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1. # '''Get dropped off on or near the M25 and use the public transport to get wherever you need.''' If you are coming from the west and your driver is heading south on the M25, ask to be dropped off at the first junction on the M25: Heathrow Terminal 5. Get off at the roundabout at the end of the motorway spur and walk to the terminal building. The Piccadilly Line Underground starts here. If they are heading north, see the description for getting to Uxbridge Underground station below.<br/ >
2. # '''Hitch into London from the last services on your motorway before the M25 (the driver will usually know which one this is).''' Distances inside London are huge, so it's quite probable you'll be using public transport inside the city (if you manage Then try to navigate inside London by hitchhiking, please tell us about it!) Public transport prices can be high and depends on the zones between which find a ride that bring you're traveling, day of the week and time in the day. You can try to get as close enough to your zone as possible (distance is not important - only zone numbers matter)destination. E.g if you're going to Bethnal Green in zone 2, it would be better to reach zones 1 or 3 than 4 or 5. If you're not just going in Check "public transport" for navigating the system efficiently and out, '''get an Oyster card''' - it's much cheaper. Use [http://content.tfl.gov.uk/london-rail-and-tube-services-map.pdf|this map] or google the station to see which zone it's incheaply.
* [http://www.hitchbase.com/ergebnisse.php?LANG=eng&abfrage%5Bstartort%5D=444 Hitchbase] has some information about hitchhiking out of London
'''Last verified''': -- 28th October 2010. I took this advice to travel from London to Oxford in October 2010, and it worked very well: I didn't reach the roadside until 21:00, so the world beyond the streetlights was utterly dark, but still got a ride within half an hour. A good spot to travel Northbound from London.'''Last Verified''' 30th January 2020. Used this spot to hitchhike towards northwest England (Lake District), managed to get a lift to Oxford within 15 minutes during morning rush hour. If your driver is going to Oxford or somewhere nearby then request to be dropped off at the 'Welcome Break' services just before Wheatley, junction 8A (just a km after junction 8). This is a busy services and easy to find lifts all over the country.
Go to the Apple store (on Regent St. near Oxford Circus), ask any '''local''' around Piccadilly or Regent or Oxford street and they should be able to tell you the exact location.{{nomadwiki}}
[[trash:London]]
[[nomad:London]]
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It's worth knowing that London is HUGE (third biggest city in Europe). Traveling inside London takes much longer than reaching it from outside, especially during rush hour.
== Hitchhiking in Greater London ==This region is a part of the [[East of England]] and accessible through the motorways M1/A1 and M11. These regions are part of the [[London]] commuter belt and include in part or totally the following counties:* '''Bedfordshire:''' [[Luton]] (London has a motorway ringLuton Airport)* '''Cambridgeshire:''' [[Cambridge]], [[Peterborough]]* '''Essex:''' [[Colchester]], [[Southend-on-roadSea]]* '''Hertfordshire:''' [[Stevanage]], the [[M25 Bishop's Stortford]] / [[London Stansted]] (GBAirport){{wikipedia-link|M25]]. Greater London}}
== Hitchhiking in ==
London has a motorway ring-road, the [[M25 (GB)|M25]].
Your options are:
If you are coming from the southeast on the M20, ask to be dropped off at the A20/M20/M25 roundabout. From here you can take the B2173 road 2km to Swanley train station. Alternatively, if they are heading further north, get dropped off at the M25/A12 junction and walk ≈3km west to Harold Wood station.<br/ >
If you're coming from the north and your driver is heading towards the M4/M3 direction, try to persuade them to do a slight detour off the M25 to junction 1 of the M40 (roundabout with A40). From there, it's a ≈2km walk to Uxbridge Underground station. Otherwise, get off at the last services (Toddington) before the M25 and look for a lift going inside the ring road.<br/ >
See the transiting around the M25 section below if you just want to bypass London.
== Hitchhiking out ==
Hitchhiking out of London is pretty tricky, but not impossible - the big problem is getting onto a motorway is a bit of a challenge, once you're on the motorway, stick to the petrol stations, hitching entrance ramp to entrance ramp is quite difficult, especially in the big cities.
=== West towards [[Reading]], [[Swindon]], ([[South West England|The South-West]]), [[Bristol]], [[South West England|Devon]], [[South West England|Cornwall]] [[South Wales]] {{Mgb|4}} ===
<map lat='51.491738177580345' lng='-0.28118133544921875' zoom='16' view='0' float='right' />
[[User:siinvincible|Simon]] strongly recommends, when hitching West out of London and onto the M4, to try to avoid accepting a ride to anywhere before Reading Central. A few of the earlier junctions are hitchhiking nightmare spots - junction 8,9 for Maidenhead and 10 for Reading East are two of the worst junctions for hitchhiking in this area of the country because of the m4 then turning into another motorway for a few miles, thus taking you well off your route. Reading Services is great though, and well worth encouraging your driver to take you the extra few miles to. [[User:UltrasonicNXT|Adam]] didn't follow this advice and took a lift from the busy Chiswick roundabout to the very quiet Heston services, and regretted it.
==== Option 1: M4 Motorway Junction 1 (Chiswick Roundabout) ====
1. Take the District Line Underground to ''Gunnersbury'' (zone 3) or train to ''Kew Bridge''. (Alternatively, the Overground at ''South Acton'' doesn't have barriers, but is a kilometer further away.) Both stations are on the Chiswick High Road (A315 - one west and one east of the roundabout) along which you walk 500m to Junction 1 of the M4 where you will see the Esso petrol station that is on the corner of the slip road onto the motorway heading west. There is a bus lay-by nearby with a sign saying M4 west.
2. Take bus H91 from ''Hammersmith Bus station'' in the direction of Hounslow West and get off at ''Chiswick Roundabout/Gunnersbury'', and you are already at the bus lay-by hitching point.
'''Last verified''': October 2015 July 2017 - [[User:siinvincible|Simon]] hitched from this point twice recently - only waited approxspot and got a lift within 5 minutes to Reading Services. 15 minutes for Have hitched it a number of times before and always had a ride onto the M4lift within half an hour, so would highly recommend.<br/ >[[User:UltrasonicNXT|Adam]] waited for 20 minutes before getting a poorly-advised lift to Heston services. A good busy spot though.
'''Cost of public transport''': £2.80 (off peak) from Zone 1. (Bus fare £1.50)
==== Option 3: Motorway service station Heston ====
Take Piccadilly Line Underground westbound and get off at ''Hounslow West'' (zone 5). Turn right from the station exit and walk 800m west along Bath Road to just past Henleys roundabout where there is a BP petrol station. Right at the exit of the petrol station is a footpath heading north. Walk ≈650m and where it splits, turn right 20 metres until you reach Armytage Rd. Turn left onto this road and continue north for another ≈200m, cross over Cranford Lane and then continue north again for another ≈350m along Phoenix Way until it bends to the left. Just past the bend, you will see a short path on the right through the bushes/trees onto Heston service station.
It's not an overly busy services but enough traffic to justify getting out here and cutting out all the local traffic in the centre. Use a sign as there is a lot of local traffic and also traffic heading onto the M25 both south and north.<br/ >
The public transport cost to get here is a few pence more expensive than the other option, but definitely worth the investment.
'''Last verified''': January 2017[[User:UltrasonicNXT|Adam]] waited for 2 hours 45 before finding a lift to Bristol in Jan 2018.
'''Cost of public transport''': £3.10 (off peak) from Zone 1
Take the train from ''Charing Cross Station'' (Zone 1) to ''Mottingham Station'' (Zone 4). It passes through ''Waterloo East'' (Zone 1), ''London Bridge'' (Zone 1), ''New Cross'' (Zone 2) and ''Lewisham'' (Zone 2) stations on its way to ''Dartford'' or ''Gillingham''. Alternatively, take the Jubilee line to North Greenwich, and from there, the 161 bus to Mottingham. When you come out of the train station, walk 100m south along Court Road to the intersection with Sidcup Road (A20). At the traffic lights turn left, where you will see a Shell petrol station.<br/ >
'''Last verified''': Cost of the train to Mottingham was £5. (edit- Prices must have gone down!) Me and and my girlfriend hitchhiked from Mottingham spot and a lorry picked us up in 15 minutes and took us to the start of M20. There we waited about 20 minutes in a motorway entrance, and got a drive by another lorry all the way to Folkestone service station. There a car picked us up after 5 minutes and took us with them on the ferry and all the way to [[Brugge]] in [[Belgium]].
Verified April 2018 - Took around 20 minutes asking at the Shell Petrol Station before getting a lift close to the M20.
The best ride to accept from Mottingham is one that brings you directly into the South-East along the M20 and past the M20/M25 junction, most likely to the [[Maidstone Services]]. Many drivers have said that many hitch-hikers happen to stand and hitch at the M20/M25 junction, but the police might be more likely to pick you up.
It is advisable to have a sign saying "Oxford" or something, as a lot of traffic leaves [[M40 (GB)|M40]] at junction 1a to continue on [[M25 (GB)|M25]].
There is also an Oxford Tube coach stop in Western Avenue/Freezeland Way nearby. If you happen to get really stuck (which I think you won't - I waited only about 12 minutes for a ride on an evening during a post-Christmas season) and only need to get to Oxford, this might be an alternative.<br/ >
=== North towards [[Luton]], [[Milton Keynes]], ('''''[[East Midlands|The East Midlands]]'''''), [[Northampton]], [[Leicester]], [[Derby]], [[Nottingham]], [[Sheffield]], [[Leeds]] {{Mgb|1}} ===
You can see where you're going on a map [http://www.motorwayservices.info/clacket_lane_services_m25/googlemap here]. Where it says "Clacket Wood" is the service station. There is also a street view of this area on google maps.
Clacket Lane is an excellent place to hitch to Brighton (Westbound) or Dover (Eastbound) and also fairly good for most other directions as it's a busy station. Best thing is to stand outside the main doors into the station and ask everyone that comes out if they are going your way ("excuse me, are you by any chance going to BightonBrighton?") == Public Transport ==''See the specific article for [[nomad:Transport for London|Transport for London]] on nomadwiki.'' There is a [http://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey journey planner] to find your route to all the hitching spots. [http://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/fares/single-fare-finder?intcmp=1660 Here] is where you can find the fare between any two stations / bus stops / etc. == Sleep ==There are several options when it comes to finding a place to sleep. If the worst prevails and you're without a place, you're still not too bad off. Central London is relatively safe and you probably wont be bothered sleeping outside. === [[Camping|Wild Camping]] ===Its quite possible to sleep out in London in considerable privacy despite its gigantic population of 10 million. Go North East to Trent Park (Piccadilly Line Northbound, second to last stop before Cockfosters - i.e. Oakwood Station). Find the directions for the university (Middlesex) campus and walk (or take the free bus) up the hill. Beside it and beyond the lake are quite a few miles of woodland and and it is incredibly beautiful. [[User:Whisperingofthestars|Jason]] lived here for 7 months during his final year of university. Be careful with park wardens, they eventually discovered him during the last few weeks of his studies. Build camouflage from ferns if staying for long. People are unlikely to be your greatest threat...dogs are. Dogs! A lot of people walk them here but you can find amazing places if you search hard enough. And if you search really really hard, you'll find a tree with the dates of the past dweller's residence...;) Also, outside this station (Trent Park), there is a Greek Bakery. Behind it lie huge sacks of bread every night. Please go. Its crazy that this could possibly be wasted every night. === Squatting ===London used to have an abundance of [[squat]]s, but it has recently become more difficult. While it is still legal to squat commercial property (warehouses, offices, shops), it is illegal to squat residential buildings (if you admit you are doing this to the cops, you might be sentenced to jail time.) For all information on squatting in the UK: the '''[http://www.squatter.org.uk/ Advisory Service for Squatters]''' is helpful for people that are planning to find a place to live and cannot really help you find a place to crash. It's located at the Freedom Bookstore in Whitechapel and is another great place to meet squatters as well as get online for free. The address is Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street, Whitechapel, London, England, E1 7QX. (Tel. 020-32160099)That being said, there are still a good couple of squats all around London. Most squats are places where people live and go about their normal business, so don't expect too much from them. Perhaps it would be good to find some friendly squatters by word of mouth or on [http://www.couchsurfing.com couchsurfing] or similar. Don't worry about the negative connotations associated with squats. They generally aren't crackhouses or scabies-infested punk hangouts. People of all types squat in London and their homes are usually very nice. They are especially helpful if you're planning to stick around for a while, but can also be great if you're just passing through. [[User:Zac Stewart|Zac]]<small><sup>[[User talk:Zac Stewart|talk]]</sup></small> ended up with a squat to sleep in on his first night, and in [[Mayfair]] of all places! There are still some remnants of squatting communities in North London, North East London, and South London. If you want to meet some people, go to the practical squatting nights taking place every week (alternating): http://www.squatter.org.uk/for-new-squatters/practical-squatting-nights/For more info on social centers in London, check out [http://www.socialcentresnetwork.org.uk/ Autonomous London]. Generally though, it has become harder to track squats down or just pop up, as there are fewer, and more and more evictions, which means less space. This should in no way discourage you, however! == Eat ==Cheap and free food abounds in London. === Free ===Hari Krishna offer free food from several locations in London at lunchtime: outside SOAS by Russel Square from 12:15 to 14:00(Monday thru Saturday), for example. Expect to queue for 30 minutes, arrive early to guarantee a fill - the food does run out. Otherwise... If you want a free, warm meal closer to the end of the day: from Thursday to Sunday there is a food market on Brick Lane, next to the vintage market (the one with the vinyl records store). Try going there about 18:00-19:00. Most vendors will be closing their booths and throwing food away. Just go up to them and ask(it's handy to have your own container). It's mostly Asian cuisine therefore delicious. In the UK, the term for eating food that would otherwise be thrown away, is called skipping. Lots of people do it, all from people that come from poor countries and see all the food that goes to waist, to people that are political in there way of living. Many people, especially in the squat scene live totally out of food from the bins... Plenty of places throw out food at closing time. Always check the bags out front of '''Pret a Mangers''' and '''Benjy's''' at 17:00-19:00. If you feel up to it, you can even go inside when they are closing shop and explain that you're homeless and pick out all the food you want instead of getting it off the sidewalk. Feel no shame, you're helping to curb wastefulness! (That being said, Pret a Mangers doesn't give any food to random people, just to "charity".) The '''Coffee Republic''' on Great Marlborough Street near the Oxford Circle and Carnaby Street is reported to put out garbage bags with totally normal food--boiled potatoes, sandwiches, etc. every evening around 20:00 on weekdays and 19:00 on weekends.The sandwich company "Eat" throw away lots of stuff everyday all over town. Have a look in there bins or outside the shops on the street.The bakery 'Paul' in Blackfriars and Paddington throw out a lot of cakes, all extremely luxurious and scrumptious. From Blackfriars station walk up the main road, and Paul's will be on your right after a few minutes.If you are into Sushi, try one of the many Wasabi places in the city when they close at 21:00 or 21:30. They always leave food outside, and there are always loads of people picking it up, but you'll get some if you're on time. The most luxurious place to skip is always Waitrose. Places like Sainsburys, Marks and Spencers (generally difficult to skip!), Tesco and so on have a marking system on their packed food that says when the food should be thrown away and when it should be eaten before. The gap between this days are often two days and you can still have it more or less a week more depending on what it is.Most bins are secured by fences, cameras, etc. Don't mind them too much, it is rare that they'll call the cops on you as long as you don't "destroy property". Good places to try in Hackney are E.A.T., Iceland, supermarket metros or locals and markets. === Cheap ===If you're going to self cater, stick to '''Sainsbury's''' and '''Tesco''' rather than the convenient Off-Licenses for better prices. If you are a bit out of Central London, you might as well look for '''Lidl''', '''Morrisons''', '''Netto''' or '''Asda'''. Anyhow with a decent and wise grocery, you can get your grocery for nearly a week for about 10-15 pounds at any of the mentioned supermarket with decent, fresh and healthy food ''(to cook)''. Be aware though that these supermarkets are not in any sense "ethical". They are wiping out local shops, taking monopoly on feeding us, destroying the environment and throwing away food every day that could feed hundreds of people. It's better to eat out of their bins. <!-- Totally irrelevant information! --> If you get tired of peanut butter sandwiches or want to fill up for the weekend, try one of the many £5 all-you-can-eat '''Thai Buffets''' which are always always totally vegan! (some good all-you-can-eat start at £3,50). Go early, they get more expensive in the evening. While downtown, you can also get a ''<nowiki>'</nowiki>6-inch sandwich of the day<nowiki>'</nowiki>'' at '''Subway''' for 2 pounds. The markets in Camden Town have cheap food around 17:00, especially in the Lock Market where, if you walk for a few minutes past all the initial food courts, you can easily find dishes of noodles for GBP 2.
== Internet Trashwiki & Nomadwiki ==In Westminster, there's a public library which you can use for free Internet access. You might need to register yourself, though, and that process (and waiting for the next available computer) can take quite some time.
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