Parking in Reading: car park prices and Park & Ride
Loading Parking in Reading: car park prices and Park & Ride…
Compare what every Reading car park costs for the time you are staying against a £4 Park & Ride return, including the five that are free outside paid hours.
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(today)
Pick how long you are staying and how many of you there are, and this prices Reading's council car parks, both Oracle car parks and Q-Park Chatham Place against a Park & Ride return, cheapest first. Off-street charges changed on 27 July 2026 and the figures here are the ones in force since then. Most rises were around 5%, but short stays and weekends went up far more, because the old cheap short-stay and weekend tiers were folded into the weekday ladder: an hour at Broad Street Mall went from £2.10 to £4.30, and half an hour at Queens Road on a Saturday from £1.00 to £4.60.
Five of the council's car parks are free outside their paid hours: Thameside Promenade (9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday), Kensington Road (9am to 5pm every day), Recreation Road and Dunstall Close (6am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday), and Chester Street (8am Monday to 6pm Sunday). Three of them still expect a free ticket, taken from the machine and displayed, while you are parked for nothing: Kensington Road, for its free first two hours and whenever the car park is free, and Chester Street and Dunstall Close, for the free first half hour on a Saturday. Leaving the car without that ticket on display is what earns a penalty charge notice — £50 at the lower level, halved to £25 if you pay within 14 days.
The day picker switches between Monday-to-Friday and weekend prices, and four car parks charge differently on a Saturday than on a Sunday. For Cattle Market, Chester Street and Recreation Road the weekday price is the one shown at the weekend; for Dunstall Close it is the Saturday price, and Sunday there is free. In all four the real weekend figures are written out on the card, and where the two days differ the price shown is never the cheaper of them.
Charges apply on bank holidays in every council car park, and none of them takes a booking in advance. On-street parking, resident permits and the emissions-based charges that started in February 2026 are a separate question and are not priced here.
Right now: Park & Ride (Mereoak or Winnersh Triangle)
£4 return bought from the driver, with parking included
About £0.00 for this stay
The 2 cheapest options all cost the same.
Thameside Promenade
Thames Side Promenade, RG1 8EQ — 62 spaces, 3 Blue Badge bays, EV charging for two cars
Reading Borough Council
↕ 2.00 m height limit
Payment is only required between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday. Outside those hours it is free, and it is free straight through from 8am on Saturday to 8am on Monday — the weekend price shown here is nothing because there is nothing to pay. The five-hour maximum and the no-return-within-two-hours rule apply during the paid hours only, which is why longer stays are listed as not allowed. Cards or RingGo, location code 9460, 2 m height limit.
The first two hours are free — but you must still take a free ticket from the machine and display it, and that applies outside the paid hours too, when the whole car park is free. Leaving the car without the ticket on display is what earns a penalty charge notice. Payment runs 9am to 5pm, seven days a week; another free ticket cannot be used until seven hours after the last one ran out; the maximum stay in the paid hours is seven hours and you may not return within two. Cards, coins or RingGo, location code 9449, 2 m height limit.
Charges apply from 6am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, and it is free outside those hours. The weekend prices shown are the Saturday ones; Sunday is free outright, from 8am Sunday to 8am Monday. The first half hour on a Saturday costs nothing, but you must take a free ticket from the machine and display it, and another cannot be used within four hours. Cards, coins or RingGo, location code 9475. At 2.44 m the height limit is the most generous of the council's car parks.
£0.70
total
Saturdays and Sundays
Monday to Friday: £1.10
Chester Street
Chester Street, Caversham, RG4 8JH — 60 spaces, 3 Blue Badge bays, EV charging for two cars
Reading Borough Council
The prices here are the Monday-to-Friday ones. Saturdays are far cheaper: the first half hour is free, though you must take a free ticket from the machine and display it, then 70p for an hour, £1.30 for two, £1.90 for three and £2.60 for four, with a four-hour maximum between 8am and 6pm, no return within two hours, and no second free ticket within four. The council's page says charges run from 8am Monday to 6pm Sunday, while its own Sunday row says the car park is free from 8am Sunday to 8am Monday — check the sign before you leave the car on a Sunday. A £1.10 night rate applies if you arrive after 6pm, Monday to Saturday, and leave before 8am. Cards, coins or RingGo, location code 9477. No height limit is published.
Charges apply from 6am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, and at no other time: it is free every evening and overnight, and free all day Sunday. Saturday is charged at the same rates as a weekday, which is why the weekend figure shown here is the weekday one. Cards, coins or RingGo, location code 9474, 1.98 m height limit.
£1.10
total
Green Park Station
Flagstaff Road, RG2 6DN, at Reading Green Park station — 57 spaces
Reading Borough Council
At the new Green Park station on the A33 south of the centre, open 24 hours, and the cheapest all-day parking the council runs. Its long-stay price went the opposite way to everything else in July 2026: 12 hours fell from £12.00 to £5.30. A £2.20 night rate applies if you arrive after 6pm. The signposted short-stay area on the right is for Blue Badge holders and for stays of 20 minutes or less, with no return within an hour, and car park permits are not valid in it. Cards or RingGo, location code 9489.
Charged by the hour at the rate you are given when you drive in, and Q-Park's own rule is that the rate you get on entry holds for the whole visit: £2.50 an hour arriving between 8am and 6pm, £2.10 an hour arriving at any other time, and never more than £24.50 in any 24 hours. The hourly figures above are that rate multiplied out. Drive-through height is 2.10 m. Spaces and season tickets can be booked online, though the season price is only shown once you sign in.
£2.50
total
Hills Meadow
George Street, Caversham, RG4 8DH — 298 spaces, 12 Blue Badge bays
Reading Borough Council
↕ 2.05 m height limit
Over Caversham Bridge, about ten minutes' walk from the centre, open 24 hours. Cards or RingGo, location code 9471, 2.05 m height limit. For the 2026 festival in August this was the council's designated drop-off and pick-up car park, with no stopping allowed on Richfield Avenue itself.
£3.30
total
Saturdays and Sundays
Monday to Friday: £3.70
Kings Meadow
Napier Road, RG1 8DF — 95 spaces, 1 Blue Badge bay
Reading Borough Council
↕ 2.05 m height limit
By the river at Kings Meadow, open 24 hours, with motorbike bays. Cards or RingGo, location code 9472, 2.05 m height limit. For the 2026 festival in August it was the pass-holders' car park, with a free official boat across to the site — the council warns that the unlicensed boat taxis working the bank are not part of it.
£3.30
total
Saturdays and Sundays
Monday to Friday: £3.70
Cattle Market
Great Knollys Street, RG1 7HN — 120 spaces, 10 Blue Badge bays
Reading Borough Council
↕ 2.05 m height limit
Surface car park on the station side of the centre, open 24 hours. Saturdays are much cheaper than the prices shown here, which are the Sunday-to-Friday ones: on a Saturday it is £1.20 for an hour, £2.20 for two and £8.60 for 24 hours. Sunday is charged at the Sunday-to-Friday rate. The 2.05 m height limit applies to the rear car park only. Cards or RingGo, location code 9473. Season tickets are capped at 30 holders at a time.
£3.50
total
The Oracle — Riverside
The Oracle, RG1 2AG — about 1,610 spaces, 100 Blue Badge bays, 50 family bays, 6 EV charging points
Hammerson
Open 24 hours, seven days, directly under the shopping centre and the Riverside restaurants, and the biggest car park in the town centre. There are no tickets: cameras read the number plate and you pay on the way out at a payment point, on your phone or by scanning a QR code, or you register once for the Drive In, Drive Out account and it is taken automatically. Card payments only. Weekend rates are 50p dearer in every band up to eight hours; a full day is £20 either way.
£3.50
total
Saturdays and Sundays
Monday to Friday: £3.00
The Oracle — Holy Brook
Holy Brook, The Oracle, RG1 2LR — 595 spaces, 37 Blue Badge bays, 23 family bays, 6 EV charging points
Hammerson
The Oracle's second car park, on the Holy Brook side, with ShopMobility. It does not stay open all night: 6am to 7.30pm Monday to Friday, 6am to 6.30pm on Saturday and 6am to 4.30pm on Sunday, so check the closing time before leaving the car for the evening. Number-plate cameras and card payment only, the same as Riverside. The 22 wider blue 'Premium' bays on Level 1, next to the mall entrance, are charged automatically at a much higher rate — £5.50 for an hour on a weekday, £6 at the weekend, up to £30 for a day — so take an ordinary bay unless you want one.
£3.50
total
Saturdays and Sundays
Monday to Friday: £3.00
Park & Ride (Mereoak or Winnersh Triangle)
Three sites. Mereoak is just south of M4 junction 11 off the A33, sat nav RG7 1PB. Winnersh Triangle is off M4 junction 10 at the A3290 junction, sat nav RG41 5RD, next to Winnersh Triangle station. Thames Valley Park is off the A3290 roundabout by the business park, with no postcode published. At Winnersh Triangle and Thames Valley Park you must register the car at the machines in the car park before you board.
From Mereoak, route 600 runs Monday to Saturday up to every 15 minutes and takes about 22 minutes into the centre, around 27 minutes back out; the council says a 650 runs hourly on Sundays by way of Green Park. From Winnersh Triangle, route 500 runs Monday to Saturday up to every 15 minutes, about 14 minutes into Reading and 21 minutes back. Route 300 links Mereoak and Thames Valley Park to the Royal Berkshire Hospital and the University of Reading, Monday to Friday between 6am and 7pm, up to every 20 minutes — about 22 minutes from Mereoak to the hospital door. Thames Valley Park has no direct town-centre bus at all.
£4.00
total
The £4 return includes the parking at Mereoak and Winnersh Triangle, but not at Thames Valley Park, which is excluded from the offer — you pay for parking at the machines there and the council does not publish what that costs. The council describes the £4 fare as a special offer funded by government money for a limited period rather than a settled price, and publishes no single, group or season park-and-ride fare. Buy from the driver as you board.
Broad Street Mall
Broad Street Centre, RG1 7QE — 750 spaces, 12 parent-and-child bays, 19 Blue Badge bays
Reading Borough Council
↕ 1.83 m height limit
Multi-storey, open 24 hours, right in the middle of the shopping streets. The 1.83 m barrier is the lowest in town, so no roof boxes and no vans. Pay by card, note or coin, or tap in and out at the barrier. Earlybird is £8.40 if you arrive between 6am and 8am Monday to Friday and leave by 11.59pm the same day, and £52.50 buys five consecutive weekdays at the paystation. The lifts only run during the shopping centre's own opening hours.
Open 24 hours, close to the Civic Offices and the top of Castle Street. Cards, coins or RingGo, location code 9476. Two motorbike bays. Earlybird is £8.40 for a 6am to 8am arrival Monday to Friday, leaving by 11.59pm. No season tickets are sold here.
£4.30
total
Queens Road
Queens Road, RG1 4PX (sat nav RG1 4AR) — 700 spaces, 12 parent-and-child bays, 8 Blue Badge bays
Reading Borough Council
↕ 2.00 m height limit
Multi-storey, open 24 hours, a few minutes from the Oracle and the station. Card payment only — no cash at all — with contactless tap in and tap out at the barriers. Earlybird is £8.40 for a 6am to 8am arrival Monday to Friday, and a weekly ticket covering five consecutive weekdays is £52.50 from the paystation.
£4.60
total
Reading enforces red routes and moving-traffic cameras in and around the centre, and they catch more drivers than the car parks do. Double red lines mean no stopping at any time, including to load or unload; only taxis, private hire vehicles and Blue Badge holders may stop briefly to let someone out, and waiting for a passenger to arrive is never allowed. Single red lines allow stopping only at the times on the sign beside them. The council also enforces no-entry signs, banned turns, bus and taxi routes and fifteen yellow-box junctions by camera — the Oracle gyratory among them — with the penalty notice arriving by post. Red routes — Reading Borough Council