Westminster Roadworks: Northumberland Avenue Shut to 8 Oct

Driving in Westminster is governed by four separate things at once. Whatever is dug up this week. The congestion charge. The controlled parking zone you are standing in. And the events calendar. Getting any one of them wrong costs money.

This page tracks Westminster roadworks from TfL’s live feed, current works at the top, and keeps the permanent rules underneath, because the rules are what you need nine days out of ten.

Northumberland Avenue is closed southbound for three weeks

The headline closure in Westminster is Northumberland Avenue (A400), shut southbound between Charing Cross and Great Scotland Yard. That is the run down from Trafalgar Square towards the Embankment, and it is closed for longer than anything else new on the list.

TfL’s road disruption feed gives the cause as urban realm works. The closure went in on the morning of Friday 18 September and is listed until 05:00 on Thursday 8 October. TfL advises an alternative route and reported traffic flowing well on the diversion this morning.

Two closures have cleared since this page was last checked on 15 September.

• Wellington Road (A41) has reopened. The burst water main closure between Acacia Road and St John’s Wood Road, past Lord’s and St John’s Wood station, was listed until 6pm on Friday 18 September and has gone from the feed. So have the temporary signals at Wellington Place.
• The Strand is open westbound again at Lancaster Place. The Thames Water road closure has gone. What is left is a cycle lane closure on Lancaster Place southbound at the Strand junction, listed until 20 September.

Kilburn Lane is still shut. The emergency Thames Water closure at Herries Street, on the Queen’s Park edge of the borough, has now been in place a fortnight and is listed until 22 September. TfL says delays are possible on the diversions.

What is closed or restricted right now

These are the works TfL’s live road disruption feed lists inside the City of Westminster, checked early on Saturday afternoon, 19 September 2026. End dates slip, so treat them as intentions rather than promises.

Four of those are new since 15 September:

• Northumberland Avenue, the three-week closure above
• Kingsway northbound, where the bus lane is closed at Keeley Street until 30 September. TfL files the road under both Camden and Westminster, and the Keeley Street junction is on the Camden side, in Covent Garden
• Great Western Road northbound, with temporary signals at Hormead Road until 21 September. Great Western Road is the boundary with Kensington and Chelsea along that stretch, and Hormead Road is on the Westminster side in W9
• St John’s Wood Road, narrowed for UK Power Networks cabling between Lisson Grove and Park Road until 7pm on Sunday 20 September

One figure on this page has changed rather than expired. When we checked the Westway on 15 September, TfL’s record said the A40 westbound between Edgware Road and the Northern Roundabout was reduced to one lane. The same record now says two lanes. The end date is unchanged at 5 December 2026, and TfL reported traffic flowing well there this morning. We have corrected the table rather than carry the old figure forward.

Two long jobs are otherwise unchanged. The Marylebone Road lane closure eastbound at Allsop Place, by Baker Street, has been in place since 3 August and runs to 23 November. The Pall Mall temporary signals between Haymarket and St James’s Street run to 29 October, and the feed lists Waterloo Place as closed on all approaches with them.

The Finchley Road entry is geography worth being clear about. TfL files it under Camden and Westminster, but the Hilgrove Road junction is on the Camden side of the boundary, in South Hampstead. It is here because Finchley Road is the route north out of St John’s Wood. It is listed until 26 September.

Tube and trains this week and next

This weekend, 19 and 20 September, from TfL’s own planned status for the lines:

• Piccadilly line: no service between Hyde Park Corner and Acton Town from 01:30 on Saturday and all day Sunday, including the Night Tube. Replacement buses run, and TfL says to use the Elizabeth line for Heathrow.
• District line: no service between Earls Court and Ealing Broadway or Richmond. The closed section is entirely west of Earls Court.

Next weekend is the one to plan around. From 02:00 on Saturday 26 September and all day Sunday 27 September, including the Friday and Saturday Night Tube, the Piccadilly line has no service between Cockfosters and Uxbridge. That takes out the whole central section. Hyde Park Corner, Green Park, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Covent Garden all lose their Piccadilly line service for the weekend, and Piccadilly line trains run only between Acton Town and Heathrow.

TfL’s advice for that weekend is to use the District line between central London and Acton Town or Ealing Common, the Metropolitan line between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge, and the Elizabeth line for Heathrow. Replacement buses run.

The Central line is also part closed on 26 and 27 September, but only east of Liverpool Street, so the Oxford Circus, Bond Street and Marble Arch stretch is not affected.

On the main line, from National Rail Enquiries:

• Paddington, Sunday 20 September: engineering work in the Slough area means Great Western Railway trains between Paddington and Reading run to an amended timetable, with some retimed by up to 10 minutes and some calling additionally at Slough, Maidenhead and Twyford. Stopping local services run a reduced timetable. Late services on Saturday night are retimed by a few minutes.
• Paddington, Sunday 27 September: the Elizabeth line has no service between West Drayton and Maidenhead between 01:20 and 08:00, and a reduced service from 08:00, with two trains an hour to Heathrow Terminal 4 and Maidenhead.
• Marylebone, 19 and 20 September: the engineering work planned between Northolt Park and Denham Golf Club has been cancelled, so Chiltern trains run normally.
• Victoria, Saturday 19 September: one train is affected. The 23:16 to Chichester terminates at Littlehampton, with a replacement bus on to Chichester calling at Ford and Barnham.

The congestion charge

The charge is £18 a day if you pay on the day or in advance, rising to £21 if you pay by midnight on the third day after travel. It applies:

• 07:00 to 18:00, Monday to Friday
• 12:00 to 18:00, Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays

There is no charge between Christmas Day and the New Year bank holiday.

The old 100% Cleaner Vehicle Discount for electric vehicles has ended, and a tiered version replaced it. It is only worth anything if the vehicle is on Auto Pay:

• electric cars pay £13.50 a day, a 25% discount
• electric vans, HGVs and quadricycles pay £9 a day, a 50% discount
• an electric vehicle not registered for Auto Pay pays the full £18

Those discounts are due to shrink again from 4 March 2030, to 12.5% for electric cars and 25% for electric vans.

If you live inside the zone, the Residents’ Discount is 90%, which brings the daily charge down to £1.80. There is a change coming to it. From 1 March 2027, new applicants will only get that 90% discount for an electric vehicle. Existing discount holders keep it for any vehicle type, including replacement vehicles, as long as they renew each year. Residents on certain low income and disability benefits, including Personal Independence Payment, Universal Credit, Carer’s Allowance and State Pension Credit, can still add a non-electric vehicle, provided they apply before 4 March 2030.

A large part of Westminster sits inside the zone and a large part does not, and the boundary runs through the middle of the borough rather than around it, so it is worth checking a specific address rather than assuming. TfL’s zone checker takes a postcode and tells you which side of the line it falls on. As a rough guide, the northern and western edges follow Marylebone Road and Edgware Road, which puts Paddington, Maida Vale, St John’s Wood and Queen’s Park outside it, while Soho, Covent Garden, Mayfair, St James’s and Westminster itself are inside.

Parking: seven zones and a price that depends on your engine

Westminster does not have one parking tariff. It has seven controlled parking zones, A to G, and since 2024 the price per hour depends primarily on your vehicle’s CO2 emissions and fuel type rather than a flat rate.

Those are motorcycle and base rates. What you actually pay is set by an emissions band on top of that: a zero-emission car pays 30% below the base rate, a car in the 91 to 150g/km band pays 14% above it, and the highest band pays 55% above. In Zone G that top band is £10.58 an hour. Pre-2015 diesels pay a 50% surcharge on top again, in every zone.

Three practical points. There is no cash payment and no QR code: the council pays through RingGo, PaybyPhone or JustPark only, by phone, or by parking card, and it warns that any QR code on its signage is not its own. Each operator adds an end-user charge of up to 30p a transaction. And the maximum stay is usually four hours even if you keep paying, so extending past it can still earn you a penalty charge notice.

The concession that used to let electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles buy a full maximum stay for ten minutes’ worth of parking has been withdrawn. Signs still carrying that information have been overlaid.

The routes that carry the traffic

Between roadworks, the same handful of roads do the work in Westminster, and they are the ones to check before you set off:

• Marylebone Road and Euston Road (A501), the northern east-west route, with a lane out eastbound at Allsop Place until 23 November.
• Park Lane and Grosvenor Place (A4202, A4), the western north-south route from Marble Arch to Hyde Park Corner and Victoria.
• Edgware Road (A5), north out of Marble Arch, and the road the Westway restriction feeds into until 5 December.
• Wellington Road and Finchley Road (A41), the route north through St John’s Wood. Reopened at Lord’s, with lane restrictions continuing at Hilgrove Road on the Camden side until 26 September.
• Whitehall and Northumberland Avenue (A3212, A400), the Trafalgar Square to Embankment link, with Northumberland Avenue closed southbound until 8 October.
• Strand and Lancaster Place (A4, A301), open again westbound, with the cycle lane closed southbound until 20 September.
• Vauxhall Bridge Road and Millbank (A202, A3212), the southern route through Pimlico and past Parliament, with a southbound lane closed at Rampayne Street until 21 September.
• Piccadilly and Pall Mall (A4), the West End spine, with temporary signals on Pall Mall and Waterloo Place closed until 29 October.
• Harrow Road (A404), the Paddington to Kensal route, with signals at Marylands Road until 20 September.

Station parking is not a thing here

Unlike a commuter town, none of Westminster’s main line stations has a station car park worth using. Paddington, Victoria, Marylebone and Charing Cross are all inside or on the edge of the congestion charge zone and surrounded by controlled parking. If you are meeting a train, the practical options are a short-stay bay paid through one of the three apps, an off-street NCP or hotel car park, or the Tube. Our Tube and train times page has the fares.

Frequently asked questions

What roadworks are on in Westminster right now?

The headline closure is Northumberland Avenue (A400), shut southbound between Charing Cross and Great Scotland Yard for urban realm works until 8 October. Kilburn Lane is still closed at Herries Street until 22 September. The longest restrictions are the A40 Westway westbound, down to two lanes until 5 December 2026, and a lane closure on Marylebone Road eastbound at Allsop Place until 23 November 2026. Checked against the TfL feed on 19 September 2026.

Has Wellington Road reopened?

Yes. The burst water main closure between Acacia Road and St John’s Wood Road was listed until 6pm on Friday 18 September and has come off TfL’s feed, along with the temporary signals at Wellington Place. St John’s Wood Road is narrowed for cabling works until 7pm on Sunday 20 September, but it is not closed.

Is the Strand still closed?

No. The Thames Water closure of the Strand westbound at Lancaster Place has ended. A cycle lane on Lancaster Place southbound remains closed at the Strand junction until 20 September.

Is Kilburn Lane still closed?

Yes. The emergency Thames Water closure at Herries Street is listed until 22 September 2026, and TfL says delays are possible on the diversions.

Is the Piccadilly line closed next weekend?

Yes, through central London. From 02:00 on Saturday 26 September and all day Sunday 27 September, including the Friday and Saturday Night Tube, there is no Piccadilly line service between Cockfosters and Uxbridge. Hyde Park Corner, Green Park, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Covent Garden are all without it. Trains run only between Acton Town and Heathrow, and replacement buses operate.

How long is the Westway restricted?

Until 5 December 2026, on the westbound carriageway between Edgware Road and the Northern Roundabout, for infrastructure inspection. TfL’s record now describes it as reduced to two lanes, having previously said one.

How much is the congestion charge?

£18 a day paid on the day or in advance, or £21 if you pay by midnight on the third day after travel. It runs 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays. An electric car registered for Auto Pay pays £13.50, an electric van £9, and a resident with the 90% Residents’ Discount pays £1.80.

Is the electric vehicle exemption from the congestion charge gone?

Yes. The 100% Cleaner Vehicle Discount has ended and been replaced by a tiered discount of 25% for electric cars and 50% for electric vans, HGVs and quadricycles, and it only applies if the vehicle is registered for Auto Pay. An electric vehicle that is not on Auto Pay pays the full £18.

How much does it cost to park in Westminster?

Between £1.51 and £10.58 an hour, depending on the zone and your vehicle’s CO2 emissions. Zone C, covering Harrow Road, Queen’s Park and northern Maida Vale, is the cheapest. Zones F and G, covering Marylebone, Fitzrovia, Soho and Covent Garden, are the dearest. Pre-2015 diesels pay 50% more again.

Can I pay for parking with cash or a QR code?

No. Westminster takes payment only through the RingGo, PaybyPhone and JustPark apps, by phone or by parking card. The council states it does not use QR codes on its pay-to-park signage, so a QR sticker on a sign is not from the council.

Where can I check live traffic in Westminster?

TfL publishes a live traffic status page and an open road disruption feed that lists every current closure with its extent and end date. That feed is what this page is built from.

Related

• Westminster Tube and train times: fares, caps and journey times when driving is not worth it.
• Westminster planning news: the Oxford Street development corporation and what it means for the streets around it.
• Things to do in Westminster: where you are probably trying to get to.

Sources

• TfL road disruption feed, checked 19 September 2026, for every current work, its extent, its severity rating, its start and end date and its last update time.
• TfL live traffic status for day-to-day updates.
• TfL line status API for the Piccadilly, District, Central and Elizabeth line closures on 19, 20, 26 and 27 September.
• National Rail Enquiries for the Slough area engineering work affecting Paddington, the cancelled Chiltern engineering work and the amended 23:16 from Victoria, checked 19 September 2026.
• TfL Congestion Charge for the £18 and £21 rates and the hours of operation, checked 5 September 2026.
• TfL: changes to the Congestion Charging scheme for the tiered Cleaner Vehicle Discount, the £13.50 and £9 rates, the Auto Pay condition, the £1.80 Residents’ Discount rate, the 1 March 2027 change for new applicants and the 4 March 2030 reductions.
• Westminster City Council: parking zones and prices for the seven zones and their areas, and the parking prices from 2 March 2026 tariff sheet for every per-hour figure, the emissions bands and the diesel surcharge.
• Westminster City Council: parking prices for the operator end-user charge and the withdrawal of the electric vehicle concession.

Roadworks move and end dates slip. Check the live TfL feed before you set off.