UKC

In August I have to get from Chester to the Barbican in London.

I've not driven in London for about thirty years so I'm a little apprehensive. If anyone familiar with London is able to offer any advice or suggest a decent route from within the M25 area it would be appreciated.

I would be planning to arrive at Barbican circa 2-3pm on a Tuesday.

Thanks for any assistance.

I don't know your situation but if you are already within the M25 why not use public transport?

Dave

Because I need my car at the destination.

Only thing to watch out for is paying the congestion charge and ULEZ if relevant with your car.

Also, crossing London can take a stupid amount of time and I avoid it when possible.

If you can't avoid it, travel after 8pm in the city.

It won't be quiet, but you'll move. Sort of.

Oh, and don't park on double red lines. Not even for a mini second.

The rules are similar to double yellow except Saddiq will personally beat you if he catches you.

Just looked at a map. There seems to be a route following the A40 in from West London but I've also looked at coming in from the M25 to the east and following the A13. I know it's another x miles round the M25 but the route along the A13 looked shorter than the A40 option

M1 A1 if you are set on the car. Or for an easier life park up and get the mainline trains into Moorgate from somewhere in Herts

Sorry but I did say above that I need the car at the destination.

I would have thought A40 was your best bet, but to be honest I'd let Google maps make the decision for you.

No amount of planning can account for accidents, unplanned roadworks etc.

Google traffic does a great job of finding the quickest route when you're traveling.

Based on past knowledge I imagine the most congested part with be from circa Notting Hill to the Barbican.

Train then Uber locally if you really need a car in London? A car in London will expensive, slow and a headache.

Google Maps is your friend. (Other navigation apps with live traffic are available)

I lived there most of my life and still know it pretty well, but I wouldn't bother trying to plan my own route nowadays. New obstacles pop up daily and the traffic changes by the minute. Just allow plenty of time and trust in Google. And watch out for the speed limit going from 30 to 20 in unexpected places (assuming you ever get above 20 that is) 

And watch out for the sensitive 20mph speed cameras! Thankfully someone got flashed in front of me and I wised up.

The charges are ridiculous, again thankfully, we were exempt.  🙂

So far I've not had a problem with the 20mph cameras but it is tricky sticking to that speed.

I find the speed creeps up very easily.

If you need to drive just download Waze.

Confused by the fact that you want to go into deepest darkest London by car. If you need to pick up elderly relatives ect there’s plenty of reliable cab firms who will be happy to help. Personally if I was going to the Barbican from the north I’d park in Wembley and take the tube in.

If you do drive check the tfl website afterwards to make sure you haven’t incurred any penalty.

Just take public transport. You don’t need your car at your destination, you may need a car but just hire a cab - Addison Lee do vans if you need to carry anything. I live in West London and there is no way I’d drive to the Barbican for 3pm on a weekday. That’s madness. You could spend an hour just looking for somewhere to park. 
 

Park on the outskirts and take a tube in - the new Elizabeth line is very fast.

If you haven’t enough control of your vehicle to keep to a 20mph limit, then are you sure you should be driving it in the first place?

What if he's helping someone move out of a flat or picking something heavy up or picking up toddlers that will sleep on the journey or (a hundred other reasons)

I used to live in North London and travel into the centre daily. Sometimes had to drive.

I would be tempted to go M1, A41 and cut across at Camden somewhere.

Not the A40, Marylebone Road can be a pig.

Hard to say how long it would take, it varies so much. Allow an hour and a half from the M25 at least

And yes, know where you are going to park, hopefully a reserved spot.

And NOT on a train or tube strike day

There's no point in trying to plan it  quickest routes (particularly to the barbican from outside the m25) will change constantly.

Just put it in the sat available when travelling.

Last December I drove from Vauxhall to Wigan and was surprised how straight forward this route was;  

A3221 then A3220 then A40 then M40. In fact, the roads right in the centre felt less congested than the approach roads (which I suppose is the intention).  So it may not take much longer to the Barbican.

I’m no expert - others will know better. 

If anybody can, Barbi can.

Agreed. 

It all depends on road closures, traffic, roadworks, events etc...

I live in the East end, and drive to The Castle in Manor house all the time, it can take anything from 25 minutes to over an hour, and I must have used a dozen different routes.  Just Sat Nav it and follow what it says.

Waze is decent, but can occasionally go bananas in certain parts of London where it's maps aren't up to date so I just use Google these days.  

Driving in London isn't anything like as bad as people make out.

Google bought Waze in 2013.  My understanding is that some of the actual navigation features in Waze have been ported in to Google Maps; in particular I'd be extremely surprised if Waze didn't use the same maps as Google Maps.  It's clear that most of the "add on" features such as the debatably wise live "crowd" sourced updates and the audio streaming integration haven't been carried over in to Google Maps.

(I have to say that I struggle to see the point of Waze Audio Player.  Any phone that's running Waze can surely run ones preferred streaming service app as well.  If you are an Android Auto user, that also gives you the option to access to multiple audio sources alongside Google Maps, or Waze.  I assume the Apple CarPlay is similar to Android Auto in this respect.  Then again, I struggle to see the point of Waze anyway: the only time I tried using it, it kept giving me false warnings of speed cameras on the M6 - presumably either on the basis of out-of-date information from users, or users who didn't know the difference between speed cameras and traffic monitoring cameras.  I find Google Maps quite good enough for my needs - though in my experience its pedestrian sat nav capability is not to be trusted.)

Time to be extremely surprised then, they use completely separate maps https://www.wazebelgium.be/how-navigation-app-waze-works/

I was a big fan of Waze until it took me a on a right old magical mystery tour once or twice, once so bad it kept telling me to turn down a road that was now a block of flats!  Had to pull over and switch to google maps as Waze just kept on sending me round in circles and telling me to take the road that didn't exist.

I do miss the speed camera warnings though, usually pretty accurate on the North circular...

I used to live at the Barbican and drove home to Cheshire every weekend for 8 years.  I am so glad I no longer do this.

***I would never do that drive unless it was late in the evening (after 7 pm) - traffic is an absolute nightmare during the day.***

Basically two alternatives:

(1) Pick up A1 before end of M1, cross junction with north circular, through Highgate, on to Archway, Holloway Road, Essex Road, Old Street west to Golden Lane.  Avoid centre of Islington.

(2) From end of M1 head for Finchley Road (A40, I think), Swiss Cottage to top end of Regent's Park, through Regent's Park.  East along Euston Road, then either zig-zag through Bloomsbury (may no longer be possible?) or via King's Cross to pick up Gray's Inn Road to Clerkenwell, then Old Street east to Golden Lane.  (If you come in via the M40 you will be join this route at Euston Road.)

Through walking and cycling I had a good knowledge of central London, which helped a lot, so long as you realise that cars are much more restricted.  So I had "the knowledge" but only for narrow corridors linking the City with the M1/M40 - driving anywhere else in London I was totally lost!

The one thing I really hate about Google Maps is the speed camera warnings. The only way to turn them off is to mute audio completely, so that means I can't have voice directions. What I don't understand is that the app knows I'm under the speed limit, so why is it giving a warning at all?

I tried Waze once. It was a real WTF is this shite experience, so I went straight back to Google Maps.

This may help,

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/congestion-charge?cid=pp020

You're welcome.