IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR DISCOUNT LONDON CUSTOMERS
REGARDING ACCESS IN LONDON ON NEW YEAR’S EVE
As you may already know, the Mayor of London has commissioned a New Year’s Eve fireworks display to take place around the London Eye. This will follow a similar format to previous years with music, a countdown as midnight approaches, followed by a ten-minute fireworks display at midnight.
London New Year's Eve Fireworks 2024
The key change to this year’s event is that public access to the viewing areas is by ticket. Ticketing has been introduced to maintain the safety of the event and manage the large crowds that come into Central London on New Year’s Eve with the ambition of watching the fireworks. It is therefore essential that each guest in your party has a copy of their e-ticket plus their New Year’s Eve Fireworks Pier Boarding Pass on the night. This is to enable quick access through event barriers and entry gates.
Detailed information about the event and answers to frequently asked questions can be found at www.london.gov.uk/nye
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Please allow extra time to reach your party destination, London will be very busy. For cruise bookings, piers will be servicing many other party guests and boats other than the party that you have booked for. Boats will not wait for latecomers and refunds will not be made because of late arrival, regardless of the circumstances.
In regards to restaurant/cruise packages, if individuals arrive late for the meal then it may be necessary to forfeit a course in order to board the boat on time.
We strongly recommend that you use public transport. Many roads and bridges will close to traffic in the early evening.
It your responsibility to ensure that you arrive at your destination on time. Absolutely no refunds will be issued under any circumstances to customers who are late.
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Transport in London
On New Year’s Eve there will be several measures in place to ensure the safety of all visitors to London and these will affect all types of transport in the city.
The best advice for anyone wishing to access Central London on New Year’s Eve is to use public transport where possible and avoid travel by road.
A full list of road closures can also be found online at www.london.gov.uk/nye from 20 December.
Once roads start to close there will be pedestrian access restrictions to ticketed viewing areas. The affected areas will include Whitehall, Whitehall Place, Horseguards Avenue, all roads leading south off the Strand or Fleet Street, Victoria Embankment, Westminster Bridge, Golden Jubilee footbridge, Belvedere Road and Chicheley Street.
As the event space becomes busier, additional roads and public spaces may need to be closed in order to maintain public safety, including Parliament Square, Trafalgar Square and York Road. These closures will also include bridges at Waterloo, Vauxhall, Blackfriars and Southwark.
In the City of London all roads leading south from St Paul’s churchyard and Cannon Street between Blackfriars and Southwark Bridge will have restricted vehicle and pedestrian access.
North/South River Crossing on Foot
Pedestrian access across Westminster Bridge will start to be restricted from 2pm onwards and across the Golden Jubilee Bridges (Hungerford Bridge) from 4pm. You will still be able to cross the river via Lambeth Bridge or Waterloo Bridge unless and until these need to be closed for public safety reasons. After Lambeth and Waterloo Bridges close, river crossing will be possible via Southwark Bridge or Vauxhall Bridge. We would recommend that you avoid crossing the river by foot and use London Underground services to arrive at a station on the same side of the river as your destination.
Public Transport
Public transport will be affected on New Year’s Eve and you should check with Transport for London www.tfl.gov.uk/festive and National Rail www.nationalrail.co.uk for regular updates before travelling.
Due to the nature of the event and the need to safely manage large numbers of passengers, stations may need to close temporarily at any time during the day, or night.
Please plan ahead and consider alternative routes to your destination.
There will be free travel between 23:45 on New Year’s Eve and 04:30 on New Year’s Day on the bus, Tube, tram, DLR and London Overground services. This does not apply to National Rail services.
Please check your planned route before travelling and share this information with any guests.
Getting Home
Do expect your journey home will take much longer than usual, especially once the fireworks finish and the crowds head home. If you plan to get a tube or train on your journey home, consider walking part of the way or to a station far from the viewing areas. If heading to Charing Cross, Embankment or Waterloo stations please follow the signed routes. One way systems will be put in place to ease overcrowding; you will be required to wait at certain exit or junction points as stewards and police disperse the crowds, however you are likely to experience long queues at these nearby stations.
Police Searches
Please note that for anyone booked on to a boat on New Year's Eve, the Police have advised that the boat operators will need to conduct bag and/or person searches on all guests boarding the vessels on New Year's Eve. This is going to be a blanket requirement for all boats going out on the river that evening.
