Harrow's free hour works once a day at one location, and an unregistered session still earns a fine. All 14 car park tariffs, permit fees and zone rates.

Harrow gives you an hour of free parking. It is a genuinely useful offer and it is also the thing most likely to get you a Penalty Charge Notice, because of three conditions the council states plainly but does not put on the signs you read first. This page sets out those conditions, then every council car park tariff, the on-street rates that changed on 1 July 2026, and what a permit costs. Checked against Harrow Council’s own pages on 2 September 2026.

The free hour, and its three catches

You can park free for up to one hour in on-street pay and display bays and in most council car parks. The council’s parking page attaches three conditions:

  • You must register the free session. Start it on PayByPhone, at a PayPoint shop, or at a card-only pay and display machine. The council says plainly that “all parking sessions, including free ones, must be registered to avoid a Penalty Charge Notice”. An unregistered car in a free hour is a fineable car.
  • Once per day, at one place. The council words it as “your first visit to any paid parking bay per day”. Use the free hour in Pinner in the morning and you pay from minute one in Wealdstone that afternoon. The on-street tariff sheet uses the same wording: first hour free at one on-street location per day.
  • Not in resident permit bays, unless a sign says otherwise.

If you stay longer than an hour, the free hour is discounted off the total rather than lost, on the app, at PayPoint and at the machines.

Two more rules that catch people out. Normal charges apply on bank holidays unless a sign says otherwise, which is the opposite of what several neighbouring boroughs do. And every council parking space is free for Blue Badge holders, in car parks and on-street alike.

Every council car park

Fourteen car parks, with the tariff that applies after the free hour. The council states these tariffs run up to 31 March 2027.

Car park Postcode Spaces Charges apply Tariff after the free hour
Queens House Multi-Storey, Harrow HA1 1US 450 08:00-18:30 Mon-Sat, 10:00-18:00 Sun £1.70/hr, £6.50 daily Mon-Fri, £3.80 daily Sat-Sun
Greenhill Way, Harrow HA1 1LD 209 All days, all times £1.70/hr, or £16 per 24 hours
Chapel Lane, Pinner HA5 1AA 154 08:00-18:30 Mon-Sat £1.30/hr to 6 hrs, £7 all day
Love Lane, Pinner HA5 3EE 183 08:00-18:30 Mon-Sat £1.30/hr to 6 hrs, £14.50 over 6 hrs
West House, Pinner HA5 1AE 28 08:00-18:30 Mon-Sat First 30 min free, then £1.30/hr, £14.50 over 6 hrs
Grimsdyke Road, Hatch End HA5 4HR 86 08:00-18:30 Mon-Sat £1.10/hr, or £5.40 all day
Peel House Multi-Storey, Wealdstone HA3 7FD 257 07:30-20:00 Mon-Sat £1.30/hr, £7 all day, £10 overnight
Palmerston Road, Wealdstone HA3 7HA 27 08:00 to midnight Mon-Sat, 10:00 to midnight Sun £1.35/hr daytime, £2.20 flat after 18:30
Harrow Leisure Centre HA3 5BD 427 07:00-23:59 Mon-Sun First 3 hours free, then £1.30/hr, £7 max Mon-Fri, £6 max Sat-Sun
Belmont Circle HA3 8RE 50 08:00-18:30 Mon-Sat £1.10/hr, or £4.40 all day
Kingshill Drive, Belmont HA3 8QT 24 08:00-18:30 Mon-Sat £1.10/hr, or £4.40 all day
Whitchurch Playing Fields, Stanmore HA7 2DU 106 08:00-18:30 Mon-Fri £1.10/hr
Cambridge Road, North Harrow HA2 7LD 150 08:00-18:30 Mon-Sat £1.30/hr, £6.50 all day Mon-Fri, £3.20 Saturday
Brigade Close, South Harrow HA2 0LQ 16 08:00-23:59 Mon-Sun £1.10/hr

Source: Harrow Council, council car parks and on-street parking.

When Harrow car parks are actually free

Eight of the fourteen charge on a Saturday but not on a Sunday. The five that do charge on Sundays, or later than you would expect, are worth knowing before you drive in:

  • Greenhill Way charges all days at all times. There is no free window.
  • Queens House charges 10:00 to 18:00 on Sundays.
  • Palmerston Road charges until midnight, including Sundays from 10:00.
  • Harrow Leisure Centre charges 07:00 to 23:59 every day of the week, though the first three hours are free rather than one.
  • Brigade Close charges 08:00 to 23:59 every day, and outside those hours it is housing permit holders only.

The quietest bargain is Whitchurch Playing Fields in Stanmore, which only charges Monday to Friday. It is free all weekend.

Two car parks lock. Queens House opens 07:00 to 20:00 Monday to Saturday and 09:00 to 19:00 on Sunday, and a car left inside cannot be retrieved until the next operational day. Peel House is the same, and adds a £10 overnight fee if your vehicle is still there when it closes.

On-street: four zones, and a price rise the website has not caught up with

On-street bays are split into four tariff bands. The council’s own on-street pay and display guide, a PDF prepared on 30 June 2026 and headed “Tariffs From 1st July 2026”, lists 124 streets across those bands.

Harrow on-street parking tariff zones from 1 July 2026 Bar chart of hourly on-street parking rates in Harrow from 1 July 2026. Local zone 1 pound 10 per hour, 36 streets. District zone 1 pound 50 per hour, 63 streets. Major zone 2 pounds 20 per hour, 7 streets. Metropolitan zone 3 pounds 30 per hour, 18 streets. Source: Harrow Council on-street pay and display guide, tariffs from 1 July 2026. On-street parking: £1.10 to £3.30 an hour Hourly rate by tariff zone, from 1 July 2026, with the number of streets in each zone Local 36 streets £1.10 District 63 streets £1.50 Major 7 streets £2.20 Metropolitan 18 streets £3.30 Source: Harrow Council, Parking charges on-street pay and display guide, tariffs from 1 July 2026. The first hour is free at one on-street location per day. Graphic by Harrow Today
Metropolitan is Harrow town centre. Local is the residential fringe. The gap is three times over.

Where the zones fall:

  • Metropolitan, £3.30 an hour. Harrow town centre: Station Road parades, College Road, Greenhill Way, Grove Hill, Elmgrove Road, Bonnersfield Lane.
  • Major, £2.20 an hour. Only in the Edgware zones, including Canons Drive and Handel Way.
  • District, £1.50 an hour. Pinner, Stanmore, Wealdstone, South Harrow, Rayners Lane and Harrow on the Hill High Street. Some Wealdstone and South Harrow streets add an £11.90 rate over 3 or 6 hours.
  • Local, £1.10 an hour. West Harrow, Sudbury Hill, Kenton, Headstone Lane, Burnt Oak and the outer residential streets.

Here is the discrepancy. The council’s own car parks page still tells you that on-street parking costs “from £1.05 to £3.15 per hour”. Those are the old rates. The tariff guide it links to on the same page shows £1.10 to £3.30 from 1 July. The page has been wrong for two months, and the higher figure is the one that will be charged.

Resident permits: priced on your car’s emissions

Harrow prices resident permits on two things: your vehicle’s CO2 output, and how many permits your household already holds. Every additional vehicle at the same address adds £50 a year to the band rate. Permits are virtual, run for a year from the first of the month you choose, and there is nothing to display.

Vehicle 1st permit 2nd 3rd 4th and beyond
Electric £45 £95 £145 £195
Petrol or other, up to 150g/km £70 £120 £170 £220
Petrol or other, 151 to 185g/km £85 £135 £185 £235
Petrol or other, 186 to 225g/km £100 £150 £200 £250
Petrol or other, over 226g/km £115 £165 £215 £265
Diesel, up to 150g/km £85 £135 £185 £235
Diesel, 151 to 185g/km £100 £150 £200 £250
Diesel, 186 to 225g/km £115 £165 £215 £265
Diesel, over 226g/km £130 £180 £230 £280

Source: Harrow Council, resident parking permit fees. A diesel is charged one band above the equivalent petrol car, so an identical CO2 figure costs £15 more a year on diesel.

Permits only exist inside a Controlled Parking Zone. Check the CPZ map before assuming you need one. Some newer blocks are Permit Restricted Properties, written into the planning permission, and residents there cannot apply for a resident permit at all.

Visitor permits

Visitor permits are virtual too, and you have to live in a CPZ to buy them.

  • One permit: £3, valid up to 24 hours
  • Discounted permit: £1.50, on proof of a Blue Badge, Freedom Pass, passport or PIP award letter
  • Book of 10 scratchcards: £30, or £15 discounted, arriving by post within two weeks
  • Up to 100 permits a year online

An activated permit covers the visitor until 11:59pm that day, or you can schedule one for a future date. The scratchcards from the paper book do have to be displayed in the vehicle. Full terms are on the visitor permits page.

Blue badge and disabled bays

Blue Badge holders park free in every council car park and on-street bay in Harrow.

You can also apply for a free disabled bay outside your home, which needs a Blue Badge, a mobility need, and no usable off-street parking. Two things the application page says that are easy to miss: the bay is not reserved for you, any Blue Badge holder may use it, and if 30% of your road already has disabled bays a new application is unlikely to be approved. Bays are not provided near junctions, roundabouts, main traffic routes, on yellow lines or on private roads, and applications for visitors, carers or taxis are refused outright.

Station parking

Harrow’s Tube station car parks are not the council’s. Stanmore station car park is run by Saba for Transport for London and has 461 spaces, of which 12 are Blue Badge and three are for motorcycles. It is open 24 hours with a seven day maximum stay. The operator’s published tariff is £12 Monday to Friday, £11 on Saturdays and Sundays, £12 on bank holidays and £2 for motorcycles. Season rates run £66 a week, £264 a month, £792 for three months and £3,168 for the year. Payment has to be made by 04:29 on the day of arrival.

That is worth comparing against the council’s own stock. A day at Stanmore station costs £12. Peel House in Wealdstone is £7 all day, and Greenhill Way is £16 for a full 24 hours with no time limit, in the middle of town.

If you get a Penalty Charge Notice

Harrow’s escalation ladder, from its how to pay page:

  • A Notice to Owner goes to the registered keeper. You have 28 days to pay or challenge.
  • Ignore it and a Charge Certificate follows. The charge rises and you have 14 days. You cannot appeal at this stage.
  • Then it is registered as a county court debt, with a £10 court fee added, and an Order of Recovery.
  • After that, bailiffs. Harrow uses Jacobs Enforcement and Newlyn.

You can only appeal to an independent adjudicator after you have been through the council’s own challenge process. Parking Operations is on 020 8424 1858, Monday to Saturday 8am to 7pm.

More Harrow local information