OT: Maidenhead car park

"Terry Pinnell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I want to walk a section of the Thames Path Wednesday or Friday. I
plan on leaving my car in Maidenhead, walking downstream, and getting
back by bus or train. Anyone know the town well enough to recommend a
car park please? Ideally, secure but inexpensive, open until late
evening so that I can keep my destination options open.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

dunno about the cost but there is a car park at the station so if you are
coming back by train that would be simple but a bit of a trek to the river.
there is a free car park at boulters lock (maybe 200 yds N?), and a few
hundred yards south of that another which i think is £2 a day but has a
cafe attached so the security might be better though I have parked my car in
the free one without any qualms. both are a fair walk from the station
though (I'd guess 20+ mins) but right next to the river....so maybe those
two are the ones to go for, you can always get a taxi from the station up to
boulters lock if you come back by train.

--
Tumbleweed

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

I want to walk a section of the Thames Path Wednesday or Friday. I
plan on leaving my car in Maidenhead, walking downstream, and getting
back by bus or train. Anyone know the town well enough to recommend a
car park please? Ideally, secure but inexpensive, open until late
evening so that I can keep my destination options open.

Station car park? Shop?

--
To reply see 'from' in headers; lose the domain, and insert dots and @
where common sense dictates.

Quoted message said:

I want to walk a section of the Thames Path Wednesday or Friday. I
plan on leaving my car in Maidenhead, walking downstream, and getting
back by bus or train. Anyone know the town well enough to recommend a
car park please? Ideally, secure but inexpensive, open until late
evening so that I can keep my destination options open.

So, you're about to tell us all where your car will be parked, and when, and
how long you're going to be away from it?

😉

Anyway, why not check out
http://www.windsor.gov.uk/shopping/maidenhead_shopper_guide.pdf for a map of
Maidenhead - many car parks shown on there. I wonder if there are free
spaces outside the Police headquarters or Magistrates Court - they're
probably a good bet for security!

D.

Fran said:

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

I want to walk a section of the Thames Path Wednesday or Friday. I
plan on leaving my car in Maidenhead, walking downstream, and getting
back by bus or train. Anyone know the town well enough to recommend a
car park please? Ideally, secure but inexpensive, open until late
evening so that I can keep my destination options open.

Station car park? Shop?

I used to use the Boulters car park occasionally, but not for a couple
of years so this may be out of date.

Last time I used it, the car park used to be locked later in the
evening, so a car could be trapped overnight.

Further down the road towards Maidenhead bridge, there used to free
time-unlimited on-street parking.

Adrian

Terry Pinnell said:

I want to walk a section of the Thames Path Wednesday or Friday. I
plan on leaving my car in Maidenhead, walking downstream, and getting
back by bus or train. Anyone know the town well enough to recommend a
car park please? Ideally, secure but inexpensive, open until late
evening so that I can keep my destination options open.

Where are you starting from? Why not make it a public transport
expedition. From where I live it is simpler to get the train to
Maidenhead and leave the car at home. Indeed I did the whole of the
Thames Path as far as Oxford as series of day and weekend walks that
way.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

Phil Cook said:

Terry Pinnell said:

I want to walk a section of the Thames Path Wednesday or Friday. I
plan on leaving my car in Maidenhead, walking downstream, and getting
back by bus or train. Anyone know the town well enough to recommend a
car park please? Ideally, secure but inexpensive, open until late
evening so that I can keep my destination options open.

Where are you starting from? Why not make it a public transport
expedition. From where I live it is simpler to get the train to
Maidenhead and leave the car at home. Indeed I did the whole of the
Thames Path as far as Oxford as series of day and weekend walks that
way.

Staines-Maidenhead. See my post early today.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

Tumbleweed said:

"Terry Pinnell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I want to walk a section of the Thames Path Wednesday or Friday. I
plan on leaving my car in Maidenhead, walking downstream, and getting
back by bus or train. Anyone know the town well enough to recommend a
car park please? Ideally, secure but inexpensive, open until late
evening so that I can keep my destination options open.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

dunno about the cost but there is a car park at the station so if you are
coming back by train that would be simple but a bit of a trek to the river.
there is a free car park at boulters lock (maybe 200 yds N?), and a few
hundred yards south of that another which i think is £2 a day but has a
cafe attached so the security might be better though I have parked my car in
the free one without any qualms. both are a fair walk from the station
though (I'd guess 20+ mins) but right next to the river....so maybe those
two are the ones to go for, you can always get a taxi from the station up to
boulters lock if you come back by train.

Thanks, appreciate the response. But I decided at last minute that I
hadn't been thinking straight, and duly reversed the sequence. It was
very rushed, so early yesterday morning I searched for *Staines* car
parks, and found a couple.

The journey to Staines was easy enough, mainly M25, and I parked close
to the station. But the trip to Maidenhead was a PITA! Train to
Windsor & Eton, walk to Windsor Central, train to Slough, change,
train to Maidenhead, walk to river. So it was 12:32 before I started
the Thames Walk where I'd left off ;-(

I'd Marked the Staines car park with my GPS 12 when I left, so
re-finding it was easy. But I wasn't happy about the charge of £10!
(I'm going to pursue that this morning; I'm sure I read it was £5 for
the day.) I paid across the road on the way back, and then to my great
annoyance I found the barrier had been left open!

Glad I switched the sequence though; wouldn't have fancied the evening
trek back to my car after 16 or so miles of brisk walking. Using
evening train schedules, probably have got there around midnight...

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

Terry Pinnell said:

Phil Cook said:

Terry Pinnell said:

I want to walk a section of the Thames Path Wednesday or Friday. I
plan on leaving my car in Maidenhead, walking downstream, and getting
back by bus or train. Anyone know the town well enough to recommend a
car park please? Ideally, secure but inexpensive, open until late
evening so that I can keep my destination options open.

Where are you starting from? Why not make it a public transport
expedition. From where I live it is simpler to get the train to
Maidenhead and leave the car at home. Indeed I did the whole of the
Thames Path as far as Oxford as series of day and weekend walks that
way.

Staines-Maidenhead. See my post early today.

Which was a reply to Tumbleweed which I now see only went to
uk.rec.gps, sorry! I've just reposted in this group.

Couple of other points, in gripe mode:

When waiting at Slough for the Maidenhead train I estimated that the
more pleasant walk from Burnham to the river was also 1 mile, so
decided I'd do that instead. I asked one of the platform staff: "This
does stop at Burnham too?" and got a confident "Yes, it does." It
didn't! Ploughed straight through at about 90 mph...

I rarely travel by train, and yesterday was a reminder why the contest
with the car is so one-sided. Apart from the slowness (about one and a
half hours from Staines to Maidenhead), not one single toilet was in
operation on the first leg. And when a few equally desperate customers
(including me) dashed to the loo at Windsor & Eaton, we were greeted
with a notice "Sorry, toilets closed due to a flood."

Nice walk though, on a beautifully sunny and warm day. Not the best
stretch of the three I've now just completed this summer since
Saturday (Reading - Henley - Maidenhead - Staines), but definitely by
far the best weather.

Now that I'm a bit closer to home, I'll probably do the rest on a
daily basis. Just rather a drag getting there and back.

I'll post a few photos sometime.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK