Parking advice in or more likely around Stamford Bridge?

[DJ Barry Hammond]

I'm taking my girlfriends son to see Chelsea play Althletico Madrid in the Champions League next week and need some ideas for parking.

Now before you lambast me for encourging his sudden love afair with the dirty blues, I have taken him to see one of our local sides, Bristol Rovers, and Leicester City (playing Bristol Rovers) in an attempt to push him in the right direction - it seems all he has taken from this is to support a team wearing blue. Ah well, friend power at this age is very powerful.

So my issue is last time I went to Stamford Bridge, I got to Chelsea in plently of time, but took around 2 hours to find a parking spot, and then when parked didn't have a clue where the ground was and Chelsea wasn't listed on a map so ended up walking towards Fulham - which worked to some extent, and turned up at the game 20 minutes or so late.

I don't want to that this time so would appreciate any guidance on where to park - I'll be coming from the M4 I think, so anywhere on the way thats then easy to tube in would be grand.

Thanking you in advance

Alex

[Alexikokopops]

You're coming along the M4 and are heading to Stamford Bridge so if you were going for the tube option you'd want somewhere on the Picadilly or District line so you can head to Earl's Court and change there for Fulham Broadway. Hounslow and Ealing are just off the M4 and you can hop on the District or Picadilly line from them, although I have no idea what parking is like (except that it'll be better than around Stamford Bridge!). It's likely to only be free to park after half 6 (that's the case around the Richmond/Twickenham area anyway).

If you look at this map you can see where the Picadilly line (navy blue) and District line (green, ends at Ealing) run, with Stamford Bridge marked. Here's a tube map. Plan away!

[DJ Barry Hammond]

You're coming along the M4 and are heading to Stamford Bridge so if you were going for the tube option you'd want somewhere on the Picadilly or District line so you can head to Earl's Court and change there for Fulham Broadway. Hounslow and Ealing are just off the M4 and you can hop on the District or Picadilly line from them, although I have no idea what parking is like (except that it'll be better than around Stamford Bridge!). It's likely to only be free to park after half 6 (that's the case around the Richmond/Twickenham area anyway).

If you look at this map you can see where the Picadilly line (navy blue) and District line (green, ends at Ealing) run, with Stamford Bridge marked. Here's a tube map. Plan away!

Yes I looked on Google maps, but couldn't get them to show parking signs on it which would be handy to say the least.

[PAULCFC]

For London games,i always park at Burnt Oak (plenty of street parking) then get the tube in.

[Bert]

Why don't you park at a Tube station and get on from there?

[Sparky]

Most London away days we park at Stanmore and move around on the tube

[Karljohn]

I'm taking my girlfriends son to see Chelsea play Althletico Madrid in the Champions League next week and need some ideas for parking.

Now before you lambast me for encourging his sudden love afair with the dirty blues, I have taken him to see one of our local sides, Bristol Rovers, and Leicester City (playing Bristol Rovers) in an attempt to push him in the right direction - it seems all he has taken from this is to support a team wearing blue. Ah well, friend power at this age is very powerful.

So my issue is last time I went to Stamford Bridge, I got to Chelsea in plently of time, but took around 2 hours to find a parking spot, and then when parked didn't have a clue where the ground was and Chelsea wasn't listed on a map so ended up walking towards Fulham - which worked to some extent, and turned up at the game 20 minutes or so late.

I don't want to that this time so would appreciate any guidance on where to park - I'll be coming from the M4 I think, so anywhere on the way thats then easy to tube in would be grand.

Thanking you in advance

Alex

I know the Battersea area quite well having lived down there mid 90s, it is next door to Chelsea....its a big ask but if you can get to Queenstown Road or Battersea Bridge Road both of them link up to Kings Road if you hang a left as soon as your over the bridge (chelsea bridge or battersea bridge)....you can sometimes get some free parking with a ten minute walk to the ground.

Fulham Broadway, West Brompton or Putney (a little further out) for tubes...on street parking can be £1 for 8-10 mins so bear it in mind!

[CosbehFox]

Most London away days we park at Stanmore and move around on the tube

This if you can. Bro has done it for a L'pool v Chelsea game (in fact the round after Chelski knocked us out).

[Alexikokopops]

This if you can. Bro has done it for a L'pool v Chelsea game (in fact the round after Chelski knocked us out).

Problem is he's coming from the west rather than the north, so it would involve driving around and then in, plus then it's an hour and at least three tubes to get to Fulham Broadway

[CosbehFox]

Problem is he's coming from the west rather than the north, so it would involve driving around and then in, plus then it's an hour and at least three tubes to get to Fulham Broadway

Like so many on this forum, I didn't the original post.

[Sparky]

Problem is he's coming from the west rather than the north, so it would involve driving around and then in, plus then it's an hour and at least three tubes to get to Fulham Broadway

Yeh fair shout, didnt see he was coming from Bristol

[DJ Barry Hammond]

Thanks for all your suggestions - the match came and went - and here's my story on how it turned out...

I got stuck in momentus traffic coming into london, all heading in the direction that i want to park in Hammersmith - I picked Hammersmith as it seemed pretty close of the M4/A4 and a fairly easy tube, with at least a couple of car parks, but come 7:00 I'm quickly going no-where.

But then the big thing happens - steam starts coming out from under the bonnet, while stuck in traffic - kick off is getting ever closer. I keep going for a bit, thinking if I can park that the engine can at least cool off while we go to the game and I can worry about getting home later, but it just gets worse, and people start tooting at me to tell me I have big white clouds of smoke going over my windscreen - well yes I can see that thanks.

I suddenly find a P sign, and dash down a one way road in it's direction only for any further sign to disapper. Eventually I decide to turn right, and hit another monumental queue of traffic and decide that i have to pull over.

I pull up the bonnet, the caps popped off and is sat on the engine so I grab the coolent and big bottle of water I had in the boot and chuck it in the steaming gapping hole where the cap once was - shit, that did nothing but make more smoke, and I can see drips coming from the underneath of my car, but I'm not sure whether this is from my poor aiming with the fluid or down to a leak.

The 9 year olds in tears because he wants a wee and was scared partly because there was smoke pissing from the engine and partly because when he asks me what is going to happen I go 'I don't know, we may have to stay the night here'. Apparently my girlfriend suggests that being brutely honest with kids is not the way to go? (wimp!)

A riot van roles past, so i ask if there is a car park near - the guy doesn't know, they're from Sheffield and have come to pick up a prisioner - great. After phone calls to my parents and girlfriend and giving it 15 to 20 minutes, the smoke has subsided a little and I figure I need to move somewhere, so start up the engine, partly ducking for cover, part of me expecting a hollywood style explosion.

I manage to get back in the queue of traffic, and soley role to A CAR PARK which is down this road, and eventually the bird in front moves forward enough to let me in - due to an oncoming Ambelence flashing it's lights, not becasue there's a steaming car indicating right. I look around Hammersmith for details of where I'm parked so I can relay the message to the parents back in Bristol - they've decided to come up, if for no other reason to ensure the 9 yr old can get home.

So ok, it maybe 8:00 and the games kicked off (as i saw through an office window) but I need to get the little one to the game, we need to see some football after all of this, so off we dash for the tube. Arriving at earls court, I'm dashing to change station, and told platform 4 is the one you want - with a train stat their waiting.

I jump on carrying the child with me, only for the doors to shut and find this one's not going to wimbledon but on the other bit to where ever - bugger - so end up sitting on this tube for 20 minutes as it roles up to the end of the line and decideds to go back again. By now I'm wondering what else can go wrong, it's been such a crazt affair.

Finally, we broad the correct tube, and get to Fulham Broadway. His little eyes light up as he see's the Chelsea Lion on the sign outside the ground, and starts running and shouting Chelsea. Of course we are in the Matthew Harding end, the furthest stand away from where we enter, and pass through the turnstyles to a massive raw - thats Chelsea's second.

Althetico are real disapoint and already look beaten as we sit down, and although they had there chances, Chelsea coast to another two goals. The 9 year old is truely loving it though, all is forgotten, and he is even preturbed by almost falling of the seat he was standing on so he could get a view when the rest stood up.

The seats are close enough to almost touch the players, something he hasn't witnessed before, and the floodlights bring a magic to the air, along with the smell of pies and bovril (crap, missed my half time bovril, I was looking forward to that.) The Chelsea fans aren't in much voice, but do muster a few songs that contain colourful language that no doubt the 9yr old will repeat at a unfortunate moment in front of the GF.

The game finishes, and out of some guilt for the events previously we spend an absolute fortune in the club shop - and don't get his memebers discount or points or whatever, as his card hadn't come through yet thanks to the industrial action.

We head for the tube, and are early enough to have the pleasure of being crushed in the tube - that is clearly a hillsborough waiting to happen, people are just idiots.

Eventually we get back to the car, and I get the message that my parents are close - so give them some fairly detailed directions on the phone, considering it's a place I've been once. I go back to the car pack, partly to check the cars still there and intact - yes it is, no-one nicked the smokey bandit and partly so I know where it is! (I have parked and then forgotten before)

So I take the 9yr old back outside to the central station to look out for the parents. After a ten minute phone call, in which it is apparent they keep taking the wrong turning of what is basically massive but blind roundabout, I see them and direct them to where I'm parked. During the phone call it becomes clear one of the reasons why there was so much traffic in the Hammersmith area was that the Editors were playing the apollo and loads of people were kicking out from there.

The parents have come with a plan - or a big 5 litre bottle of water and have much more sucess in pouring it into the cooled water bottle thing in the engine (I'm so technical) than I did when it was making a cup of tea. Once again, I turn the key nervously, expecting the worst, but it seems to work - hurrah!

I start on my intrepid 100+ mile journey at 12:45, with my parents following behind with the 9yr old in their car, making himself comfortable for a sleep on the way home - lucky bugger! My dash is lit up with a christmas tree, but the road is clear so I start to move towards the A4/M4, in the knowledge that theres a BP petrol station on the way.

My eye's are fixed on the teperature gauge, as it re-assures me by mainting the dial at a low level - and then worry me by flicking up to overheat. I pull in at the BP station, and give it 10 minutes - its convient for my dad as he wants a wee - but I want a fag but have this funny thing about not smoking in front of my parents (they disaprove) so settle for a giant yorkie and the biggest can of red bull I've ever seen.

Following another 20 minutes and top up of fluid, we set off again, and soon get onto the M4. The parents follow behind in their new to them Toyota Prius Hybrid thing (it's only £15 tax, what the fook is that about!) and I quickly find the fact that I want a fag and the headlights are bloody bright and blinding me very annoying, so I decide i ought to get a couple of lorries inbetween us - doh, wrong idea, warning lights flash again. I ease the speed down, as my parens guilde pass in the quite and effortless motor vechile, looking across partly with concern and partly with condement at the other smoking thing coming from my window.

Now I could give you a lot more detail about each service station on the M4 west bound between London and Bristol, as we did visit them all, but I feel this peice is long enough as it is, especially as no-body has read the last four paragraphs as it's basically moaning waffle. But I would like to give a special mention to the one before Leigh Delamare services, as they had the most annoying happy counter clerk in BP for 2:00 in the morning. It is nice to be jovial most of the time, but not if you come in at 2:00 in the morning and look like death!

I finally get home at about 4:00 in the morning, and carry the 9 year old to bed. The GF has been up all night as well, and has flu, not swine flu, but felt in necessary to get the swine flu medicine just in case and that has made her worse - so she's not exactly a happy bunny. I ignore this and try to get some sleep - afterall I have work tomorrow. But I'm now buzzing from the redbull, dispite the rest of my body deciding it's a sleep, which is such a weird feeling.

I'm woken at about 8:30 the following moring, just before my alarm - the 9yr old has let the cats in, and they like to lick my face in the morning as a sign they want to be fed. I have no strenght at all to bat them away this time so they continue to bug me and I'm awake, then asleep, then awake and so on. I decide works not a good idea, and phone in to tell them (proberly the best choice) but then learn that the 9yr old has been kept home from school as well, with the GF worried he'd be tired - and she also looks like death.

This was a big mistake, as the 9yr old was hyped up with al things Chelsea and spent the rest of the day singing the couple of chelsea songs he knows, and wanting to play on the x-box, which is next to the bed - and even worse he wants me to play with him. Can kids not sense by faces you look pissed off? I give in though, as his crap playing of FIFA bugs me (playing the opening bit for 30 minutes straight, really!)

Eventually, after question time, i got some much needed sleep, but not enough and decided to spend the rest of today being craggy - so fook you all!

So what fun that trip was - but something niether of us will forget!

My advice for anyone who cares - avoid Stamford Bridge ;-)

[AjcW]

erm firstly. Wow... your a seriously cool dad .

Secondly stamford and craven cottage were both bitches to get too.

Like most city fans who drove to the fulham game we assumed that the ground would be in central fulham, near the club shop etc.

But no you have to walk through a huge park, then houses, and then finally out of nowere, appears craven cottage!

Mental.

As for chelsea, got there in time, just. But we were also stuck in traffic.

[Guest]

You want to keep an eye on your oil, as you may well have blown a head gasket. I hope this doesn't sound patronising, but you did come across as someone who might not know what to look for, but when you look at the dipstick, check for emulsified oil; instead of being normal oil colour, there will be pale, milky looking blobs. If you see any, I'm afraid it's straight to the garage.

This happened twice to my old MG

[Karljohn]

At least if you had a fire the kid could have pee'd on it eh?

Well done for just getting there.

Had a similar 'mare travelling from a place I had in Streatham, SW London to Ipswich for League Cup quarter final the year we won it against boro - took 4 and a half hours to get to ipswich (still in leytonstone at 6pm) and finally got to portman road and they had sold mine and another 100 or so seats twice over so stood all game.

Great goal from Mark Robins though!