Westminster Parking Zones: Hours End at 6.30pm, Not 9pm

The commonest thing people get wrong about Westminster parking zones and hours is the direction of the risk. Visitors expect to be charged late into the evening in central London, and go looking for the zone where the meter still runs at nine o’clock. There isn’t one. According to the council’s own hours of control schedule, effective 2 March 2026, paid-for bays and single yellow lines are controlled 8.30am to 6.30pm in every single zone in the City, A through G, without exception. The only thing that changes between zones is which days.

What runs late, and in ten sub-zones runs continuously, is the resident bays. Those are a different kind of restriction: you cannot pay to use them at all, so the question is not what it costs at 9pm but whether you are allowed to be there. That is the distinction the penalty charge notices are written against.

The zones, and the one that no longer exists

Westminster has seven controlled parking zones, each divided into sub-zones:

Zone H has gone. The council states it no longer exists because of the Victoria Station expansion works, so any older guide or app still referring to zone H is out of date.

Paid-for bays and single yellow lines: 8.30am to 6.30pm

This is the simple half, and it is worth stating plainly because so much online advice muddies it.

In every zone, paid-for bays and single yellow lines are controlled from 8.30am to 6.30pm. Not later. After 6.30pm, a pay-to-park bay is free, and a single yellow line is parkable unless there are kerb markings.

What varies is the days:

• Monday to Friday only: A1, BC1, B4, B10, B11, C1, C2, D1 and D4.
• Monday to Friday plus Saturday morning, 8.30am to 1.30pm: A2, B2, B6.
• Monday to Saturday: A3, A4, B5, B7, and all of zones E, F and G.

No zone charges for pay-to-park on a Sunday. The council’s bank holiday guidance confirms it in terms: on a Sunday, no controls apply to paid parking and single yellow lines.

The council’s own guidance on single and double yellow lines puts the single yellow rule as controlled hours “generally 8:30am to 6:30pm, Monday to Friday or Monday to Saturday”, with specific times varying by location. Two details from that page that catch people:

• Outside controlled hours you can park on a single yellow unless there are kerb markings. A single yellow mark on the kerb is a loading ban at the times shown on the nearby plate; a double yellow kerb mark means no stopping at any time.
• Do not park adjacent to a dropped kerb even where the line says you may.

Double yellow lines are no parking at any time, everywhere, always.

Resident bays: this is where the late hours are

Resident bays are permit-holder-only spaces. You cannot pay to use one. Their hours are set separately from the pay-to-park hours on the same street, and they are far longer.

Ten sub-zones are controlled 24 hours a day, every day: A3, A4, B7, B10, E1, F1, F4, F5, F6 and G1. That is the whole of Mayfair and St James’s, most of Marylebone and Fitzrovia, Soho and Covent Garden, and parts of Pimlico and Bayswater. In those bays there is no lawful moment for a non-permit-holder to be parked, at any hour, on any day.

Others run late without being continuous. Resident bays in B5, B6, F2 and F3 are controlled to 8.30pm every day, including bank holidays. A2, B3 and B11 run to 10pm. And one street beats them all: resident bays on Maunsel Street in Victoria are controlled 8.30am to 10.30pm, Monday to Saturday, which as far as we can see is the latest resident control anywhere in the borough.

At the other end, zone C is the most relaxed, at 8.30am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday, with one exception that goes the other way: the Kilburn Park Road area starts half an hour earlier, at 8am, and runs Monday to Saturday. The council defines that area precisely as Kilburn Park Road between Shirland Road and Randolph Gardens, Carlton Vale between Kilburn Park Road and Randolph Gardens or Randolph Avenue, and Randolph Gardens itself.

Zone G2 has no resident bays at all.

The sign will not tell you which sub-zone you are in

This is the trap, and it is the council’s own note on its schedule: “Resident bay signage displays parent zone info only, not sub-zone.”

So a sign in Marylebone tells you that you are in zone F. It does not tell you whether you are in F1, where the bay is controlled around the clock, or F2, where it stops at 8.30pm. Two streets a few minutes apart, one letter and one digit apart, with completely different rules, and nothing at the kerb to distinguish them.

There is a second note that resolves the ambiguity in the strictest direction: “Where a sign states ‘Resident permit holders only’ with no days or times quoted, this indicates that the bay is controlled at all times, every day.” A blank sign is not a lenient sign. It is a 24-hour restriction.

If you are parking in a resident bay in zones E, F or G on the strength of a sign with no times on it, you are parked illegally. Check the sub-zone against the council’s published schedule on its parking zones and prices page rather than the plate.

Bank holidays, and the Christmas Day question the council answers twice

The next bank holiday is Monday 31 August 2026. On the council’s published guidance, paid parking and single yellow lines have no controls and parking is free, and resident bays run Sunday controls. The same pattern applies to Good Friday, Easter Monday, both May bank holidays, Boxing Day and the 28 December substitute.

Christmas Day is where the council contradicts itself, and it is worth knowing before you rely on either page.

The bank holiday parking controls page lists Christmas Day, Friday 25 December 2026, as “No controls apply” for resident parking and free for paid parking.

The hours of control schedule, published the same year on the same website, carries this note: “Where Bank/Public Holidays are included this also means Christmas Day.” And the ten sub-zones above are listed as 24 hours everyday, including bank and public holidays.

Read together, those two documents disagree about whether a resident bay in Mayfair or Soho is enforced on Christmas Day. Until the council reconciles them, the safe assumption in a 24-hour sub-zone is that the restriction stands, because the schedule is the more specific of the two documents and the one that tracks the traffic orders. We would not leave a car in an E, F or G resident bay on Christmas Day on the strength of the summary table alone.

Christmas Eve, incidentally, is a normal Thursday for both, and Easter Saturday is a normal Saturday. Neither gets any concession.

Three more things that generate penalty charges

The four-hour maximum stay. The council warns that if you stay beyond the maximum permitted stay, usually four hours, you may be issued with a penalty charge notice even if you have paid to extend. Paying is not the same as being permitted to stay. Check the plate.

The QR code scam. The council has a live warning about fake “Scan to Pay” QR code stickers being applied to its pay-to-park signs, “especially in zones E (Mayfair and St James’) and F (Hyde Park, Marylebone and Fitzrovia)”. Marshals are removing them as they are found. The council states it does not use QR codes for payment at all, and that the only ways to pay are the RingGo, PaybyPhone or JustPark apps, by phone, or with a Parking Card. If there is a QR sticker on the sign, it is not the council’s.

Red routes are not the council’s. The red lines on the major through-routes are Transport for London’s, not Westminster’s, and they run to their own hours, which are generally longer. A double red line means no stopping at any time. A penalty on a red route comes from TfL and is challenged through TfL, not through the council’s process.

For what it costs once you are legally parked, see our guide to Westminster resident parking permit prices, which sets out the full 2026 band table and the pay-to-park emissions bands. For getting about without the car, there is Westminster tube and train times and our running roadworks and travel updates.

Frequently asked questions

What are the parking hours in Westminster? Paid-for bays and single yellow lines are controlled 8.30am to 6.30pm in every zone in the City, on Monday to Friday, Monday to Saturday, or Monday to Friday plus Saturday morning depending on the sub-zone. Resident bays are separate and run much longer, up to 24 hours a day in ten sub-zones.

Do you have to pay for parking in Westminster after 6.30pm? No. Pay-to-park charges stop at 6.30pm in every zone. What continues in many places is the resident-bay restriction, and you cannot pay to use a resident bay at any hour, so a free evening in a pay-to-park bay does not make a permit bay next to it available.

Is parking free in Westminster on Sundays? For paid-for bays and single yellow lines, yes. The council states that no controls apply to paid parking and single yellow lines on a Sunday. Resident bays still operate their normal Sunday controls, which in ten sub-zones means round-the-clock enforcement.

Which Westminster parking zones are controlled 24 hours? Resident bays in sub-zones A3, A4, B7, B10, E1, F1, F4, F5, F6 and G1 are listed as controlled 24 hours every day, including bank and public holidays. That covers Mayfair, St James’s, Soho, Covent Garden and much of Marylebone and Fitzrovia.

How do I know which sub-zone I am in? Not from the sign, which is the problem. The council’s own note states that resident bay signage displays parent zone information only, not the sub-zone. Check the published hours of control schedule on the council’s parking zones page against your street before you leave the car.

Is parking free in Westminster on bank holidays? For paid-for bays and single yellow lines, yes, on Good Friday, Easter Monday, both May bank holidays, the summer bank holiday on 31 August 2026, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and the 28 December substitute. Resident bays run Sunday controls on those days. Christmas Eve and Easter Saturday are treated as normal working days.

Hours and zone information from Westminster City Council’s parking zones and prices page and its Hours of Control and Parking Tariffs schedule effective 2 March 2026, plus its bank holiday parking controls and yellow lines guidance. Checked 27 August 2026. Always check the plate at the bay; where this page and the sign disagree, the sign and the traffic order govern.