TRANSPORT IN AND AROUND LONDON
DICKENS SOCIETY SYMPOSIUM
KINGSTON UNIVERSITY
17-20 JULY
The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames is an outer borough of Greater London. The Post Office still treats it as part of Surrey, but politically it’s part of London, and it’s served by Transport for London. The capital is big and expensive. Its public transport system is complicated. Here is some advice on how to use it to get where you want to go, and how to get the best value for your money. First, let me warn you against a couple of common errors.
Kingston is one of the zones of Greater London unserved by the London Underground system (the Tube). Never enter a Tube station thinking the Tube will carry you all the way to Kingston. It won’t. The borough is well served, however, by buses and by overground trains.
Secondly, whenever you can, avoid paying piecemeal for journeys on public transport in London. You can buy a ticket just for the journey you’re embarking on, from a bus driver or at a Tube or railway station, but it’s expensive. The wise option for members attending the Symposium is to buy a Transport for London Oyster Card. This is an electronic card, which stores credit, and which you touch onto a sensor at the beginning of a journey. Bus fares, which would cost £2 bought piecemeal, cost the Oyster Card user 90p. Tube journeys within the innermost zone (Zone 1) cost the Oyster Card user £1.50 instead of £4. The simplest way to acquire one is online. This costs £12 for an initial £10 worth of stored credit. Allow five working days for delivery. Go to
http://www.visitlondonoffers.com/oyster-card/index.htm. Otherwise, cards can be bought, or credit topped up, at most Tube stations, at most railway stations within Greater London, and at many newsagents. At Heathrow you can buy them at any of the Tube stations serving the airport, including Hatton Cross.
Beware, though. The Oyster Card can be used on few overground railway lines south of the Thames, on none you’re likely to use. For those, a separate ticket will be needed. A one-day Travel Card will often make sense. Ask at the station booking office.
If you are coming to the symposium from overseas, and don’t procure yourself an Oyster Card from the start, remember that you will need sterling small change for initial bus fares. Our lowest denomination banknote is now the £5 note. Most bus drivers will accept that. They will be happy with coins, but unhappy with £10 notes, or notes of higher value.
Travel between Heathrow Airport and Kingston University Kingston Hill Campus
A London taxi from Heathrow to the Kingston Hill Campus costs £40 to £50. Buses are an unglamorous but much cheaper alternative.
If you arrive at Terminal 1, Terminal 2 or Terminal 3, follow the notices to the Central Bus Station, and at stand 20 catch a 285 or an X26 bus to Kingston’s Cromwell Road Bus Station. The average journey time is 70 minutes. You can also get to Kingston on a 111 bus, but via a more circuitous route, which takes longer.
If you arrive at Terminal 4 or Terminal 5, take a free 423 or 490 bus the short distance to Hatton Cross Bus Station, and there pick up the 285 or X26 bus to Kingston.
At Kingston’s Cromwell Road Bus Station catch an 85 or a K3 bus, and alight at the Kingston Hill Campus, the stop after St Anne’s Catholic Church. Cross the road, enter the campus, walk up the short drive, and you will see the reception building before you.
To get from the Kingston Hill Campus to Heathrow, it’s almost the same journey in reverse, but the Kingston one-way system imposes some initial differences. From outside the campus (on the same side of the road) catch an 85 bus to Fairfield Bus Station or a K3 bus to Eden Street. From either, walk to the corner where Clarence Street joins Cromwell Road—about 250 yards (see the map of central Kingston, obtainable as indicated below). The X26 Heathrow service leaves from a stop on Clarence Street opposite one flank of the Odeon cinema. The 285 Heathrow service leaves from the Cromwell Road Bus Station opposite the other flank of the cinema.
Travel between Gatwick Airport and Kingston University Kingston Hill Campus
Go to the railway station at Gatwick Airport, and buy a ticket to Norbiton, the railway station in the Royal Borough nearest to the Kingston Hill Campus. Avoid getting onto the Gatwick Express, catch a stopping train, alight at Clapham Junction, go to Platform 11, and catch any one of several services going to Norbiton.
At Norbiton, exit from the ticket office side of the station, cross the road, and walk 100 yards uphill to a bus shelter, where you can catch a K3 bus to the Kingston Hill Campus, the stop after St Anne’s Catholic Church. When you get off the bus, cross the road, enter the campus, walk up the short drive, and you will see the reception building before you.
To get from the Kingston Hill Campus to Gatwick, make the same journey in reverse. Catch the K3 bus at the stop on the same side of the road as the campus, and get off at the stop ten yards uphill from Norbiton Station.
Travel between central London and Kingston University Kingston Hill Campus
Go to Waterloo Station, buy a ticket to Norbiton, and catch one of several services going to Norbiton, usually from Platforms 1 to 6.
At Norbiton, exit from the ticket office side of the station, cross the road, and walk 100 yards uphill to a bus shelter, where you can catch a K3 bus to the Kingston Hill Campus, the stop after St Anne’s Catholic Church. When you get off the bus, cross the road, enter the campus, walk up the short drive, and you will see the reception building before you.
To go the other way, make the same journey in reverse. Catch the K3 bus at the stop on the same side of the road as the campus, and get off at the stop ten yards uphill from Norbiton Station.
Members wishing to make an excursion to central London from Kingston are advised to buy a £7 one-day six-zone Travel Card, for use after 0930 on weekdays, and without restriction at weekends. Cheap day-return tickets from either Norbiton or Kingston will cost a little less, but will take you only as far as Waterloo. The Travel Card gives you unlimited travel on all trains, tubes and buses within the six zones.
Travel between the Kingston Hill Campus and central Kingston
At the bus stop outside the campus, on the same side of the road, catch either a K3 bus and
alight at Eden Street, or an 85 bus and alight at Fairfield Bus Station. From Eden Street or Fairfield Bus Station, it’s an easy walk to anywhere in central Kingston (see the map of central Kingston, obtainable as indicated below). Returning to the campus, you can catch either the 85 or the K3 at Cromwell Road Bus Station. The K3 can also be caught in Brook Street and Eden Street.
Maps
Members will find it useful to print out the following maps.
Google Map of Kingston:
http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Kingston+Upon+Thames+Surrey+UK&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=titleMultimap map of the
Kingston Hill area:
http://www.multimap.com/maps/?&t=l&map=51.41517,-0.29174|14|4&loc=GB:51.41517:-0.29174:14&dp=841#map=51.42944,-0.26427|16|4&dp=841&loc=GB:51.42945:-0.26427:16|kt2 7lb|KT2 7LBMap of Waterloo Station and its surroundings:
www.londontown.com/Search/Full/Waterloo%20Railway%Station/waterloo%20railway%20stationMap of
Kingston Hill Campus prepared by the School of Natural Therapies, which includes irrelevancies but is the clearest I can find:
http://www.snt.pyewacketdesign.co.uk/where.htmlLondon Tube Map:
http://www.aiesec.co.uk/downloads/tubemap.gifLondon overground railway map:
www.johomaps.com/eu/ire_uk/uk/london/londonrail.htmlTravel to the Kingston Hill Campus by car
Kingston Hill is the A308, which diverges from the A3 London to Portsmouth road at Robin Hood Roundabout. Drivers coming from the London direction reach the roundabout soon after passing Putney Vale Cemetery on their left. Drivers from the Portsmouth direction reach it soon after playing fields on either side of the Kingston Bypass give way to houses. The Kingston Hill Campus is on the east side of Kingston Hill, the left as you drive towards Kingston. Subject to availability, a permit to park your car on campus can be obtained if you email
dorich.house@kingston.ac.uk.
David Parker
