Westminster Roadworks: Great Portland Street Shut to 16 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.

Oxford Street works have reached Great Portland Street

The preparation works for a traffic-free Oxford Street are now closing roads. TfL says the stretch between Orchard Street and Great Portland Street will be traffic free from Monday 26 October.

Two closures went into TfL’s road disruption feed this week, both for “works related to the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street”:

• Great Portland Street (B506) is closed in both directions between Oxford Street and Great Castle Street. The closure started at 10.45pm on Monday 28 September and is listed until 16 October.
• Oxford Street (A40) eastbound is closed at the Great Portland Street junction from 6am to 6pm each day. The feed lists daily closures from Tuesday 29 September to Friday 16 October.

Both records carry the same exception. No work takes place between 7am on Saturday 3 October and 7am on Monday 5 October. TfL advises an alternative route and reported traffic flowing well on Tuesday morning.

Northumberland Avenue (A400) is still shut southbound between Charing Cross and Great Scotland Yard for urban realm works. It has been closed since 18 September and is listed until the early hours of Thursday 8 October.

St John’s Wood Road (A5205) is closed westbound at Grove End Road for emergency gas works. The closure went in on Monday 28 September and is listed until the end of Thursday 1 October. TfL reported no delays on the diversion.

Kilburn Lane should reopen today. The emergency Thames Water closure at Herries Street, on the Queen’s Park edge of the borough, has been in place since 5 September. TfL now lists it as ending at 5pm on Tuesday 29 September.

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 Tuesday morning, 29 September 2026. End dates slip, so treat them as intentions rather than promises.

Six works have cleared since this page was last checked on 19 September. The temporary signals on Lupus Street in Pimlico, on Great Western Road at Hormead Road and on Harrow Road at Marylands Road have all gone from the feed. So have the lane closure on Vauxhall Bridge Road at Rampayne Street, the cabling works narrowing St John’s Wood Road between Lisson Grove and Park Road, and the cycle lane closure on Lancaster Place.

One end date has moved a long way. On 19 September TfL listed the Finchley Road lane restrictions at Hilgrove Road, for HS2 gas main replacement, as ending on 26 September. The same record now runs to 29 November 2026, two months later. The 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.

Two new lane closures sit on the edges of the borough. Buckingham Palace Road loses one of its three southbound lanes at Grosvenor Gardens, by Victoria, for Vodafone works until 3 October. Brompton Road loses one of three eastbound lanes at the Knightsbridge junction until 5 October. TfL files that one under both Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster.

The long jobs are unchanged. The Westway westbound is down to two lanes until 5 December. The Marylebone Road lane closure eastbound at Allsop Place, by Baker Street, runs to 23 November. The Pall Mall temporary signals between Haymarket and St James’s Street run to 29 October.

Tube and trains over the next fortnight

From TfL’s own planned status for the lines:

• Jubilee line, Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October: no service between Green Park and Canary Wharf for most of the weekend. That closes the Jubilee line at Westminster station. Early on each morning the closure runs further, from Finchley Road on the Saturday and from Green Park on the Sunday, out to Stratford, with replacement buses at the eastern end.
• Circle line, Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October: no service between Edgware Road and Aldgate via Victoria. That takes out Paddington, Bayswater, Victoria, St James’s Park, Westminster and Embankment on the Circle line.
• District line, same weekend: no service between Edgware Road or Tower Hill and Ealing Broadway, Kensington (Olympia), Richmond or Wimbledon. Replacement buses operate.

On the main line, from National Rail Enquiries:

• Paddington, Sunday 11 October: engineering work between Hayes and Harlington and Slough closes all lines early in the morning. Before 07:45 no Elizabeth line trains run between Hayes and Harlington and Slough, and replacement buses run instead. Heathrow trains run normally. The first trains through are the 07:46 Paddington to Reading and the 07:53 Reading to Abbey Wood. The 06:38 Great Western Railway service from Paddington to Reading starts from Slough instead.

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.
• Oxford Street and Great Portland Street (A40, B506), where the pedestrianisation works have Great Portland Street shut at Oxford Street until 16 October, before the street goes traffic free on 26 October.
• Park Lane and Grosvenor Place (A4202, A4), the western north-south route from Marble Arch to Hyde Park Corner and Victoria, with a lane out on Buckingham Palace Road southbound until 3 October.
• 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, with St John’s Wood Road closed westbound at Grove End Road until 1 October and lane restrictions at Hilgrove Road, on the Camden side, until 29 November.
• Whitehall and Northumberland Avenue (A3212, A400), the Trafalgar Square to Embankment link, with Northumberland Avenue closed southbound until 8 October.
• Vauxhall Bridge Road and Millbank (A202, A3212), the southern route through Pimlico and past Parliament, clear of listed works this week.
• Piccadilly and Pall Mall (A4), the West End spine, with temporary signals on Pall Mall until 29 October.
• Harrow Road (A404), the Paddington to Kensal route, clear of listed works this week.

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 biggest are the Oxford Street pedestrianisation works. Great Portland Street is closed both ways between Oxford Street and Great Castle Street until 16 October, and Oxford Street eastbound is closed at that junction from 6am to 6pm daily over the same period. Northumberland Avenue is closed southbound until 8 October, and St John’s Wood Road is closed westbound at Grove End Road until 1 October. Checked against the TfL feed on 29 September 2026.

When does Oxford Street go traffic free?

TfL says Oxford Street will be traffic free between Orchard Street and Great Portland Street from Monday 26 October 2026. Buses stop running along that stretch from the evening of Sunday 25 October. Our Oxford Street story sets out what changes.

Is Kilburn Lane still closed?

It is due to reopen today. TfL lists the emergency Thames Water closure at Herries Street as ending at 5pm on Tuesday 29 September 2026.

Is the Jubilee line closed this weekend?

Yes, for most of Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October there is no Jubilee line service between Green Park and Canary Wharf, so Westminster station has no Jubilee line trains. The Circle line is then closed between Edgware Road and Aldgate via Victoria on 10 and 11 October.

How long is the Westway restricted?

Until 5 December 2026, on the westbound carriageway between Edgware Road and the Northern Roundabout, where it is reduced to two lanes for infrastructure inspection.

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 29 September 2026, for every current work, its extent, its severity rating, its start and end date, its daily schedule and its last update time.
• TfL: Oxford Street area works for the 26 October traffic-free date and the bus changes from 25 October.
• TfL live traffic status for day-to-day updates.
• TfL line status API for the Jubilee, Circle and District line closures on 3, 4, 10 and 11 October.
• National Rail Enquiries for the early morning closure between Paddington and Slough on 11 October, checked 29 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.