A lane of Marylebone Road is closed at Allsop Place until 23 November, Pall Mall until 29 October. Plus carnival closures, parking tariffs and the £18 charge.
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 keeps the current works at the top and the permanent rules underneath, because the rules are what you need nine days out of ten.
What is closed or restricted right now
These are the works Transport for London’s live road disruption feed lists inside the City of Westminster, checked on 9 August 2026. End dates slip, so treat them as intentions.
| Where | What | Until |
|---|---|---|
| Marylebone Road (A501) eastbound at Allsop Place | Lane closure for UK Power Networks works | 23 November 2026 |
| Pall Mall (A4) eastbound, St James's Street to Haymarket | Eastbound road closure, borough works | 29 October 2026 |
| Abingdon Street (A3212) at Millbank | Road restricted, borough works | 15 September 2026 |
| Parliament Square (A302) at St Margaret Street | Phased lane closures, Thames Water | 7 September 2026 |
| Westway (A40) westbound, Edgware Road to Northern Roundabout | Reduced to one lane for infrastructure inspection | 31 August 2026 |
| Euston Road (A501) eastbound off slip at Hampstead Road | One of two lanes closed, utility works | 30 August 2026 |
| Praed Street (A4205) at Norfolk Place, Paddington | Temporary traffic signals, Network Rail works | 16 August 2026 |
| Cavendish Place at Regent Street | Road closed, gas works | 12 August 2026 |
The one to plan around is Marylebone Road. A lane of the eastbound carriageway at Allsop Place, by Baker Street, has been out since 3 August and is listed as closed until 23 November 2026. That is the borough’s main east-west artery north of Oxford Street, and a lane out of it for three and a half months will show up on every journey between Paddington and Euston.
Pall Mall is shut eastbound between St James’s Street and Haymarket until 29 October, which pushes traffic from St James’s onto the Mall and Piccadilly. The Parliament Square Thames Water works run in phases to 7 September and have been holding up reasonably well, but combine badly with any protest or state occasion.
Notting Hill Carnival closes a large part of W2, W9 and W11
Carnival is the biggest predictable disruption in the Westminster calendar and it lands over the August bank holiday. Westminster City Council has confirmed that its roads will be closed from 6am on Sunday 30 August until 6am on Tuesday 1 September 2026.
New for 2026, Bayswater Road will be closed westbound from Lancaster Terrace, with eastbound traffic maintained. Vehicles heading west along Bayswater Road will be diverted at Palace Gardens Terrace, and Notting Hill Gate is closed in both directions between Campden Hill Road and Kensington Church Street.
The Westminster closure list runs to well over a hundred streets, concentrated in Bayswater and the Westbourne and Harrow Road side of W2 and W9: Chepstow Road, Westbourne Grove, Ledbury Road, Elgin Avenue, Great Western Road, Kildare Terrace, Inverness Terrace and the rest. Edgware Road is closed southbound between the Harrow Road junction and Marble Arch. The council publishes the full list and a residents’ guide on its Notting Hill Carnival pages, and if your car is moved because of a closure you can trace it at trace.london.
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.
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.
| Zone | Area | Base rate per hour |
|---|---|---|
| C | Harrow Road, Queen's Park, Maida Vale (north) | £2.16 |
| D | Victoria, Westminster, Millbank | £3.15 |
| B | Bayswater, Maida Vale (south) | £3.81 |
| A | Knightsbridge, Belgravia, Pimlico | £4.70 |
| E | Mayfair and St James's | £6.52 |
| F | Hyde Park, Marylebone, Fitzrovia | £6.83 |
| G | Soho, West End, Covent Garden | £6.83 |
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, and currently the most disrupted.
- 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 closed southbound during carnival.
- Vauxhall Bridge Road and Millbank (A202, A3212), the southern route through Pimlico and past Parliament, with the Abingdon Street works on it until September.
- Piccadilly, Pall Mall and the Strand (A4, A4200), the West End spine, with Pall Mall shut eastbound until late October.
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 longest-running is a lane closure on Marylebone Road eastbound at Allsop Place until 23 November 2026. Pall Mall is closed eastbound between St James’s Street and Haymarket until 29 October, Abingdon Street is restricted at Millbank until 15 September and Parliament Square has phased Thames Water lane closures until 7 September.
When are the Notting Hill Carnival road closures in 2026?
Westminster’s closures run from 6am on Sunday 30 August to 6am on Tuesday 1 September 2026. Bayswater Road is closed westbound from Lancaster Terrace, new for this year.
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.
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 9 August 2026, for every current work, its extent and its end date.
- TfL live traffic status for day-to-day updates.
- Westminster City Council: Notting Hill Carnival road closures for the 2026 closure dates, the Bayswater Road change and the street list.
- TfL Congestion Charge for the £18 and £21 rates and the hours of operation.
- 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.
Have your say
We read every message. To comment on this story, email the newsdesk and we may publish a selection of responses: hello@westminsterpost.co.uk.