I'm trying to do something that may be impossible...help would be
appreciated. I will be arriving Friday night at Heathrow in a few
weeks. I imagine I'll be out of customs by 10:00 pm. Is there any way
I can arrive in Blackheath, where I will be staying by 11:00 pm? Here
are some questions...

1. If I got a cab at the airport, how long would it take and about how
much would that cost (approximately) to get to Blackheath? (I'm afraid
to hear the answer, because I recall that cabs in London were a King's
ransom.)

2. Can I take either the Heathrow Express or the Underground at
Heathrow and get off someplace in London from which I could get a cab?
What stop would I get out at? Would this save time or money? Would it
be safe?

3. Does the Heathrow Express make stops between the Airport and
Paddington? Where do you catch the Picadilly Line at Heathrow?

I look forward to receiving information.

Thank you.

JKF

"Jkf" gmail.com> wrote:

You should manage it within the hour, I'd have thought.

There's a London cabbie that hangs around in here (Mike Hughes IIRC) so he
should be able to answer that one.....

Depends how much luggage you've got. The Piccadilly line is a slow trek
into London so I wouldn't recommend that, but OTOH the Heathrow Express is
expensive, but much quicker. If you take the latter...

On 6 Oct 2006 14:31:31 -0700, "Jkf" gmail.com> wrote:

The TfL Journey Planner says you can make the trip in 1hr 6 mins which I
think is pretty good for late evening. I cannot see a cab beating that
sort of time because it can be a long slog just to Central London from
Heathrow and there are no real fast routes through South London and the
trip you are making is a long one by road.

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en

No idea about taxis - never use them. I understand cabs from Heathrow
will charge you a premium. You may also struggle to get one to take you
to Blackheath as opposed to Central London.

Paul Corfield wrote:

Jkf wrote:

I don't have answers to all questions but I have some ideas if you want
to save some money. It is possible to make this journey much cheaper if
you avoid Heathrow Express or cabs. Heathrow Express - tube through
central London - train to Blackheath with cash single tickets will cost
you 14.50+3+2.40 = £19.90 and by tube to Charing Cross - train to
Blackheath only the price of a Z1-6 day travelcard, £6.30.

The difference in time is about 10-20 minutes, Heathrow - Charing Cross
is about 50-60 minutes by tube and about 40-45 minutes by HEX+tube.

The most optimal tube journey in my opinion is Piccadilly Line to
Piccadilly Circus and then Bakerloo Line to Charing Cross. However with
much luggage it might be difficult with escalators and then it might be
better to change to District Line at Hammersmith and go to Embankment
Station and then walk to the Charing Cross main line station from there.

Unfortunately I think you'll be very lucky to land at 10pm and get to
Blackheath by 11pm.

One thing to take into account is that Heathrow is a nightmare airport
to exit. It can take quite a while to talk from your arrival gate to
passport control. If you have a European Union passport, you can
usually get through passport control fairly quickly. However if you
don't, the queues can often be quite long.

Best case, with an EU passport and hand luggage only, I think you could
possibly be out of customs by 10.15pm, assuming your plane lands on
time.

As outlined elsewhere in this thread, train/tube options would take at
least an hour.

I've found that the best possible taxi time from Heathrow to Blackheath
across central London is about 45 minutes. However this only works in
the early hours of the morning (<6am). At 10-11pm on a Friday night,
central London will be very busy and I think it would take about 90
minutes but this is very variable.

On Fri, 6 Oct 2006 Jkf wrote:

zin92 wrote:

Paul C's route described elsewhere on this thread sounds solid but
nontheless I also think trying to do it in an hour is pushing it. If
you took a taxi I can't help but imagine you'd get stuck up in traffic
(friday night is party night after all), though this could possibly be
avoided by going round the M25, but that's just much further -
depending upon which route you used to get into Blackheath you could
end up doing almost a half circle of the M25 - which would eat up time
too.

Earlier flight?

In message <1160170291.838259.240420@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com>, Jkf
gmail.com> writes

I've read some of the other replies, some of which do not seem to have
read your original post correctly. Let me see if I can help you from a
taxi driver's point of...

In message newsfe1-gui.ntli.net>, AstraVanMan
whataloadofforeskinbollocks.co.uk> writes

Shouldn't be a problem - that's what the knowledge is all about !