Sometimes even those Loughtoners who live and work in Essex, go shopping to Waltham Cross, Harlow or Romford and go on holidays abroad or up North, have to go to London. It’s very good that we have the London Underground, which have been serving us and our parents and grandparents since 1856 but it’s not always the viable transport solution. That is because sometimes it simply doesn’t work. Delays, cancellations, signal failures, people under trains, leaves on the track, ice on the track, scheduled maintenance and closures sadly happen very often as England is not Japan and trains in this country don’t work and probably will never work as everyone expects them to.

Other situations that may “prohibit” the use of the tube are heavy luggage, a pregnant wife, small kids, many points on the route and other things each of us may be dealing with. At the end of the day it could simply be a desire to take a car for a ride and see whether one can still navigate the London roads. And this is of course where the car comes into play.

Obviously when driving to Central London during the week and before 6pm, be prepared to get stuck in the traffic and spend a fortune just to pay for parking and to pay the congestion charge. For all-day parking we’re looking at around 20 pounds while the congestion charge will set a driver back by 10 pounds (the price information is valid for 2011).

On weekends and in the evening it’s much more tolerable. Most Controlling Parking Zones (CPZ) in Central London have the parking restrictions lifted after about 6 o’clock in the evening or 6:30pm. Some have restrictions on Saturdays but in my experience it’s always easy to find CPZ with no Saturday parking restrictions, which is close to one that does have those restrictions. Westminster, Camden, Islington, Southwark and other Central London councils have clear maps of their CPZs and they can be easily found on councils’ websites.

Below are four most common car routes from Loughton to Central London that I often use and recommend to everyone.

Car Routes from Loughton to Central London

The first route - violet via M11, A406 and A503 (Seven Sisters Road leading to Camden Road) - is best used to travel to Camden and beyond i.e. to North London. It’s a fairly quick ride to Tottenham but then may be quite slow because of the use of the main straight road A503 that goes from Finsbury Park to Camden Town via Holloway. Finsbury Park area and Holloway Road area always have traffic jams. Driving on the road A503 Camden Road is quite slow because of the multiple number of traffic lights, which are erected where smaller roads cross the main one as well as on pedestrian crossings.

The second route - green via M11, A406 and A104 - is the route through Whipps Cross, Leytonstone, Hackney and Angel. It also uses a long Lee Bridge Road (A104) and could be very slow at times. There is a great number of speed cameras, traffic lights and bus lanes on the route but it brings a traveller straight to Angel, Barbican or Kings Cross without the usage of the road that circles London congestion charge zone.

The third route - red via M11, A406, A12, A106 and A1208 - is another route through Hackney. It’s quick up to the area of Cambridge Heath Road (A107) but then becomes very slow because it uses inner city roads and the London congestion charge border road from Old Street to Kings Cross through Angel.

The fourth route - blue via M11, A406, A13 and A1203 (Limehouse Link Tunnel leading to The Highway) - is the best route to London City. It’s the longest out of four mentioned routes but could be the quickest if the driving is not done during the rush hour. The route is also the most straightforward and requires only one roundabout turn when switching from A406 to A13. The route brings the vehicle straight to Tower Bridge. This is also a route to use when travelling to Canary Wharf.

It’s always possible to travel to London via A121 and A104 avoiding M11, especially if you live on the South of Loughton. And it will be quicker for some outside of rush hours and maybe even during a morning rush hour because M11 always have a traffic jam where it goes to A406, sometimes even stretching to Junction 5 (Loughton).