Hammersmith Road · Kensington · London W14 8UX
Olympia transfers: smaller than ExCeL, harder to reach
Olympia was built in the 1880s and it shows in all the ways that matter to a vehicle. It fronts directly onto a busy main road, it has no forecourt worth the name, and it sits in a part of Kensington where stopping is discouraged with some enthusiasm.
When the Grand Hall opened, in an era with no expectation that anyone would arrive by car. The building is magnificent and the kerbside arrangements are exactly what you would expect from that date.
Four constraints that shape an Olympia drop
None of these are dealbreakers. All of them are the reason a driver who has done it before gets you there faster than one who has not.
A main road with no lay-by
The venue fronts a busy through route with bus lanes and restrictions. Vehicles set down briefly rather than wait, and the timing has to be right.
Residential and permit-controlled
The roads behind are Kensington residential bays with tight enforcement. There is no free spot waiting to be found back there.
A site in flux
Olympia has been undergoing substantial redevelopment, which changes access arrangements periodically. We check the current position for your date rather than working from last year's memory.
Congestion and emissions zones
W14 sits inside the emissions zone and near the congestion charge boundary. We confirm which apply to your route and whether they are inside your quote before you book.
What Olympia hosts, and how it travels
The venue runs a mix of trade and consumer shows across several halls, and the two crowds behave very differently on the roads outside.
| Show type | Crowd | Travel implication |
|---|---|---|
| Trade exhibitions | Weekday, professional | Early arrivals, kit to carry, and a return timed to the close of business. |
| Consumer and lifestyle shows | Weekend, family | Heavier local traffic and a much longer arrival window. |
| Antiques and art fairs | Mixed, buyers carrying purchases | The return leg often has more in it than the outbound. Size accordingly. |
| Conferences and awards | Evening, formal | Late finishes with restricted stopping outside. Collection sits just off the main road. |
| Christmas and seasonal fairs | December, very busy | Kensington's worst traffic month. Leave considerably earlier than feels necessary. |
| Private hire and corporate days | Varies | Multiple pick-ups, invoiced on account. |
West London from Kent, again
Olympia sits close to Hammersmith, which puts it among the longer runs we do. The A4 corridor is quick once you reach it and the difficulty is everything before that.
| Pick-up area | Distance | Morning journey | Leave by for a 9:30am arrival |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gravesend & Northfleet | 34 miles | 80–115 min | 7:15am |
| Dartford & Bluewater | 30 miles | 75–105 min | 7:30am |
| Bexleyheath & Welling | 21 miles | 65–95 min | 7:45am |
| Sidcup & Bexley | 21 miles | 65–95 min | 7:45am |
| Bromley & Orpington | 19 miles | 60–90 min | 7:50am |
| Sevenoaks & Tonbridge | 31 miles | 70–100 min | 7:30am |
| Rochester, Chatham & Gillingham | 43 miles | 90–125 min | 7:00am |
| Maidstone & Aylesford | 44 miles | 90–125 min | 7:00am |
| Sittingbourne & Faversham | 54 miles | 100–135 min | 6:40am |
| Canterbury & Ashford | 68 miles | 115–150 min | 6:15am |
| Central London hotels | 5 miles | 25–50 min | 8:45am |
| Heathrow Airport | 12 miles | 30–50 min | 8:30am |
Olympia versus ExCeL, from a Kent point of view
The smaller venue is the harder journey
It is counterintuitive but consistent: ExCeL holds far more people and is much easier for us to reach, because the Royal Docks were built for vehicles and Kensington was not. From north Kent, ExCeL is around an hour and Olympia is closer to ninety minutes on a working morning. If you have a choice of which show to attend, that difference is worth knowing. If you do not, it simply means leaving earlier.
Buying at a fair changes the return
Olympia hosts a lot of antiques, art and design fairs, and people leave them carrying things. A booking made for two passengers travelling light on the way in can become two passengers and a piece of furniture on the way out. Tell us if you expect to buy, and we will send something with a boot rather than something with a boot-shaped ornament.
December is a different venue
Kensington traffic in the run-up to Christmas is genuinely poor, and Olympia's seasonal fairs land right in the middle of it. Departure times that work in June do not work in December. We build that in, and we would rather leave forty minutes early than explain why you missed the first session.
Corporate and account work
A good share of what we run to Olympia is trade rather than consumer: teams travelling together on multiple days, collected from several addresses, invoiced on account with a VAT receipt. If your company exhibits regularly, a block booking across the show dates costs less and removes the daily arrangement entirely.
Olympia London travel questions
Kensington logistics, plainly.
Can you drop us right outside Olympia?
We set down on Hammersmith Road directly outside, which is a brief stop rather than a wait because of the bus lanes and restrictions there. It puts you at the doors. The constraint is on waiting, not on dropping.
Where do you collect afterwards?
Just off the main road, a short walk from the entrance, because there is nowhere legal to hold a vehicle on Hammersmith Road itself. The exact point and the registration are sent before your finish time.
Is there parking at Olympia?
Very little, and the surrounding streets are Kensington resident permit bays with firm enforcement. Between that, the emissions zone and the congestion charge boundary nearby, driving yourself is expensive and awkward.
How long does it take from Kent?
Around an hour and a half from Gravesend on a working morning, closer to two from Medway. Olympia is one of our longer London runs despite being a smaller venue than ExCeL, which is often a surprise.
Do the congestion charge and emissions zone apply?
We confirm which road charges apply to your route on your travel date and whether they sit inside your quote before you book. These are set by others and change periodically, so we check rather than quote from memory.
Can you carry stand kit or purchases?
Yes, and tell us in advance either way. Exhibitors need load space on the way in; antiques and design fair visitors often need it on the way out. Both are fine if the vehicle is sized for it.
Do you cover early access and build days?
Yes. Build and breakdown windows at Olympia fall outside normal hours, which is exactly when getting a crew across London from Kent is hardest by any other means.
Can we book several show days together?
Yes, as a block. It is cheaper than separate daily bookings, holds the vehicle for the run and produces one invoice.
Do you invoice companies on account?
Yes, with monthly billing and VAT receipts. The booker does not need to be a passenger, which suits assistants arranging travel for a team.
Is the fare fixed?
Yes, agreed before travel. Kensington traffic, an overrunning session or a slow exit make no difference to what you pay.
Other exhibition venues and guides
Where else the trade show circuit takes you.