Alexandra Palace is the most awkward major venue in London to reach without a car, and the easiest with one. It sits on top of a hill in north London, seven acres of Victorian glass and brick surrounded by parkland, with the nearest stations at the bottom of a long climb and a road system that was designed for carriages. From Heathrow it is a genuine cross-London run — and on a December darts night, in the dark and the rain, arriving at the door rather than at the bottom of the hill is worth every penny of the fare.
We cover the full Ally Pally calendar: the PDC World Darts Championship over Christmas and New Year, concerts in the Great Hall and the West Hall, the ice rink, beer festivals, exhibitions, graduations and the theatre. The price is fixed before you book and includes meet & greet inside the terminal, flight tracking, 60 minutes of free waiting from landing, all tolls and the ULEZ charge. No surge, no meter, no surprise at the end.
| T5 | ~25 miles · 70 min off-peak | M4/A406 |
| T3 | ~24 miles · 65 min off-peak | FASTEST |
| T2 | ~24 miles · 65 min off-peak | FASTEST |
| T4 | ~26 miles · 75 min off-peak | SOUTH SIDE |
| Darts, 19:00 session | leave Heathrow by 16:45 | BUFFER |
| Concert, 20:00 stage | leave Heathrow by 17:30 | BUFFER |
Alexandra Palace is one of the longer runs we quote from Heathrow, because it is a genuine corner-to-corner crossing of Greater London: west to north-east, either round the top on the North Circular or straight through the middle. The fares below reflect that distance honestly and then stop moving. There is no event-night premium and no charge for the fact that 3,000 darts fans want a car at 22:45 on the same evening.
| Vehicle | Passengers | T5 (fastest) | T3/T2 | T4 (south) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saloon | Up to 4 | £70 | £73 | £75 |
| Executive (E-Class / 5 Series) | Up to 3 | £90 | £93 | £95 |
| MPV (groups, luggage) | Up to 6 | £95 | £98 | £100 |
| 8-seater minibus | Up to 7 | £112 | £115 | £117 |
↔ Swipe left on mobile
Prices include meet & greet in the terminal, flight tracking, 60 minutes of free waiting from landing, all road tolls and the ULEZ charge. Child seats are free on request. Additional waiting beyond the free hour is charged in fifteen-minute blocks at the rate shown on your confirmation.There are two sensible ways from Heathrow to Alexandra Palace and they are genuinely different journeys. The A406 North Circular route goes out to the west, north past Ealing and Brent, and round the top through Finchley and Bounds Green — longer in miles but often faster because it avoids the centre entirely. The through-town route takes the A40 Westway in and comes north through Camden and Holloway — shorter and quicker when the city is quiet, hopeless at half past five on a Friday. Your driver picks on the day, live.
| Terminal | Distance to venue | Normal time (off-peak) | Event day buffer | Fare bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal 5 | ~25 miles | 70 min | +5–10 min, included | £70 |
| Terminal 3 | ~24 miles | 65 min | +5–10 min, included | £73 |
| Terminal 2 | ~24 miles | 65 min | +5–10 min, included | £73 |
| Terminal 4 | ~26 miles | 75 min | +5–10 min, included | £75 |
↔ Swipe left on mobile
Times shown are typical off-peak. Evening events at Ally Pally start when the westbound rush is at its worst, so we build a substantial buffer into event-night bookings and will usually recommend leaving earlier than the raw drive time suggests.Alexandra Palace opened in 1873 as the People's Palace, burned down sixteen days later, was rebuilt, and has been reinventing itself ever since — as a television studio for the BBC's first broadcasts, an internment camp, a roller rink, and now one of London's most characterful large venues. The Great Hall holds around 10,000 standing for concerts, the West Hall takes about 2,700, and the Palm Court, theatre, ice rink and park host everything from graduations to fireworks. It is a huge site: seven acres of building inside 196 acres of parkland, with views back over the whole of London.
That parkland setting is exactly what makes the arrival tricky. The Palace sits at the top of a steep hill, and the roads that serve it — Alexandra Palace Way, Bedford Road, Muswell Hill Road — are narrow, residential and heavily managed on event nights. There is on-site parking in the park, which fills early and empties agonisingly slowly after a big show, and the surrounding streets in Muswell Hill and Wood Green are largely permit-only. Getting a car up to the door is easy if you know the approach and slow if you do not.
The event mix at Ally Pally is unusually broad, and each type behaves differently. The PDC World Darts Championship is the headline: afternoon and evening sessions across three weeks, a famously boisterous crowd, and taxi demand at the end of the evening session that no rank in north London can absorb. Concerts fill the Great Hall on single nights with a hard stage time. Exhibitions and trade shows run daytime hours with a steady trickle rather than a surge. The ice rink and the theatre run year-round on their own timetables. We book around the specific thing you are attending rather than a generic evening slot.
Alexandra Palace station, on the Great Northern line from Moorgate and Finsbury Park, sits at the bottom of the southern slope about fifteen minutes' walk from the doors — uphill, through the park, and unlit in places. Wood Green on the Piccadilly line is a similar walk from the eastern side and is the better option if you are coming from central London. The W3 bus links both stations to the Palace and a shuttle runs for some larger events, though both queue heavily afterwards. Knowing this is exactly why so many visitors book a car for the inbound leg at least.
The Palace has several entrances and the one you want depends on your event. The Palm Court entrance on the south front is the main way in for the Great Hall and most concerts, and it is the point we aim for. The West Hall has its own entrance towards the western end of the building, and the theatre and ice rink are reached from the east. Your ticket will say which; tell us when you book and we drop at the right end of a very long building rather than making you walk its full length.
Accessible parking and step-free routes are available on site and should be arranged with Alexandra Palace in advance through your ticket. For the transfer side, tell us what you need and we will allocate a suitable vehicle and aim for the closest permitted point rather than sending whatever car is nearest. The park itself is worth arriving early for in daylight — the view south across London from the terrace is one of the best in the city, and on a clear evening before a show it is a genuinely good reason to build in half an hour.
Alexandra Palace runs a genuinely year-round programme, and the right pick-up time from Heathrow depends heavily on which part of it you are coming for.
We track the flight from departure, so the pick-up shifts automatically if you are early, late or diverted. Your driver parks, walks into the terminal and waits in the arrivals hall with a name board. Your 60 minutes of free waiting runs from the actual landing time, which on a winter evening with a slow bag belt is the difference between a relaxed walk out and a meter you are watching.
This is the decision that makes or breaks the journey. From Terminals 2 and 3 we can be on the M4 in minutes and then either stay east into the A40 or swing north onto the A406. From Terminal 5 the western perimeter road leads naturally to the M4 and the North Circular. From Terminal 4 we come up the south side first. The driver checks live conditions before committing, because the two routes diverge early and there is no crossing back once you have chosen.
On the North Circular we run past Ealing, Brent Cross and Finchley and drop down through Bounds Green — steady, predictable, and rarely stopped dead. Through town we take the Westway, come across the top of Camden and up the Holloway Road — noticeably shorter but at the mercy of the centre. On a Sunday morning the through route wins by twenty minutes; on a Friday at six the North Circular wins by more.
The approach up to the Palace runs through residential Muswell Hill and Wood Green, and on event nights parts of it are stewarded with one-way flow and temporary restrictions. The main drop-off is on Alexandra Palace Way close to the Palm Court entrance, which puts you at the doors with no climb at all. When the immediate frontage is held for buses and accessible traffic, we drop a short walk down the approach road instead — still on the flat, still nothing like the walk up from the station.
This is the part people remember. Ten thousand people leaving the Great Hall at 22:30 into a park at the top of a hill, with a fifteen-minute downhill walk to a suburban station, is an experience best avoided. Pre-book the return and we fix a meeting point on the approach road or a named street below the park, timed to your event's finish. You walk out, you get in, you go. No app, no surge, no queue in the cold.
If you are coming for a darts evening session, eat before you travel or build in time at the venue. The run from Heathrow lands squarely in the rush hour and there is nothing useful to stop for on the last three miles.Alexandra Palace is the venue where a pre-booked car changes the evening most, because the alternative is genuinely difficult.
Alexandra Palace is in north London, which changes the airport maths completely. Luton is only about 27 miles away straight down the M1 and is frequently the quickest of the lot; Stansted at roughly 32 miles down the M11 is close behind. London City is about 13 miles but crosses the whole east of the city. Gatwick is the hard one at around 45 miles with the entire capital in between — budget 90 minutes to two hours on an event night. We quote every one of them on the same fixed basis.
Arriving by cruise or from another city? We run fixed-price transfers from Southampton, Dover, Portsmouth and Harwich into London, and from the main rail termini — King's Cross and Euston are both an easy run up to N22. Groups arriving on different flights into different airports can be collected separately and delivered to the same hotel or the same door; send us the flight numbers and we build the timings around them.
From £70 for a saloon carrying up to four passengers from Terminal 5, £73 from Terminals 2 and 3 and £75 from Terminal 4. Executive cars start at £90, MPVs at £95 and 8-seater minibuses at £112. The price is fixed before you book and includes meet & greet, flight tracking, 60 minutes of free waiting, tolls and the ULEZ charge, with no event-night surcharge.
Typically 60 to 80 minutes off-peak for roughly 24 to 26 miles. On a weekday evening, or before a darts session or a Great Hall concert, allow 90 minutes to two hours. It is a full cross-London run and the time of day matters more than the distance.
Whichever is genuinely faster that day. The A406 North Circular is longer in miles but avoids the centre and rarely stops dead; the A40 Westway through Camden and Holloway is shorter and quicker when the middle of town is clear. Your driver checks live conditions before committing, because the two routes split early on.
There is parking in the park, but it fills early for big events and clears very slowly afterwards, and the residential streets around Muswell Hill and Wood Green are largely permit-controlled. A drop-off avoids the whole problem: the car brings you to the entrance and leaves.
Normally on Alexandra Palace Way close to the Palm Court entrance, which puts you at the doors on the flat. When the immediate frontage is held for shuttle buses or accessible traffic on a busy night, we drop a short distance down the approach road instead — still level, and nothing like the climb from the station.
Yes, throughout the tournament from mid-December into January, for both the afternoon and evening sessions. The evening session is the busiest transfer window of the Ally Pally year, so book early and let us set the pick-up time — the run from Heathrow coincides with the worst of the rush hour.
Yes, and at this venue we would push you to. Ten thousand people leave at once at the top of a hill with two stations at the bottom of a long walk. We agree a meeting point on the approach road or a named street below the park, timed to the curfew, so you are moving while the crowd is still walking down.
The pick-up moves automatically. We track the flight from departure, so a delay, an early arrival or a diversion is already reflected before you land, and your 60 minutes of free waiting starts from the actual touchdown time. The fare stays the same.
About fifteen minutes on foot, and it is a real hill — not a gentle slope. Wood Green on the Piccadilly line is a similar distance from the other side. That walk is the single most common complaint about the venue and the main reason people book a car for a winter evening event.
Yes. MPVs carry up to six passengers with luggage and 8-seater minibuses up to seven. For larger parties we run multiple vehicles arriving together rather than trickling in. Child seats are free on request, which matters for the ice rink and the family shows.
Yes. Luton at around 27 miles down the M1 is often the quickest airport for N22, with Stansted at roughly 32 miles close behind. London City is about 13 miles across the east of the city and Gatwick around 45 miles from the south. We also run fixed-price transfers from Southampton, Dover, Portsmouth and Harwich cruise terminals.
From £70, fixed, with event-day routing and a live choice between the North Circular and the centre. Book the return at the same time and skip the walk down the hill entirely.