Flesh and Blood Nationals 2022 - Londoner's Guide part 2

Part 2: Getting to Dark Sphere

What's the location?

Dark Sphere is located in the W12 Shopping Centre in Shepherds Bush. The W12 Centre is like any number of late 90’s shopping centres in the UK and you will almost certainly have been in a similar analogue somewhere in the UK. Like most centres, there are a variety of shops, as well as a Weatherspoons, coffee shops, Chinese buffet and cinema. The centre has toilets of a reasonable standard, as well as two entrances with ashtrays nearby for smokers.

The W12 centre is located opposite Westfield White City – a huge early 2000’s shopping centre that was at one point the largest shopping centre within a city in the UK – although its crown has since been taken by its sister Westfield Centre in Stratford. Westfield contains a large variety of shops and restaurants. Almost anything that you could want to purchase can be found there.

Shepherds Bush itself is located in west London, in an area that was first subject to residential expansion in the late 19th century. Major landmarks in the area include the Television Center on wood lane, formerly the location for all BBC shows in London, Loftus Road Stadium (Home of QPR FC) and the Shepherds Bush Empire Theatre (currently the O2 Shepherds Bush). The area is vibrant and multicultural, with a good local market, large variety of shops and cafes and good transport links.

Like the majority of areas within London, the area around Dark Sphere is relatively safe and secure, pickpocketing and other general crimes that are common in cities is a risk – as is mobile phone theft from scooters – but in general, the same degree of common sense that you should apply in any major city will keep you safe – talking about the possibly thousands of pounds worth of cards you are carrying is to be avoided !

How do you get there?

NOTE: Please check your journeys as there may be train strikes on the weekend of Nats. At the time of writing, there are strikes expected on Thursday and Saturdays.

The W12 centre is located directly across from Shepherds Bush station – which is served by the Central line, as well as the Overground and National Rail services provided by Southern Rail. There is also a large bus station located in the same complex.

In order to get to Shepherds Bush from central London there are a number of routes - depending on where you are starting. In order to help break this down by area - I have set out a couple of key routes from major London stations - on the assumption that most people will be starting their journey there - or from a couple of general areas in London  - although the core concepts remain the same for most locations.

It is possible to drive to Dark Sphere and there is day parking available at Westfield - although this is expensive.

From Victoria
Take the Victoria line northbound to Oxford Circus, change to the Central line and travel to Shepherds Bush.

From London Bridge or Waterloo
Take the Jubilee line to Bond Street, change for the Central line.

From Kings Cross/Euston/St Pancras
Either take the Victoria line south to Oxford Circus and change or take the Circle/Hammersmith and City line to Shepherds Bush Market - this is a longer journey but has air conditioned trains.

From West London
Either take the Central line or a local bus.

From South London
Take the Overground or bus to Clapham Junction and then board an Overground train to Shepherd's Bush.

From East London
Either take the Jubilee line to Bond Street and change, or the Elizabeth line to either Liverpool street or Tottenham Court Road (note that the Elizabeth line doesn’t run on sundays) where you can then board the Central line to Shepard's Bush.

Tube prices are relatively affordable, with daily costs capped depending on how far you are travelling and single tickets around £2.60 for a point to point tube journey and £1.65 for an hour's worth of bus journeys. The London transport network is largely cashless, so you will either need to tap your contactless card on the relevant readers to access the network or purchase an oyster card for £5, which can then have either cash or day tickets loaded onto it.

You can save around 30% from these prices if you have a national railcard – although you will need to speak to a TFL member of staff at a station in order to attach it to an oyster card.

Getting to London

For historic, and unfortunately still current reasons, London remains the major hub for the UK’s rail, bus and flight networks. While this may have unfortunate implications for the spread of wealth around the UK, it makes reaching London from elsewhere in the UK relatively easy.

From Scotland
Train tickets can be purchased on the day to London from Edinburgh and Glasgow for around £150 for a return journey. Significant savings can be found by booking tickets in advance, which commits you to a specific train in exchange for a substantially cheaper price – at the time of writing, advance tickets can be found for around £90. Further savings can be made by owning a railcard. Alternatively, if travelling from Edinburgh, a low cost operator called Lumo runs services from Edinburgh to London for as cheap as £25 each way.

There is also a sleeper train that runs Monday -> Saturday evenings from Glasgow and Edinburgh to London, as well as further north in Scotland. The sleeper is extremely expensive (£200 for a return) but does allow you to sleep and enjoy a drink during your journey.

Flights are also available and can be relatively cheap – costing around £60 for a return flight to London Luton or Gatwick. Coaches are also available. But, if you value your sanity, please don’t take a coach from Scotland to London – it's 8/9 hours and you will hate yourself.

From the North East
LNER runs regular train services from most major North East and Yorkshire locations, supplemented by additional trains ran by Grand Central from Bradford and Sunderland, Lumo Services from Newcastle and Hull Trains services from Hull and Beverly. If you can, I highly recommend taking a Grand Central or Hull train - they tend to both be cheaper and more comfortable than LNER services. Tickets are around £80 for a return at short notice and somewhere between £30-70 for tickets booked further in advance.

Flights from the North East and Yorkshire are also available, although they are more expensive than those from Scotland and roughly comparable to trains in price.

From the North West
Avanti West Coast runs trains from the North West to London, with on the day returns costing around £70. Cheaper tickets can be purchased in advance or secured by taking a London North Western Railway service to Crewe and then buying a return to the relevant further location – this is a longer journey but can save upwards of £30 at times.

Flights do operate from Liverpool and Manchester to London. But, once you factor in clearing security and travelling to and from the airport, it's unlikely to be faster.

From Birmingham and the West Midlands
Three different train companies run to Birmingham and the West Mids from London – this means that the services are some of the comparatively cheapest for journeys of this length.

Avanti runs fast trains to Birmingham from Euston that can take as little as 70 minutes, these cost around £60 on the day.

LNWR runs slower trains to Euston, taking around 2 hours but costing as little as £26 for an on-the-day return.

Finally, Chiltern Railways runs services from Marylebone for around £34 with a similar time as LNWR but on generally nicer trains.

From the East Midlands and South Yorkshire
Thameslink and East Midlands Trains run services from St Pancras and King's Cross to Nottingham, Leicster, Luton, Sheffield ext. Where Thameslink trains operate, these are around £20 for a return, while EMT services are more costly - around £80 for a return at short notice and somewhere between £30-70 for tickets booked further in advance. Cheaper EMT services can be purchased by booking through Megabus.com, which provides cheaper “Megatrain” services for a small number of trains from London St Pancreas that are ran by EMT.

From the South East
You’ll have been to London before – it sucks in the whole areas cultural capital – I don’t need to tell you how to get to it.

From the South West
From Portsmouth/ Southampton/ Bournemouth, SWR runs regular trains to London Waterloo – which are around £50-60 for a return purchased on-the-day  – cheaper tickets are available if booked in advance and coaches run regular services to London and its nearby airports. It can sometimes be quicker and cheaper to take a coach to Heathrow or Gatwick and then pick up a train there than taking a coach all the way to London.

Southern Rail also operate trains from Portsmouth and Southampton that are significantly longer but are often cheaper and quieter.

From South Wales/Bristol (For North Wales – see the North West section)
GWR operate regular services from south Wales and Bristol to London Paddington, with returns from around £90 if bought on the day without a railcard. You can also sometimes buy cheaper tickets to Redhill, changing at Reading, and then pick up a London bound service from there for around £9.

Bristol is also served by a limited number of SWR services via Yeovil, which are cheaper but significantly longer.

Coaches from Bristol to London are relatively affordable and quick, and are a reasonable alternative to travelling via rail.

From Devon/Cornwall
GWR runs trains from the south coast of Devon and Cornwall to London Paddington for around £100 for an on-the-day train. Savings can be found by booking in advance or having a railcard. If you are flush with cash and travelling first class, try to book a train with a pullman carriage to enjoy a surreal fine dining experience.

SWR also runs relatively regular trains from Exeter to London Waterloo along a rural route called the South West Main Line (very deceptively named). These trains are slower and smaller – but will save you around £35 and take a very scenic route.

If travelling from Exeter or further west, it may also be worth considering the night riviera sleeper train. This is around the same price as a GWR train, but has a comfortable lounge car and beds.

Flights can also be a sensible option from Exeter airport – although the cost is substantial and not significantly faster than a train.

A note on driving to London
Shepherds Bush is actually relatively easy to access by car - the M4 runs directly from the M25 into west London, and driving to Shepherds Bush from the end of the M4 is relatively easy, if slow. Parking is available at Westfield and may be available at your hotel - although I would encourage you to check with them directly as the cost may be significant, the IBIS next door to the venue is £11 a day. Street parking off Goldhawk Road may also be possible - although your mileage may vary and this parking is restricted to residents and short stays outside of weekends.