Wet stone, bus brakes, and nobody looking up
In October London smells of wet stone and bus brakes, and the light goes grey by mid-afternoon. People on the pavement walk fast with their eyes down and step off the kerb looking right, a habit you pick up within a day. Only visitors look up, which is how you spot them.
Sixty pounds for a Soho evening, and Saturday noon in the charging zone
The classic mistake is driving to the West End for a show and parking as close to the theatre as possible. NCP's Brewer Street car park has 20 spaces and prints its board: £15 for an hour, £45 for three, £60 for three to 24 hours. The evening rate, 17:00 to midnight, is £25, the only number there I would pay.
The second thing I would skip is the Saturday drive past the sights. The charge switches on at noon at weekends, and a car in the zone at 12:05 pays £18 to see Westminster through a windscreen at walking pace.
Pie, mash and green liquor on Tower Bridge Road
M.Manze has served pie and mash on Tower Bridge Road since 1902, in a Grade II listed shop. Order pie, mash and liquor, a green parsley sauce with no alcohol in it. Monday to Thursday 10:30–17:45, Friday to 18:45, Saturday to 19:45, Sunday only 11:00–14:45. I go at half past eleven on a weekday, before the lunch queue.
Keep left, and give way to the right at every roundabout
Britain drives on the left. Roundabouts run clockwise and you give way to traffic from your right. In a left-hand-drive car the passenger sits at the kerb, so make them your second mirror at junctions. My rule for the first hour: no lane change I did not plan while stopped at a red light.
Ravens on Tower Hill, a whale in Kensington, and Parliament from the far bank
Tower of London — be at the gate for opening and see the Crown Jewels first; the ravens will wait.
British Museum — a few minutes' walk from NCP Bloomsbury Square, which is why that is my garage. Choose two rooms.
Westminster Abbey — for the photograph of Parliament and the clock tower, cross Westminster Bridge to the south bank and look back.
Natural History Museum — the blue whale skeleton hangs over the main hall. Go late in the afternoon.
Royal Observatory Greenwich — the prime meridian, a foot in each hemisphere, and the best free view of the towers of Canary Wharf from the hill beside it.
Liquor with no alcohol, grazing by London Bridge, and dinner above a garage
Pie and mash is the old working London dish; I eat it at M.Manze, eels if you dare.
Borough Market by London Bridge is for grazing, not sitting: cheese, a toasted sandwich, oysters at a counter.
Chinatown sits right on top of Q-Park Chinatown, the one time in central London the car and dinner share an address. Roast duck over rice, then back down the ramp.
A gold coach through the City, fireworks by ticket, and a two-day marathon
The Lord Mayor's Show is on Saturday 14 November 2026, leaving Mansion House at 11:00. It calls itself the least-rehearsed civic procession in the world; the City is no place for a car that morning.
The New Year's Eve fireworks by the London Eye on 31 December 2026 are ticketed, the first batch usually on sale in October. The Congestion Charge is off that week; the crowds are not.
The TCS London Marathon becomes a one-off two-day event on 24 and 25 April 2027, from Blackheath to The Mall, with extensive road closures on both days.
What's on
| When | What |
|---|---|
| 14 November 2026 | The Lord Mayor's Show, leaving Mansion House at 11:00 — the City is no place for a car that morning |
| 25 December 2026 – 1 January 2027 | No Congestion Charge from Christmas Day to the New Year's Day bank holiday; the ULEZ is off only on Christmas Day |
| 31 December 2026 | New Year's Eve fireworks by the London Eye, ticketed; the first batch usually goes on sale in October |
| 24–25 April 2027 | TCS London Marathon, a one-off two-day edition from Blackheath to The Mall, with extensive road closures |