Coronation travel: full list of London road closures and parking restrictions, does ULEZ charge still apply?

Motorists are being urged to avoid London in coming days as hundreds of thousands of visitors travel to the city to celebrate the King’s Coronation. 

While the ceremony takes place on Saturday 6 May, huge numbers of visitors will flood the city in the days around the event, and the celebration concert in Windsor on Sunday 7 May, bringing warnings of disruption on public and private transport. 

Travellers have been urged to plan ahead and expect delays and disruption. In particular, visitors have been advised against driving into London on the weekend of the Coronation, with Transport for London (TfL) warning that road closures and security measures will make driving difficult and vehicles will need special accreditation to access some areas.

Westminster Council says: "The roads and parks around central London will be affected by significant road closures and parking suspensions on 5 and 6 May. Vehicles, including cars, buses, coaches, vans, trucks, motorbike or bicycles, will not be allowed into the restricted event area once closures are in place."

Road closure are due to begin at 7pm on Friday 5 May and a large number of roads in central London will be closed over the weekend to allow crowds to watch the procession between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. An area stretching from the River Thames to Hyde Park and between Vauxhall Bridge and Waterloo Bridge will be closed off to traffic, along with a section around Waterloo on the south side of the river. The Embankment and nearby roads will also be closed between Waterloo Bridge and Southwark Bridge. A full list of road closures can be found at the end of this article.

Parking will also be suspended within the no-traffic area on the days around the event. However, parking wardens in Westminster are due to strike on the day of the coronation, threatening to cause enforcement problems. An interactive map details the roads where parking is suspended. 

Although driving restrictions will be in place around the city centre the ULEZ and Congestion Charge rules will continue to apply, meaning drivers will have to pay to enter the central congestion charge zone and fees will still apply to non-compliant vehicles entering the wider ULEZ area.

Outwith the city, motoring groups are predicting high levels of traffic in other areas, including around Windsor, where the Coronation concert will take place on Sunday. The RAC predicts an extra two million cars on the road each day over the bank holiday, although it expects major routes to be quieter than over the May Day weekend. 

To help with traffic over the bank holiday weekend, National Highways is lifting 700 miles of roadworks, meaning work will be suspended on 96% of England’s motorways and trunk roads. The roadworks will be removed in the south-east of the country by 6am on Thursday 4 May and elsewhere across England by 6am on Friday 5 May. They will not be put back in place until 12.01am on Tuesday 9 May.

However, the roads agency is urging travellers heading to London to plan their routes in advance and allow extra travel time, with the M40, M1 and M4 towards London all expected to be far busier than usual.