Free motorcycle parking in London
It still exists, but it has moved outwards. We hold 10,684 parking places across the UK recorded as free, 1,111 of them on street bays and 9,573 car parks. In central London the number that will actually help you is much smaller than that, and shrinking.
The centre has largely gone paid
If you are riding into zone 1, plan to pay. Westminster charges £1 a day across the borough. Camden began charging on 10 February 2026. Islington told us every one of its 199 solo motorcycle bays is chargeable. Hackney charges through RingGo and told us its charges were frozen rather than withdrawn.
That is four inner boroughs with no free council motorcycle bays to speak of, and the direction of travel has been one way.
Car parks are often the better answer
Riders tend to look for a free kerbside bay and give up when there is not one. Car parks are the overlooked option: we hold 9,573 car parks recorded as free that also take motorcycles, which is far more than the 1,111 free on street bays. They are also usually safer, because a car park is more likely to have lighting, cameras or an anchor point than a painted rectangle on a side street.
Where to look around the edge of London
| Borough | Free car parks we hold | Bays mapped |
|---|---|---|
| Southwark | 10 | 12 |
| Hackney | 6 | 15 |
| Lambeth | 5 | 238 |
| Tower Hamlets | 4 | 104 |
A warning about the word free
"Free" on a listing site often means free for electric vehicles, free outside controlled hours, or free for permit holders. All three get flattened into one word and all three will still get you a ticket. We count a bay as free only when its own price information says so, and we tell you on each borough page where that information came from. The plate beside the bay is the only thing that counts legally.
Find a free bay near you
Open the free web appMore: motorcycle parking in London, what each borough charges, is it free?, what SOLO M/C ONLY means.
Counts from our own dataset, checked October 2026. Free means recorded as free in our data, not a guarantee. Read the sign.