Great Western Coffee Shop

Our guests are looking to make a day trip to London. We live in Melksham and are looking to use public transport where possible, including in and around the capital, but we can drive somewhat (let's say "within Wiltshire") to get to a starting point.

There are two UK adults with senior railcards and four none-UK guests all aged 18 or older making up a total party of (probably) all six for the day.  Our guests are already with us - NOT from an EU or Nato country, nor one in the Interrail 'club'. Neither are they from the USA (Britrail?)

Price is important - almost at the "pence matter" level.

National Express from along our street offer a lowest price of £288.00 on some days - 6 hours in London for somewhat longer than that on the coach and I don't feel attracted.   The cheapest tickets from Trowbridge are super-off-peak via Warminster and Salisbury, but you're not allowed to arrive in London until 14:00.  I'm attracted to the idea of driving to Bedwyn and catching the train from there - what's parking like at Bedwyn  ;D

More seriously ... Hungerford?  Day returns Melksham to Didcot and day return Didcot to London travel card?  Thoughts welcome ...

Can members tell me how Groupsave works with Travelcards please?

not much parking at Bedwyn, Hungerford might be a better bet

Drive to Westbury and then advance singles on the 07:36 to Salisbury which is actually a train to Waterloo. That'll give a day in London but 'cos of reasons I'm hazy on a way to return... there is a direct train back to Westbury for £22 advance single...

Ah, on that train up to Waterloo from Westbury, the quota of advance singles has been tweaked and they now bottom out at around £22 for that early train (vs around £24 for trains up to Paddington from Westbury.) Up from Westbury at that time was reliably £11 for a bit, so that's put the price up.

It shouldn't be the case, but I'm suspecting that car, and railheading to Didcot is going to be the best option...

Mark

The car park at Westbury - despite being extended - was almost full at 11am on Tuesday.

For 6 adults from Didcot £139.50 for a a day Groupsave Travelcard (£23.25 each) if you can get six in the car plus all day parking at DID.

For scenic surface tour to start your visit (now that the 23 has been rerouted), take a 7 or 23 from the Crossrail side of Paddington to George St stop on Edgware Rd (has shelter), change there onto a 6 to Charing Cross and from there a 15 to the Tower of London. The 6 and 15 pass many of the famous sights and is a free intro for your guests.

Plus car parking. But I seriously doubt thst you’ll beat that. And there’s always space to park at Didcot. Allow plenty of time from car park to ticket office to train though

We did the trip yesterday - at £35.55 per head from Melksham to London with zones 1 to 6 travel card.  Yes, via that Didcot Groupsave Travelcard.  Out at 08:00, back into Melksham at 19:59 - fun day had by all.    Full report to follow.

W saw in passing Westminster Abbey, the Law Courts, St Paul's Cathedral, Lambeth Palace, Cenotaph ... pictures incomplete / with people in the way ... and lots of other interesting things too.   Pictures below are the classics ...

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I trust no jobsworths tried to prevent you taking pictures?  :P

Nothing but sweetness and light from all the rail staff - and everyone else we interacted with - all day.   The lady passenger on the 18:28 train from Paddington (which had just 2 full coaches and two halves of standard class) who had the seat beside her occupied by a bag was a bit grumpy when asked to move it, but became more friendly during the journey, and the trolley served one end of carriage then raced (as much as a trolley can race) though past us without offering ... I suspect they were on a schedule, and in any case were nearing Swindon by that time!

Pictures during yesterday - far too much happened today to post a full article to a sequence of public transport pictures.  Comments on my route, etc, welcome.

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Not challenged once as I took the pictures.   My guests happy to have their photos shared (lots of photobombing all day!)

Tickets purchased Friday evening from manned ticket office at Chippenham Station to spec at http://www.passenger.chat/gslondon.pdf

Saturday 9th July
Lift to Melksham Station (exceptional lot of walking in London expected ahead)

08:00 Melksham to Swindon. Around 10 passengers joined; perhaps 40 or 50 on the train

Change onto 08:41 to London (Paddington) which calls at Didcot along the way. 9 cars.  Comfortable seating, but we had made for coach A (rear, quiet) with the intent of being at the quietest point on the train. No trolley seen.  Tickets inspected twice; arrived at unbarriered middle platform at Paddington, without significant delays

36 Bus from in front of the station and left (yuk - building works) to Victoria, seeing Marble Arch, Park Lane, Hyde Park Corner along the way.  Front seats upper deck

11 Bus from Westminster Cathedral (not calling at Victoria at present due to road works) seeing Westminster Abbey, Parliament Square, Houses of Parliament, Cenotaph, Whitehall, Horseguards and Trafalgar Square and into Strand. Front seats upper back. New Routemaster.

Walk Trafalgar Square - Admiraly Arch - Horseguards - St James Park - Birdcage Walk - Parliament Square - start of Westminster Bridge - Embankent - Villiers Street - Strand.

Lunch

15 from across the Road from Charing Cross seeing Strand, Aldwych, Law Courts, Fleet Street, St Pauls, Mansion House, Canon Street, to Tower Hill.  Overcroweded / full and standing due to large school (?) party.  New Routemaster.

Walk Around Tower and alongside river - under Tower Bridge - St Catherines Dock - over Tower Bridge - along South Bank to London Bridge area and London Bridge Station.

Northern line (City branch) to Kennington; Northern line (Charing Cross Branch) to Battersea Power Station. Well used train already; very noisy in tunnels. Huge capacity at Battersea Power Station

Stop at pub across road for a (soft for most) drink

344 bus seeing Vauxhall Bus Station and riverside to Lambeth Palace

Walk Covid Wall - Westminster Bridge End - County Hall - London Eye - over Jubilee / Hungerford Bridge to Embankment

Northern Line to Tottenham Court Road. Very busy - crammed from Leicester Square.

Crossrail Tottenham Court Road to Paddington - spacious, plenty of people about yet not crowded. Impressive first ride in food time for ...

Stop for Fish and Chips

18:28 train (platform 1) - final destination Chelteham Spa. Just 5 carriages, full and standing.  We joined shortly before departure took chances on odd reserved but unoccupied seats and lucked out.  Train remained pretty busy through to Swindon (platform 3).

19:36 to Melksham - 2 car 158 from platform 1, more or less on time shared a bay (so quite busy) and more joined at Chippenham - somewhere between 20 and 30 passengers off at Melksham - most walked away from station. 3 cars doing pickups for remainder.

Good day had by all.  More a tour guide special, but wonderful excuse to catch up on new infrastructure and lines.  (London Bridge, Battersea Power Station, Crossrail). Good to see returning traffic.  Almost total absence of masks - goodness knows if we caught anything, except we were so transient all the way.

I don't know if it's still the case, but it used to be contrary to LT Bylaws to take photographs on the Tube.  Obviously this is now no longer a thing, or is being widely ignored.  Good idea to avoid using flash photography still, though, if taking pictures of leading end of  moving trains

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/terms-and-conditions/byelaws#on-this-page-2

I have mirrored a copy of the bylaws for TfL Rail services at http://www.passenger.chat/railway-byelaws_tfl.pdf - and I can see no reference in there to photography or cameras.

Some great photos, thank you for sharing
I was in London last week to see Phantom of the Opera, but got to do the Tower Bridge tour, also found a "secret" path (found on Tiktok) opposite the bridge that takes you down to the edge of the Thames, I got some great photos of the bridge opening from the waters edge

One other building I visited was the Sky Garden (top of the walkie talkie building) free entry but advised to book a slot in advance, has views all over London

I was in the Wapping area, no far from Tower Bridge, several weeks ago, and found a very narrow path leading to very steep steps down onto a tiny beach by the Thames. The beach stopped where the water met the buildings a few yards away, and it was quite frightening seeing the erosion of the buildings back walls and foundations by the river. I went back up, and realised that about 20 minutes later the river was flowing fast just where I had been standing on the beach.

I hope your guests enjoyed the trip Graham. It would be interesting to hear their viewpoint.

The Special Party Routemaster photo reminded me of a special trip we did in London several years ago. It is possible that I've told this story here before, in which case apologies, but it is a trip I would recommend, despite some mishaps.

When my eldest brother reached 75, he invited us to join him on a day's trip around London in a green Routemaster, on a trip organised by the National Trust. It was to visit various places around London that are examples of brutalist architecture. I'm not a fan of this type of architecture, but he was, and it was fascinating, not just for the places we visited, but for the trip itself, seeing much of London I didn't know, including the 19th floor of a tower block in east London overlooking the Thames, and somebody's flat in the Barbican - the latter wasn't actually part of the trip, but it went to the Barbican and the person whose flat it was was also on the trip, and invited us in.

The main mishap was that it overran by at least 3 hours, and we finished quite late in the evening as darkness fell, somewhere in the wilds of south London (we were supposed to be dropped off in north-west London!), and had to make our own way to the nearest station to make our own ways back to wherever we needed to be!

I'm still trying to work out where on the river bank could be "opposite the bridge". Surely the only thing opposite Tower Bridge is ... the other end of Tower bridge!

They did - utter amazement at so many things in London.   Highlights were riding in the front upstairs seats on double deckers as we went across London.   Low points were perhaps the train noise on the Northern Line extension from Kennington to Battersea Power station and again on the Northern line the sardine conditions from Leicester Square to Tottenham Court Road.   The other thing that took them by surprise was just how soon our return train pulled out of Paddington - on time at 18:28 as I had rushed them onto that as the next Didcot and Swindon service rather that awaiting the 18:32 which offers the official (and tighter) connection.  "Defensive journey planning" to me is getting the first available service to your change point.

They want to go back and see more of London, including going into a carefully selected few attractions.

I will point out that these are not in any way folks interested in the train stuff, so very much "passenger view".   So much new ... as we stood on platform 3 in Swindon, our train was announced for platform 3 and "where's that" they asked.  "Here" says I. "No - this is platform 2" they explain, pointing to the sign just above our heads that says "platform 2" and has an arrow on the end of it pointing towards the bay. Things like that are a real reminder of just how much we take for granted on home turf.

Ah, stairs. They're what London had before bus stops and not only on the Thames as before many were covered over, certain tributaries made a contribution to passenger transport, the Fleet being an obvious candidate. Whether it would have been possible to pick up a wherry at the likes of Battle Bridge, outside the present day Kings Cross station, I don't know.

Londoners must have wished there was an App. The watermen would have been up for that too - and they'd have certainly seen off the likes of Uber.

https://www.twotunnels.org.uk/greenwood/map_e8o.html

Mark

If the "sardine conditions" on the Northern Line are those in the photo, I think your guests will have experienced far worse back home on a daily basis! Good trip.

No, they're not - that was before Leicester Square where the crowds piled in; it was rammed thereafter, so much that I was concerned that some of our party might not get off.  Our particular guests - no - exceptionally they will not have seen the same thing in their daily lives.

Walk down the steps down to Shad Thames walkway and then walk past the little beer garden on your left.
You will see a doorway on your left with steps going upwards - called Horsleydown Steps
Walk up the steps through a gateway then at the top you will see the steps go down to a little beach

The last few steps aren't there but it is not too difficult to step down, I timed it with a bridge lift so got a different view to normal
But as above be VERY mindful of how fast the tide moves, I was only there 10-15 minutes and in that time the area I was stood in was surrounded by water, a few minutes later and I would have been very wet, and this is coming from someone who has lived in WsM all my life so used to fast moving tides

At the end of my review there are two pictures from the area, I put more on my FB
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g186338-d187552-r846864950-Tower_Bridge-London_England.html

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Profile/Phantom74?fid=edc9f7e3-1d97-499e-af50-1c3fda245434