I'm quite tired whilst I write this as yesterday I drove 2.5 hours to London from Norh Somerset, and the same back again. But it was totally worth it as we all had a great day.
Click here to watch the Instagram reel of this day.
Congestion Zone and ULEZ
Before we left, I checked that we wouldn't be driving in the congestion charge - and by parking in Shepherd's Bush, we wouldn't be. You can see a congestion charge map here on the Transport for London website. If you're entering the congestion zone, you need to pay the fees either in advance, on the day or by midnight of the 3rd day after travel (except for between Christmas Day and New Year's Day including both of those bank holidays as it's free then). More details here. If you pay before midnight on the day you drive there, it's £15, otherwise it's £17.50.
What I didn't research properly however, were the Ultra Low Emission Zones - or ULEZ. Oh, and LEZ - Low Emission Zones, with no "ultra". Ends up we absolutely drove into a LEZ AND ULEZ (you can see a map here) but we checked our car on the TFL website whilst when we went past the sign and our car was exempt. I believe if you do need to pay it's around £12.50 per day.
Parking at Westfield, Shepherd's Bush
Our day started at 6am - I'd packed breakfast lunch boxes for the kids so that they could eat on the way, but they made a start on them whilst we were locking up the house which I preferred as we didn't really want them - especially the baby - eating on the move. We left at about 6:45am and arrived at Westfield in Shepherd's Bush just after 9am.
Westfield is a GIANT shopping centre, with over 350 retailers including a lot of very delicious places to eat. They have 3 car parks, 2 of which are open from 5am to 3am, one from 9am until 11pm. We aimed for Car Park A, which was a guess but a great one as we'd heard that whilst Shepherd's Bush tube is nearby, you need to walk in the right direction and it can be tricky to find it. There were no signs in the car park, that we could see, for the station, but we found ourselves on level -1 which had an entrance for Waitrose and an exit onto the street, which Google Maps showed us was only a few minutes walk to Shepherd's Bush underground. It was probably a 7 - 10 minute walk (with little ones), but all on the same side of the street so it really felt very easy with lots of eateries to look at along the way. Just before the station there were some clean, free, public toilets which was a great find after 2.5 hours in a car, before embarking on our Underground adventure.
We'd gone on a Sunday, which was great as London felt like it was only slowly waking up as we arrived and caught our first tube - giving us time to adjust to the pace. But it also meant all the shops in Westfield didn't open until much later - Waitrose was going to open at noon - so check individual store timings if you're going for shops.
We parked just after 9am and left at about 6pm and it cost us £12 for parking. £12!!! It cost me £18 for 4 hours in Bristol when we went to the Hippodrome to see The Lion King!
The London Underground with kids
We caught a tube from Shepherd's Bush to Bond Street on the Central line, before changing for the Jubilee line to Green Park. When we bought our stroller that folds up super small, it came with a shoulder strap which I thought I'd never need - when in my life do I carry a push chair rather than push it?! But it came in very handy on the tube.
The cheapest way to pay for tube tickets is to just use contactless from a debit card on the turnstyles. You just swipe to go on, and swipe when you leave and it works it all out... so we'll see how much gets debited from our account! According to TFL, a Zone 1 ticket costs £6.70 whereas paying by your contactless card (or an Oyster card) costs £2.80. Why tickets cost sooo much more I have no idea.
Up to 4 children under the age of 11 can travel with an adult with a ticket. I couldn't see anything at the stations about the logistics of this - if they didn't need a ticket, how did they get through the turnstype? - so the kids went with us through the pushchair gates.
As soon as you set foot out of the station in Green Park, you're at the end of a long path leading through a park (as the name suggests) which takes you right up to Buckingham Palace. The walk is maybe 10 minutes long but it doesn't feel that far at all. Whilst we were there there was some sort of fun run / race going past, with a choir singing so if you're hoping for a quiet visit you might want to check there are no events on in the area that day.
We looked at the palace, took a selfie and then headed back to Green Park tube station, and got a train on the Piccadily line to Covent Garden.
Covent Garden
We were in London to see Frozen the Musical - more on that in another blog post - so the first thing we did was go in search of the theatre so that we knew where it was when the time came (as we knew it was nearby). It was about a 10 minute walk to Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
Next we headed to Zizzi's for some lunch - it would have been nice to go somewhere that wasn't a chain we could visit at home but it was big and reasonably accessible with a push chair. Then back to the theatre for my daughter and I whilst my husband and sons walked for about 10 minutes to Leicester Square to the Lego Store. There was a queue outside when they arrived - which then weirdly and suddenly dispersed - but the point is, be prepared to wait to get in. There are lots of models inside, and is worth a visit for lego fans. There is also a famous M&M store across the road.
Looking for something else to do, a bit of on-the-spot Googling led the boys to The National Portrait Museum. When I asked my 9 year old if they'd taken any video or photos there I could use, he replied "no because it would be highly inappropriate - there was so much nudity"!! Apparently it's not all nudes, and they came away with some interesting anecdotes they'd read, but it wasn't the most exciting activity for kids.
Our 1pm show of Frozen kicked out at 3:15pm, so we headed back to Covent Garden tube, via a large Boots opposite the station as I'd managed to pack only 1 nappy for the baby, despite thinking I'd packed 5!
Westfield as a destination
At that point, using the TFL tube journey planner, the site told me that we would need to catch a bus for some of our journey back to Shepherd's Bush. That was when I remembered that in my research I'd discovered the TFL planner isn't as good as Google maps when there's an issue. Looking at Google Maps, it told us to just walk 10 minutes to Holborn station, where we could catch a direct tube to Shepherd's Bush. So if you don't like the journey an app or site is giving you, try another to look for an alternative.
Once back at Shepherd's Bush we walked past all the inticing looking eateries at Westfield (or outside to it anyway, I'm not sure what counts as actually being "it") and debated whether people needed ANOTHER whole meal or just a snack. We went into an upstairs venue called Sixes with lots of rainbows on the stairs and walls which obviously caught the kid's attention, with indoor cricket, as the decor looked fun and they had a poster outside saying they'd been voted London's best burger in 2022. However when we got upstairs, the indoor cricket gave the place the sound of a soft play - it was very loud - so we decided to head back downstairs and look for somewhere else. Now everyone fancied a burger, we ate at Gourmet Burger Kitchen and headed back into Westfield through the same door we'd exited from.
There were lots of people sitting and drinking and eating outside around Westfield - it's obviously quite a destination for going out, and had a friendly relaxed vibe on this freak warm October Sunday.
There were payment stations right there - Westfield is a ticketless car park - so we paid (£12!!), walked back to the car, changed the baby (we'd lucked out on not needing a 3rd nappy until this point), and headed home. On the way out there were other cars stuck at the barriers, because they seemingly hadn't paid at a pay station before returning to their car.
And then home...
It took just over 3 hours to get home, including a stop at Reading services. But we were home by just after 9, and as the kids slept on the way home and transported into bed fairly easily, despite a busy day they didn't lose out on too much sleep.
So, there you have it. London in a day from North Somerset. I'd definately do it again, next time to a different area of London just for variety - perhaps to see Big Ben and some classic sights. Someone has since told me that if you buy a £30 Family and Friends rail card you can save a LOT of money on train fare, and that would save the worry of being tired driving home.
