Colchester area

villaneme

Does anyone know where I can park my car near Colchester city centre (for free)?
I mean walking distance to the city centre.

Angela

Colchester is not a City.

You will not find any free parking very close to the town centre.

In fact I believe Colchester has the most expensive car park in the SE.

Anyway back to your question you may want to park at the Colchester Leisure Centre on Cowdray Avenue,not sure if this is still free tho or has any restrictions.
I live 25 miles down the road perhaps someone a bit more local may help you.

justin1901

What I tend to do is park in Sainsburys at Tollgate then get the bus in, not quite free but still a while lot cheaper than the car parks, last time I did this it was £1.50 return (about an hour in the multi-storeys!)

vanoonoo

depends what day of the week and time of day

the north station car park is free on a sunday as is priory street and lots of residents parking is free at various times of day - for example by the county hospital is free in the mornings and is in within easy walking distance of eld lane and the high street.

where are you aiming for and I will try to be more specific although the cowdray avenue suggestion is a good one but means a walk up the hill through the park past the castle and the car park is often very busy with users of the leisure centre

villaneme

vanoonoo wrote:

depends what day of the week and time of day

the north station car park is free on a sunday as is priory street and lots of residents parking is free at various times of day - for example by the county hospital is free in the mornings and is in within easy walking distance of eld lane and the high street.

where are you aiming for and I will try to be more specific although the cowdray avenue suggestion is a good one but means a walk up the hill through the park past the castle and the car park is often very busy with users of the leisure centre

I use the Priory Street car park on Sundays (yes, it's free). However, on Saturdays it's £2.40 for obly 2 hours. The problem is if I need to spend more than 2 hours, it becomes quite expensive.

I'm new to the area, and would appreciate some advice. Will see where the leisure centre is in my map.

vanoonoo

there is on street free parking at the bottom of north hill in between the station and the highstreet - there is a bridge that goes over the river near the old royal london building and the on street parking is along there - you sometimes have to wait for a space though so its a case of working out if your time is more valuable than the cost of parking. avoid the dutch quarter. avoid the W&G carpark as its quite expensive unless you are on a flying visit (40p for 15mins but can take that long to park sometimes). do you know how to get to st mary's car park (access from near the roundabout that the police station is on)? that has a footbridge link to the mercury theatre (cheap parking at night for cinema and theatre and boozeless) nights out and a pedestrian access to the top of north hill and then the high street. st mary's used to be the least expensive of all the car parks but has recently been refurbished so may have gone up in price. I'll look for some links for you. what I did was do a drive round of the area and work out where the on street free parking is that suits my needs - so I tend to stick to the spaces near the county hospital and at the bottom of north hill or I pay for priory street if I know how long I am gonna be (three/ four hours is good value there) or if its less than an hour I use w&g

if you are energetic you could park at asda for free and walk - but its a bit of a hike and you only get three hours free there I think. or there is the other bit up near asda with the new pizza hut, could park there and walk in. like I say - its a cost / time pay off. its a good ten - 15 min walk with the last bit up hill from asda to say the town hall.