice .