A day on River Street costs £30. The same day in Home Park costs £13. Windsor car parks charge on bank holidays, Maidenhead's are free, and Ascot parks free.
Windsor has the most expensive council car park in the borough and, a ten minute walk away, one of the cheapest all-day options in the Thames Valley. The gap between them is £17 a day. This page sets out what every council car park charges in 2026/27, which ones are genuinely free, and the two Windsor-specific rules that catch drivers out: the bank holiday split between Windsor and Maidenhead, and the Guard Change parking ban.
The quick answer
In Windsor town centre, River Street is £30 for over five hours and Victoria Street is £22. The cheapest all-day option near the castle is the Crown Estate’s Home Park at £13. Windsor’s council car parks charge on bank holidays; Maidenhead’s are free on Sundays and bank holidays. Ascot High Street, Sunningdale and Sunninghill are free all week. A first resident permit is £50.
Windsor car parks: the 2026/27 tariffs
Every Windsor car park below charges Monday to Sunday, 9am to 9pm, bank holidays included. Figures are from each car park’s own page on the council website, read on 26 August 2026.
| Car park | 1 hour | 3 hours | Over 5 hours | Spaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| River Street | £7.00 | £14.00 | £30.00 | 155 |
| Windsor Leisure Centre | £2.00 | £5.50 | £24.50 | 249 |
| Victoria Street | £2.60 | £7.10 | £22.00 | 206 |
| Alexandra Gardens | £2.30 | £7.00 | £19.00 | 198 |
| Alma Road | £2.30 | £7.00 | £19.00 | 130 |
| Windsor Dials | £2.30 | £7.00 | £19.00 | 250 |
| East Berks College | £2.30 | £4.60 | £15.00 | 112 |
| Trevelyan School | £0.60 | £2.30 | £8.50 | 76 |
| Windsor Library | £3.50 | 2hr max | 2hr max | 15 |
Three of those come with conditions worth reading before you drive in:
- Windsor Dials is a weekend car park. It is a private car park during the week and open to the public only on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays. Parking is no longer allowed on the lower level at weekends.
- Victoria Street closes to newcomers on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings from 9pm. After that only Windsor on-street permit holders can enter. The height restriction is 1.8m, tighter than most multi-storeys.
- Trevelyan School has a split charging day. Monday to Friday it charges 9.15am to 2.45pm and again 3.45pm to 9pm, around the school run. At weekends it is 9am to 9pm.
York House on Sheet Street is the odd one out: an underground car park that opens to the public only at weekends and on bank holidays, £5.00 for up to four hours and £9.50 over four. Park in the white bays only, and be out before 7.30am on a working day.
The cheapest all-day parking in Windsor is no longer the council’s
Home Park, King Edward VII Avenue and Romney Lock left council control on 1 April 2026 and reverted to the Crown Estate. The council’s pages for all three now carry the same notice and no tariff.
That matters, because the Crown Estate charges less for a long stay than any council car park in the town centre. Home Park Public and King Edward VII both run to £13.00 for over five hours, against £19 at Alexandra Gardens and £30 at River Street. The full ladder is £2.20 for an hour, £4.40 for two, £7 for three, £9.30 for four and £11.20 for five. Motorcycles are free and blue badge parking is free (Windsor Great Park).
Two catches. Charges apply daily 9am to 9pm including bank holidays, and the car parks may close at weekends and during events, so check the estate’s visitor updates before setting off. There is no overnight parking.
The bank holiday trap: it depends which town you are in
This is the detail that costs people money, because the rule flips across the borough.
- Windsor car parks charge on bank holidays. Alexandra Gardens, Alma Road, Victoria Street, River Street, Windsor Leisure Centre, Coach Park, East Berks College and Trevelyan School all say “including Bank Holidays”.
- Maidenhead car parks are free on Sundays and bank holidays. That covers Hines Meadow, Vicus Way, West Street, Grove Road, Braywick Sports Ground and the Magnet Leisure Centre.
- Windsor Library and the Datchet car parks are free on bank holidays but charge on Sundays, which is the reverse of the Maidenhead pattern.
- Eton and Boulters Lock charge every day of the year, Sundays and bank holidays included.
So on Monday 31 August 2026, a car park in Maidenhead costs nothing and the same stay in Windsor costs full price.
On-street is a separate question again. Central Windsor’s on-street bays charge Monday to Sunday, 8am to 8pm, so Sunday is not free on the street even where it is free in a car park.
Maidenhead, Datchet, Eton and Ascot
Again from each car park’s own council page, read on 26 August 2026. Every Maidenhead car park in this table is free on Sundays and bank holidays except Boulters Lock, which charges daily.
| Car park | Town | 1 hour | Longest stay | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vicus Way | Maidenhead | £1.20 | £7.00 over 3hr | 503 spaces, 10 levels |
| Hines Meadow | Maidenhead | £1.40 | £14.00 over 5hr | 1,280 spaces, 34 disabled bays |
| Braywick Sports | Maidenhead | £1.80 | £14.50 over 5hr | 575 spaces |
| West Street | Maidenhead | £2.20 | £6.60, 3hr max | No max stay after 7pm |
| Grove Road | Maidenhead | £2.20 | £6.60, 3hr max | No return within 1 hour |
| Magnet Leisure Centre | Maidenhead | £1.20 | £2.30, 3hr max | Cheapest 3 hours in Maidenhead |
| Town Moor | Maidenhead | £1.40 up to 3hr | £5.50 over 3hr | 28 spaces |
| Boulters Lock | Maidenhead | £1.50 | £7.80 over 5hr | Charges every day |
| The Avenue | Datchet | £1.50 | £10.50 over 5hr | 9am to 6pm, 1.9m barrier |
| Horton Road | Datchet | £0.80 | £7.20 over 5hr | Cheapest hour in the borough |
| Eton Court | Eton | £2.20 | £16.00 over 5hr | 57 spaces |
| Meadow Lane | Eton | £2.20 | £16.00 over 5hr | 102 spaces |
Two Maidenhead car parks have gone. Stafferton Way multi-storey closed on 19 January 2026, taking 476 spaces out of the town. Nicholsons is no longer a council car park and is run privately, so the council’s tariffs and permits do not apply there.
Where parking is actually free
The council’s car park finder does not list its free sites at all. They appear only in Appendix E of the 2026/27 budget report, approved by Cabinet on 24 February 2026:
- Ascot High Street, 98 spaces. Free. The largest free council car park in the borough, and it is in the middle of Ascot.
- London Road, Sunningdale, 210 spaces. Free, with a three hour maximum stay. You must still take a free ticket from the machine and display it. Entry is closed between 6.45pm and 8.45am.
- Queens Road, Sunninghill, 52 spaces. Free, free ticket required, park within a marked bay.
- Centrica, Windsor, 134 spaces. Free, but only on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays in peak periods, and the gates are locked at 7pm.
- Braywick Nature Park, Maidenhead, 12 spaces. Free, 8am to 9pm.
- Grenfell Park, Maidenhead, 18 spaces. Free.
- Coronation Road, Littlewick Green, 24 spaces. Free.
The trap in that list is the word “free”. At Sunningdale and Sunninghill you will get a penalty charge notice for not displaying a ticket that costs nothing, and at Sunningdale the three hour cap is enforced.
The Guard Change ban, and why a permit will not save you
The Windsor Castle Guard changes at 11am on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (The Household Division). On those days parking on the Guard Change Route is prohibited from 9am to 12pm.
The route is Sheet Street, High Street and Thames Street, and the ban is unusually wide:
- Blue badge holders are not exempt. The council’s own guidance lists the Guard Change Route among the places a badge does not let you park (using your blue badge).
- Resident permits are not exempt either. Permits for Zones E, F, G, H, I, J and K are explicitly void on the route during those hours (resident permits).
On-street charges
From the same Cabinet appendix, the 2026/27 on-street tariffs:
| Street | Hours | Up to 1 hour | Up to 2 hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barry Avenue, Windsor | Mon to Sun, 8am to 8pm | £3.00 | £6.00 |
| Park Street, Windsor | Mon to Sun, 8am to 8pm | £3.00 | n/a |
| High Street, Windsor | Mon to Sun, 12pm to 8pm | £3.00 | n/a |
| St Leonards Road shops | Mon to Sun, 8am to 8pm | £1.00 | £3.00 |
| Datchet Road, Sheet Street, Victoria Street, Farm Yard, Thameside | Mon to Sun, 8am to 8pm | £2.00 | n/a |
| Alma Rd, Clarence Rd, St Leonards Rd | Mon to Sun, 8am to 8pm | £1.00 | £2.00 |
| Albert St, Alma Rd, Beaumont Rd, Bexley St, Clarence Rd, Duke St | Mon to Fri, 8.30am to 5.30pm | £1.00 | £2.00 |
| Eton, 2 hour maximum stay | Mon to Sun, 8am to 8pm | £3.00 | £4.50 |
| The Avenue and Windsor Road, Datchet | Mon to Sat, 8am to 6pm | £1.30 | £2.30 |
Barry Avenue is the riverside frontage below the castle, and at £3 an hour it is the dearest on-street parking in the borough. The £1 streets a few minutes west are the same walk from the town centre.
Permits: what they cost
Resident and visitor permits are all virtual now, issued through MiPermit, and take up to 10 working days to process. You cannot park while an application is pending. Prices are as at April 2026.
| Permit | First | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resident | £50.00 | £225.00 | £330.00 |
| Visitor permit | £110.00 | £160.00 | £230.00 |
| Waiver permit | £110.00 | £160.00 | £230.00 |
| Business, Windsor outer | £925.00 | £1,095.00 | £1,200.00 |
| Business, Eton and Datchet | £350.00 | £580.00 | £790.00 |
A business permit for Windsor inner areas is £455.00. Changing the vehicle on a permit costs £10.00.
Visitor vouchers are sold in fives, up to 25 at a time: £2.00 for two hours, £4.00 for six hours, £5.00 for 24 hours. Residents of pensionable age, 67, who also receive council tax support pay 50p a voucher with evidence (visitor vouchers and permits).
Two conditions are easy to miss. Properties let for fewer than 90 consecutive days, which covers Airbnb and similar, are excluded from the permit scheme entirely, and breaching it can get existing permits revoked. And a property converted in a way that lost off-street spaces cannot apply for permits to replace them.
A Windsor resident permit is worth more than the bay it buys. It also lets you park free in Windsor Dials on Saturdays and Sundays 9am to 6pm, and in every council car park except River Street between 6pm and 9am, seven days a week.
A free hour if you live here
Any borough resident can register for the residents parking discount scheme and get one hour of free parking per car park per day per vehicle, at no cost for the permit itself. It runs through the RingGo app and covers eight car parks in six zones: Alexandra Gardens and Alma Road together, Victoria Street, Grove Road and West Street together, Hines Meadow, Horton Road in Datchet and Meadow Lane in Eton. You can hold up to two permits per zone, so twelve in total (residents parking discount scheme).
Blue badge parking
In council car parks a blue badge parks free in any non-reserved bay, not just the marked disabled bays, provided the badge and clock are displayed. On street, badge holders park free in pay and display bays, in limited waiting bays subject to the time limit, in disabled bays with no time limit unless signed, and on yellow lines for a maximum of three hours.
Alongside the Guard Change Route, badges do not permit parking in loading bays, resident bays, suspended bays, on dropped kerbs or on double yellow lines inside a car park.
Hines Meadow in Maidenhead has by far the most disabled bays of any council car park at 34, followed by Vicus Way with 29, of which eight are electric vehicle bays.
Station parking
- Windsor & Eton Riverside has 192 spaces across three car parks: Queens (22), Gravel (14) and Riverside (156). South Western Railway charges £2.00 an hour, £5.40 off peak and £10.80 peak. Blue badge parking is free if you register with the operator first (Windsor & Eton Riverside).
- Windsor & Eton Central has no station car park at all, which is worth knowing before you drive there for the Reading line. It has 60 sheltered cycle spaces (GWR Windsor & Eton Central).
- Maidenhead has 159 spaces, 14 of them accessible, on Shoppenhangers Road, open 24 hours (GWR Maidenhead). Level 1 of the Stafferton Way multi-storey used to be reserved for GWR passengers, but that car park closed in January.
Penalty charge notices
The Royal Borough issues PCNs under the Traffic Management Act 2004 in two bands: higher level £70, halved to £35 if paid within 14 days, and lower level £50, halved to £25. Neither figure changed for 2026/27 (parking fines explained).
What this page does not cover
Bay suspensions, dispensations and special access permits are priced in the Cabinet appendix but are trade rather than resident services, so they are not set out here. We have also not printed a season ticket price for every car park, only noted that they exist, because the ladders differ per site and per number of days a week.
Also on this site: Windsor bin collection days, Windsor council tax bands and Windsor roadworks and travel.
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