MFPS XIV: Travel Information

Arriving in London

Heathrow:
Heathrow is served by the Piccadilly line on the London Underground. Travel to Central London takes 50 minutes to 1 hour, and the cost of a single journey is £3.30. However, for £4.30 you can buy a one-day travelcard, which allows you unrestricted travel on the Underground, almost all London Transport buses and various other things for the day. The Piccadilly line goes direct to Russell Square (for the hotel), but you will need to change if you are coming to QMW (at Gloucester Road or South Kensington for the District Line, or at Holborn for the Central Line). There are also buses, taxis and a new train (or rather bus and train service). The new train service is more expensive and unlikely to be much faster until they finish the last section of the line into Heathrow.
Gatwick:
Take the Gatwick Express to Victoria station (30 minutes, c £10). From there you can take the Victoria line one stop north, before changing to the Piccadilly line for the hotel (Russell Square). Or you can take the District Line for QMW. There are also local trains, which are not much slower into Victoria, and buses, which are.
Stansted:
Stansted is London's third airport. From there take the Stansted Express to Liverpool Street. This again will cost you about 10 pounds, and will take around forty minutes. At Liverpool Street you can take the Central Line two stops to Mile End for QMW, or follow a couple of routes to Russell Square for the hotel.

Travel in London

We will be supplying a small booklet about travel in London in your registration pack, and there is a good deal on-line on or accessible from the London Transport web site. This includes down-loadable maps, fare information and links to sites for other forms of transport. Meanwhile, here is a summary to get you going. The best (or rather least worst) way to get round London is the Underground.

Stations almost always have little pocket maps of the network for you to take which will help you plan your route.

The other thing you need to know is which ticket to buy. The system works in a number of zones, which are roughly circular centred on central London. The centre is zone 1. QMW is in zone 2. Heathrow is in zone 6. The price of your ticket depends on the number of zones you want to travel through. You will generally need a ticket covering zones 1 and 2, which costs £1.60.

DO NOT BUY A CARNET: these cover only zone 1.

If travelling after 9:30 in the morning (or at weekends), you may wish to buy a one-day Travelcard. These cost £3.50 for zones 1 and 2 (remember to specify this to the ticket clerk), or £4.30 if you want it to cover Heathrow. If you're arriving on Saturday, you can buy a Weekend Travelcard for £5.20, or £6.40 to cover Heathrow. These cover as many trips as you like on all London Underground trains in the zones for which you've bought them, as well as most London Transport buses and suburban trains in the same area.

If you are going to be staying a little longer than the conference, or think you might want to travel a lot during it, you might want to consider a weekly season ticket. These cost £16.60 for zones 1 and 2, and can be extended at a cost of £0.80 a trip to get you to or from Heathrow. They do however have to be accompanied by a London transport ID card for which you will need a passport photo. Finally, there is the London Transport card. This is like a Travelcard except that you can buy it before 9:30 in the morning, and doesn't cover the suburban rail (useless to you anyway). This costs £4.50 a day (break even being a return to QMW and one other trip).

Directions to the Hotel

The hotel for MFPS is
The President Hotel
Guildford St, Russell Square
London WC1N 1DB
+44 0171 837 8844
It is at Russell Square tube, on the Piccadilly line. To get to the hotel, exit Russell Square tube onto Bernard St. Turn left at first opportunity onto Herbrand and go straight to Guildford St. The President Hotel is straight on. This is a 3 minute walk. Here is a map of the area.

Directions to Queen Mary

QMW is on the north side of the Mile End Road between the underground stations at Stepney Green (District and Hammersmith and City lines) and Mile End (District, Hammersmith and City and Central lines). Stepney Green is also on the north side of the road, while Mile End is on the south. Whichever station you come out of, turn left and walk down the road until you find a small urban university.

For further instructions and maps see the College's "How to find us", or the Computer Science Department's How to Get Here page. The former includes a link to a local street map.

Directions to MFPS from the hotel

To get to MFPS from the hotel, take the Piccadilly line south from Russell Square to Holborn (or walk south to Holborn on Southampton Row; 10-15 minutes). Take the Central Line from Holborn to Mile End.

Exit Mile End tube, turn left heading east, cross Mile End Road, and continue heading East. You pass Regent's canal and then come to QMW buildings. You pass Arts, and Laws, and eventually come to a building on your right, set back from the road, which looks out of place in that it's older than the others. It has a similar-looking clocktower in front. This is the Queen's building. Right beside Queen's, to the left of the small Parking/drop-off area is the People's palace. MFPS is held in there.

Travel time can vary from 25 to as much as 50 minutes. You should allow 40.