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[email protected] · October 17th 06, 09:48 AM posted to uk.transport.london

Thanks for the advice Dave - appreciated!

Dave Arquati wrote:
wrote:
Intend on taking a large tribe up to the museums on Sunday 22nd
October. The train/tube for all of us is over 160 quid, plus takes
about 1 hour longer in the car. Tempted to drive and would only do this
on a Sunday.

Here's the options I've found out about for seeing the South Kensington
museums on a Sunday. I'd really appreciate any advice here or extra
tips:

(1) Imperial College Car Park, South Kensington. Is there any chance
that there will be a space on a Sunday about lunch-time? Does it get
full on a Sunday? I don't mind how much it is, although wouldn't mind
knowing how much, as their website doesn't say.

There's usually some room on a Sunday. I couldn't tell you how much it
costs, but I would only use it as a backup option (see below).

(2) Street Parking. If we find a space on the single yellow, and read
the sign to make sure it's not a 'Resident Only' then any chance of
street parking around there? Any top tips or locations?

Yes - but you may need to drive around a bit. Exhibition Road is
restricted from 1pm to 5pm on Sundays (resident control and
pay-and-display) but if you go round the "back" of the Science Museum on
Queen's Gate, there are spaces on both sides of both carriageways (i.e.
four rows of spaces) and residents' parking is not in operation on
Sundays. Park along there and you can walk round to the Science Museum
in a few minutes via either Imperial College Road or Cromwell Road. If
you can't get a space on Queen's Gate itself, try any of the side roads
off the western side.

(3) Paid Car Park. I need a backup plan if all of the above go horribly
wrong. Any recommendation of the best paid carpark for the Sunday in
that area? Remember, this is a backup plan so I don't mind a short tube
ride, although lots of pushchairs will make that a bit harder, though
not impossible.

Not too sure about paid car parks (I've never used any round there!) but
there is one on the corner of Harrington Road and Queen's Gate. It's not
a very high-tech affair - pretty much just a patch of derelict land used
for parking.

A word of warning - traffic can be quite bad on Sunday evening along the
A4 and along the A3220 (West Cross Route and Earl's Court one way system).

If you run into difficulties driving/parking, then there are various car
parks off Kensington High Street (two stops round to South Kensington on
the Tube, or bus routes 49 and 70 which are both low floor so should be
OK with pushchairs), a fairly big one in Fulham Broadway (bus routes 14
and 414, or District line with lifts available at Fulham). If the
traffic is really bad for some reason on the way in, there are also car
parks on the Piccadilly line at Hatton Cross, Hounslow East/west (the
latter is free on Sundays and just off the A4/M4 J3), North Ealing,
South Harrow, Osterley and Sudbury Town, all of which would deliver you
to South Kensington in roughly 30 minutes or less. Saying that, I still
think you should be able to find on-street parking within a five minute
walk.

--
Dave Arquati
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London