Getting out of Twickenham after the match

Everyone arrives over four hours and leaves in forty minutes. Here is how to not be the car that spends the evening on Whitton Road.

Last updated 29 Sep 2026

What actually happens at full time

The roads right round the stadium (Rugby Road, the stadium end of Whitton Road, and London Road up from King Street) stay closed to traffic for about 1.5 to 2 hours after the final whistle, because that is how long it takes 80,000 people to walk out. Car parks inside that ring, including the stadium's own, can't get out until the police lift the closures. Everyone else is fine to move, but is sharing three exits from the area: the A316 westbound towards the M3, the A316 eastbound over the river to Richmond and Chiswick, and the A305 Richmond Road / Staines Road corridor.

Twickenham station runs a queue system after big matches and can take an hour to clear. If you parked further out and came in by train, that queue is the thing to plan around, not the roads.

The three strategies

1. Park facing home

The single best trick. Coming from the M3, park in Whitton, on the west side, so you leave onto the A316 westbound without crossing the crowd. Coming from London, park in St Margarets or Richmond and leave eastbound. A car park on the wrong side of the stadium means driving round it, and there is no quick way round it on a match day.

2. Wait it out

An hour in the pub or the car park's tea tent is not wasted. Most of the departing traffic is gone about an hour after full time, and the closed roads reopen at about 1.5 to 2 hours. Check your car park's closing time first: most give you two hours, the church car park on Erncroft Way gives you one.

3. Leave at the whistle (only if your exit is open)

This works from the car parks with their own gate onto the A316 or Hospital Bridge Road: Twickenham School, St Augustine's and the Rosebine Avenue car park. Be walking before the anthem finishes and you can be on the M3 in 30 minutes. From anywhere behind the closures it doesn't work, and you miss the end of the match for nothing.

Which car parks empty fastest

Roughly in order, based on where their exits are:

1. West side, straight onto the A316 or Hospital Bridge Road: Nelson Primary PTA, Whitton, St Edmund's Catholic Primary PTA, Twickenham School, 2nd Whitton Scouts, Turing House School, 1st Whitton Scouts, Kerswell Hall, St Augustine of Canterbury Church, Whitton. Whitton's school and scout car parks feed onto Nelson Road and Kneller Road, which are open but slow for the first half hour.
2. East side, out through St Margarets or the town centre: All Hallows Church, Erncroft Way, Orleans Park School, Queen's Road Car Park, Arragon Road multi-storey. Fine towards Richmond; slower if you need the A316 west because you have to cross the river of people.
3. Inside the closures: the stadium West and North car parks, and anything on Rugby Road or the closed stretch of Whitton Road. Nobody leaves until the roads reopen. Comfortable, close, and last out.

Once we have a season of data we will show, on each car park page, how quickly it actually cleared. For now the order above is geography, not measurement.

Where to wait

• Whitton: the pubs along Nelson Road and the High Street, or the tea and bacon rolls at 2nd Whitton Scouts.
• St Margarets: the pubs on Crown Road and around the station are a 15 minute walk from the ground and thin out quickly.
• Twickenham town centre and the riverside: Church Street and the Embankment take an hour to calm down, but you were going to wait anyway.
• Richmond: if you parked there and came in by train or shuttle, walk back along the A316 and eat in Richmond; the roads there are normal within the hour.

More in pubs and food near the car parks.

Routes out

• M3 and the M25 south: A316 westbound from the Whitton Road roundabout or Hospital Bridge Road roundabout. The roundabouts are the pinch points; the dual carriageway beyond them is fine.
• M4 and Heathrow: north up Whitton Road to Hounslow and the A4 — but Whitton Road's stadium end is closed, so start north of Whitton Dene or go A316 west and up the A312.
• Central London: A316 eastbound over Twickenham Bridge and through Richmond, or A305 through Richmond and Kew. Both jam for 45 minutes. Consider dinner in Richmond.
• Kingston and Surrey: south down the A310 through Teddington. Slow through Twickenham town centre, then normal.

The mistakes we see every match

• Parking on the wrong side of the ground for the journey home.
• Going for a drink without checking the car park closes in two hours.
• Following the sat-nav back through the closed roads. It doesn't know they are shut. Head for the A316 and let it re-route from there.
• Driving to Twickenham station to collect someone. Use the Stoop drop-off point on the A316 instead: see drop-off and pick-up.

Sources: London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (Twickenham event day road closures); Allianz Stadium, Twickenham; car park operators’ own opening and closing times.

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