LookingForCarPark is a UK-based online platform for pre-booking secure parking and car wash services. We operate pre-bookable car parks across London (Waterloo, Victoria, Brixton, Ebury Street, Oxford Circus, Acton) and Boston in Lincolnshire. On-site access varies — ANPR at Waterloo, gated barrier at Brixton, keypad at Belgravia, PIN at Oxford Circus, marked bays at Victoria, Acton and Boston — but the booking is the permit at every location, so there are no tickets, no meters, and no kiosk queues. Several locations also offer professional car wash services alongside parking. We are a UK registered company (Companies House 12021283) and we own and operate every site on our network — we are not an aggregator over third-party inventory.
All frequently asked questions
General Questions
LookingForCarPark is a UK-based online platform for pre-booking secure parking and car wash services. We operate pre-bookable car parks across London (Waterloo, Victoria, Brixton, Ebury Street, Oxford Circus, Acton) and Boston in Lincolnshire. On-site access varies — ANPR at Waterloo, gated barrier at Brixton, keypad at Belgravia, PIN at Oxford Circus, marked bays at Victoria, Acton and Boston — but the booking is the permit at every location, so there are no tickets, no meters, and no kiosk queues. Several locations also offer professional car wash services alongside parking. We are a UK registered company (Companies House 12021283) and we own and operate every site on our network — we are not an aggregator over third-party inventory.
Open the Sign Up page and choose one of three methods: sign in with Google, sign in with Apple, or register with an email address and password. Account creation takes under a minute and only requires your name, email, and a password (if you're not using Google or Apple). You can add your vehicle registration later under your profile — it lets us pre-fill the ANPR details on every booking you make. If you have trouble signing up, email info@lookingforcarpark.com and we'll help directly.
On the login page, click 'Forgot Password' and enter the email address you signed up with. We'll send a password-reset link to that address — check your spam or junk folder if you don't see it within a few minutes. The reset link is valid for 60 minutes. Click the link, set a new password, and sign in. If the email never arrives or the link expires, contact info@lookingforcarpark.com and we can reset the account manually. Accounts created with Google or Apple don't have a separate password — use the same provider to sign back in.
Two ways to reach us. Email info@lookingforcarpark.com for anything that isn't urgent — we aim to reply within one working day. Call, SMS or WhatsApp our 24/7 staffed kiosk line on +44 7999 963773 for booking issues, arrival problems, or anything that needs a same-day response — this is the fastest route for urgent on-site help. For space owners or operator enquiries, please mention that in your first message so we can route the conversation correctly.
All online bookings accept Apple Pay, Google Pay, and major credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) processed through Stripe. Most of our locations are designed to be cash-free at the gate — the booking is your permit and payment happens online before you arrive. A small number of sites support on-site cash payment for walk-up parking (without a booking); the individual car park page notes this where it applies. Large vehicles — vans and trucks — follow a different price list and must be paid on-site at the car park. Bookings for large vehicles cannot be taken online.
Yes. Sign in to your account, go to Reservations, and open the booking you want to change. You can change the start or end time, extend the duration, or add a car wash service (at supported locations) up until the start of the booking. Changing the vehicle registration requires re-saving the booking so the ANPR record is updated — do this before you arrive. Cancelling more than 24 hours before the start gives a full refund; within 24 hours the booking is non-refundable. For large changes (different date, different location) it's usually faster to cancel and rebook.
Standard parking bookings can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours before the booking start time — we refund the original payment method within 5–10 working days. Cancellations made within 24 hours of the start time are non-refundable. Car wash bookings can be cancelled up to 2 hours before the booking, then become non-refundable. Weekly, monthly, and yearly bookings have the same 24-hour rule measured from their start date. A small number of event-period or peak-time bookings (e.g. major concerts at venues near our sites) may carry a different policy — when that applies it's clearly flagged on the detail page at the time of booking.
Drivers
From the homepage, choose Car Park (the default) or Car Wash on the service-type toggle. Search or browse to the location you want, pick your start date and duration, then click Book Now. On the next screen you confirm your tariff and vehicle registration, enter payment via Apple Pay / Google Pay / card, and receive an instant confirmation email. The booking is yours — at ANPR-enabled sites your number plate acts as the permit; at gate / keypad / PIN sites the confirmation email contains the access details. If you're booking for someone else, enter their vehicle registration, not yours, so ANPR (where used) recognises the correct plate on arrival.
Your confirmation email contains the full address, a Google Maps link, and any site-specific access instructions (gate codes, access routes, parking bay rules). The same information is available in your account under Reservations at any time — even after you arrive. For most sites you just drive in, park within a marked bay, and leave when you're done; ANPR logs you automatically. A few sites (Oxford Circus for example) use a gate code which is emailed after booking — check your junk folder if it doesn't arrive, and call support if you still can't find it.
Yes — open the booking under Reservations and choose 'Extend'. You can add hourly, daily, or weekly extensions as long as the space is still available for your vehicle type. The new total is charged immediately on the same payment method as the original booking, and ANPR updates so you can drive out at the new end time without penalty. If the site is fully booked and an extension isn't available, we'll suggest moving to a nearby LookingForCarPark site if one has capacity — you can cancel the original booking within the standard rules and rebook at the new site.
On automated sites (ANPR or gated barrier) a 10–15 minute late arrival is not a problem as long as the booking is still within its overall duration. If you're running significantly late (more than 30 minutes) and your space is in a shared ANPR bay, call, SMS or WhatsApp +44 7999 963773 so we can flag the booking. For sites that require a code (e.g. Oxford Circus, Belgravia), the code remains valid for the full duration of the booking. If you miss your booking entirely, it's non-refundable within the 24-hour window.
The price you see at booking is the price you pay. There are no booking fees, no surge pricing, and no on-site surcharges for cars, motorcycles, and standard vans at our pre-bookable sites. Two things carry extra costs: large vehicles (large vans and trucks) use a different price list and must be paid on-site; and motorcycle parking at Waterloo is a flat £5.00 for 24 hours payable on arrival. Optional extras that are always priced separately: car wash services (where available), and add-ons such as valeting or interior detailing. Extras are shown as separate line items on your confirmation email.
Every booking is logged against a vehicle plate, so there's an audit trail per arrival regardless of whether the site uses ANPR cameras (Waterloo) or a gate / keypad / PIN. Most sites are gated, fenced, or covered, and we do not list any space that lacks basic security. That said, as with any UK parking site (including our own Waterloo and other LFCP car parks), vehicles are left at the owner's risk and must be covered by the driver's own insurance — we don't provide a blanket vehicle insurance policy. Use common sense: don't leave visible valuables on seats or dashboards, lock the car, and keep any site-issued gate code private. If anything does happen, report it via your account dashboard with photos and we'll share the booking audit trail so you can pursue it through your own insurer.
After your booking ends, you'll see a review prompt under Reservations in your account. You can rate the site out of five stars and leave a short text review covering ease of access, cleanliness, staff (where applicable), and value. Reviews help other drivers choose the right site and give us direct feedback on what to improve. We don't edit or remove reviews that reflect genuine experience — we do remove spam and abusive content. If something went wrong with your booking, email us before leaving a review so we have a chance to make it right; most issues can be resolved within a day.
Space Owners
Taking a deposit is optional and depends on the type of space you're listing. For a single-space residential driveway, deposits are rarely needed — ANPR audit trails and verified bookings discourage most misuse, and as standard for UK parking, vehicles are left at the owner's risk under the driver's own insurance. For larger commercial car parks, event-specific spaces, or long-term monthly contracts, a refundable deposit (typically £50–£150) can give peace of mind and discourage no-shows. We don't handle deposits directly through the platform today — it's a conversation between you and the driver, usually at the monthly/yearly tariff tier. Our support team can help draft the wording if this is new to you.
The Space Owner Guide walks you through the full listing flow: preparing photos, describing access instructions, setting competitive rates, and managing bookings once your space is live. The listing wizard itself takes 2–3 minutes — three short steps (contact details, a few questions about the space, and review). Pricing, photos, and access logistics get sorted on a follow-up call with our team. We typically publish within 1–2 working days. Once live, bookings come through your host dashboard and payouts go to your UK bank account monthly via Stripe. Full guide and best-practice tips are available at /rent-your-space — start there.
For a typical driveway or residential space, almost nothing. Once the listing goes live, our system handles bookings, ANPR enforcement (at sites we've equipped), payment collection, and customer support. You'll receive a monthly statement summarising bookings and payouts. The only active tasks are: keeping the space physically available during your stated hours, answering the occasional access question from a driver (we route these through WhatsApp), and updating availability if you need to block out dates for yourself. If you operate a larger commercial car park, there's more setup — kiosks, ANPR cameras, pricing tiers — and our team handles that onboarding directly.
Three factors drive demand: clear photos, competitive pricing, and complete access instructions. Listings with three or more wide-angle photos of the space and entrance consistently get booked faster than those with a single photo. For pricing, use the 'suggest competitive rates' option during listing — we compare your postcode to nearby similar spaces and propose a rate that wins bookings without undercutting you. Finally, detailed access instructions reduce driver friction: gate codes, step-by-step directions, and any parking-rule specifics should all be in the listing. Spaces in Zone 1 London with all three are typically booked within a week.
The listing wizard's 'suggest competitive rates' tool is the fastest way — it proposes hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly rates based on your postcode, space type, and comparable spaces nearby. Typical London earnings: central Zone 1 (Soho, Mayfair, Westminster) £250–£400 per month per space; inner Zone 2 (Clapham, Hackney) £180–£280; event-adjacent (Wembley, O2) £100–£250; outer Zone 3–6 and regional cities £60–£160. If you want to think it through manually, browse similar listings on /rent-your-space/london and match or slightly undercut the nearest comparables for your first few months. You can adjust rates anytime from the host dashboard.
We accept residential driveways, garages, car-park spaces in apartment complexes, industrial and commercial car parks, hotel overflow lots, church car parks, and other structured parking areas. The core requirement is legal use: you must either own the space or have explicit permission from the owner to rent it. For leasehold properties, check your tenancy agreement — some leases restrict commercial use. We don't list on-street spaces, spaces in residents-only controlled parking zones (CPZs) where you don't have a permit to transfer, or spaces that block emergency access. If you're unsure, describe the space in a support email and we'll tell you within a day whether it qualifies.
In most cases you do not need planning permission to rent out an existing residential driveway. Some local councils require a permit if you rent for more than 28 days per year, and leasehold properties may have restrictions in the tenancy agreement — check with your council or leaseholder if you're uncertain. For tax, the UK Property Allowance lets you earn up to £1,000 per tax year from property-related income without paying tax or declaring it; above that you must declare the income on a self-assessment return. We are not solicitors or accountants — for edge cases (commercial car parks, unusual planning situations, income well above the allowance) please consult a UK solicitor or tax advisor.
Parking for popular venues
Our Waterloo car park at 39 York Road, London SE1 7NQ is a six-minute walk to the London Eye. Sat-nav tip: route to SE1 7NN, the entrance gate on Leake Street. Pre-book online from our /car-park/waterloo page, drive in, the ANPR cameras read your number plate, and you walk to the South Bank. The same site is also four minutes from BFI IMAX, seven minutes from London Dungeon and SEA LIFE Aquarium, and eight minutes from the Southbank Centre. Hourly rates from around £5 with free cancellation up to 24 hours before your booking.
Our Brixton car park on Coldharbour Lane SW9 is the practical choice for gig nights at O2 Academy Brixton. The venue is about a fifteen-minute walk from the site, with Brixton Underground (the Victoria-line terminus) twelve minutes away. Gated barrier access, secure overnight parking, and pre-bookable from /car-park/brixton. Worth booking ahead on event nights since on-street parking around the academy is restricted.
Our Victoria car park is a short walk from both theatres, plus Victoria Station, Buckingham Palace, and Victoria Coach Station. Pre-book online from /car-park/victoria. Useful for matinee or evening shows when Westminster on-street parking is fully restricted by the controlled parking zones around the West End.
Our Oxford Circus car park sits at Mason's Arms Mews, W1S, a couple of minutes from Oxford Street, Regent Street, Liberty London, Hamleys, and Carnaby Street. Pre-bookable from /car-park/oxford-circus with online-only booking, PIN access on arrival. Oxford Circus station is the closest Underground stop. Particularly handy on weekends and during the Christmas window when on-street parking on Oxford Street side roads is impossible.
Our Acton car park is near Acton Town Underground (Piccadilly and District lines) and Acton Park, in W3 London. Pre-book from /car-park/acton. Useful for park-and-ride into central London via the Piccadilly line, or for visitors to West London who need an alternative to ULEZ-charged on-street parking.
Our Ebury Street parking in Belgravia SW1 is walking distance to both Sloane Square and Buckingham Palace, plus Victoria Station. Pre-bookable from /car-park/belgravia. The Belgravia location suits visits to the King's Road, the Royal Hospital Chelsea, or shopping around Sloane Street where on-street parking is heavily restricted by the Westminster controlled parking zone.
Our Waterloo car wash operates on the same forecourt as the Waterloo car park, at 39 York Road London SE1 7NQ, three minutes' walk from Waterloo Station. Hand wash, full valet, and interior detailing all bookable online from /car-wash/waterloo. Each car wash booking includes one hour of free parking at the same site, so you can grab a coffee on the Southbank while the work is done. Same-day slots are usually available; book ahead for busy weekends.
Yes. Our Waterloo car wash at 39 York Road, London SE1 7NQ offers interior cleaning including vacuuming as part of the standard valet package. Hand wash, interior vacuum, dashboard wipe and window clean are all bookable from /car-wash/waterloo. The site sits a six-minute walk from the London Eye and four from BFI IMAX, so it doubles as a place to leave the car while you visit the South Bank.
Yes. Our Boston car wash runs on the Boston Wide Bargate site, the same forecourt as our Boston car park. Hand wash, valet, and interior cleaning available, with one hour of free parking included in every wash booking. Pre-book online from /car-wash/boston. Suits a stop while shopping at Pescod Square or visiting Boston town centre.