How long does it take to get to Bank from every part of London?
The short answer
Romford, Orpington, Upminster and Surbiton have London’s fastest commutes to Bank for the distance. Each is 12 to 15 miles out, and fast trains get you to Bank at about 25mph in a straight line: Orpington takes about 30 minutes, door to door. The slowest for the distance is Crouch Hill in Islington, 39 minutes for 4.1 miles. Half of London’s land is within 51 minutes of Bank, and across most of Hackney, Islington and Southwark a bike is quicker than public transport.
Commute times to Bank at a glance
| Question | Answer | The figure |
|---|---|---|
| Fastest commute | Romford, Orpington, Upminster and Surbiton | About 25mphthe fastest for the distance; Orpington takes about 30 minutes |
| Slowest commute | Crouch Hill, Islington | About 6mphthe slowest for the distance: 39 minutes for 4.1 miles |
| Quickest borough | Tower Hamlets | 20 minutesmedian door-to-door time |
| Slowest borough | Hillingdon | 65 minutesmedian, and nowhere within 45 minutes |
| Half of London | Half of London’s land is within this time of Bank | 51 minutesdoor to door |
| Bike is quicker | Hackney, Islington and Southwark | 76% to 83%of each borough’s land |
Times are modelled door to door for a weekday morning and are accurate to a few minutes. Distances are in a straight line to Bank. See how we worked this out.
How long does it take to get to Bank from where you live?
Each hexagon on the map is about 400 metres across. Its colour shows how long it takes to get from there to Bank on a weekday morning, door to door. That covers the walk or bus to the station, the wait for a train, any changes and the walk up to the street at Bank.
Hover over or tap the map to see the route from any spot. You can also search for a station, or switch to Quick or slow for the distance to see which areas beat other places the same distance from Bank.
Where is the fastest commute to Bank for the distance?
We measured each station’s commute speed: the straight-line distance to Bank divided by the door-to-door time. A station 12 miles out with a 30-minute journey scores 24mph.
Four stations come out on top at about 25mph: Romford, Orpington, Upminster and Surbiton. Our times are accurate to a few minutes, so treat them as joint first. All four have fast trains to a terminus with a quick last hop to Bank. Romford has Greater Anglia to Liverpool Street, Orpington has Southeastern to London Bridge, Upminster has c2c to Fenchurch Street, and Surbiton has South Western Railway to Waterloo, where the Waterloo & City line runs straight to Bank.
Orpington is 12.3 miles from Bank and takes about 30 minutes. A typical place that far out takes about 47. The Elizabeth line puts West Drayton, Hayes & Harlington and Southall in the top ten, and East Croydon is the quickest station under 10 miles out, at 27 minutes for 9.6 miles.
| # | Station | Miles | Minutes | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Havering | 12.5 | 30 | 25 mph |
| 2 | Bromley | 12.3 | 30 | 25 mph |
| 3 | Havering | 15.0 | 37 | 25 mph |
| 4 | Kingston upon Thames | 12.5 | 31 | 24 mph |
| 5 | Hillingdon | 16.5 | 43 | 23 mph |
| 6 | Hillingdon | 14.3 | 39 | 22 mph |
| 7 | Croydon | 9.6 | 27 | 21 mph |
| 8 | Harrow | 11.8 | 34 | 21 mph |
| 9 | Ealing | 12.5 | 36 | 21 mph |
| 10 | Hillingdon | 15.8 | 47 | 20 mph |
Stations at least 3 miles from Bank. Closer in, the fixed parts of any journey (the walk, the wait, the escalators) make every station look slow. Select a station to see it on the map.
Where is the slowest commute to Bank for the distance?
Crouch Hill is 4.1 miles from Bank. Getting there takes about 39 minutes, an average of 6mph and 14 minutes slower than typical for somewhere that distance away.
Most of the slowest stations are on Overground lines that loop around London rather than run into it. To reach the City you have to change, often after a walk to a tube station. Gospel Oak, Upper Holloway, Leyton Midland Road and Imperial Wharf all work this way.
| # | Station | Miles | Minutes | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Islington | 4.1 | 39 | 6 mph |
| 2 | Camden | 3.9 | 32 | 7 mph |
| 3 | Camden | 3.3 | 27 | 7 mph |
| 4 | Islington | 3.8 | 30 | 8 mph |
| 5 | Islington | 3.2 | 25 | 8 mph |
| 6 | Lambeth | 3.7 | 29 | 8 mph |
| 7 | Hackney | 3.1 | 24 | 8 mph |
| 8 | Tower Hamlets | 3.2 | 25 | 8 mph |
| 9 | Waltham Forest | 5.3 | 41 | 8 mph |
| 10 | Hammersmith and Fulham | 4.8 | 37 | 8 mph |
Stations at least 3 miles from Bank. Select a station to see it on the map.
Why can places the same distance from Bank have very different commutes?
Two places the same distance from Bank can be 20 minutes apart. It usually comes down to whether there is a fast train and how many changes you need.
Harrow & Wealdstone and South Harrow are both 11.8 miles from Bank. From Harrow & Wealdstone, the fast train to Euston gets you to Bank in about 34 minutes. From South Harrow, the Piccadilly line takes about 55. Kingston is a mile closer to Bank than Surbiton but takes 19 minutes longer, because Kingston’s trains stop all the way to Waterloo.
In Brent, Wembley Park is the best-connected station for its distance. The Metropolitan line’s fast trains take you to King’s Cross for the Northern line, about 38 minutes for 8.8 miles. Wembley Central, about a mile away, takes about 45.
Harrow & Wealdstone and South Harrow
Both 11.8 miles from Bank, 21 minutes apart
Surbiton and Kingston
Kingston is a mile closer, but 19 minutes slower
Romford and Kensal Rise
Kensal Rise is 6.8 miles closer, but 10 minutes slower
Orpington and Beckenham Junction
Beckenham Junction is 4.7 miles closer, but 14 minutes slower
Wembley Park and Wembley Central
Wembley Central is 0.5 miles further out and 7 minutes slower
Is it quicker to cycle to Bank?
For about 6% of London’s land, yes. We compared each hexagon’s public transport time with a cyclist averaging 9mph on roads a quarter longer than the straight line, plus two minutes to lock up.
The bike wins across most of Hackney (83% of the borough), Islington (81%) and Southwark (76%). These boroughs are close to the City but short of direct lines into it. In Westminster, Tower Hamlets and Camden it wins in roughly a third of the borough.
Share of each borough’s land where a bike is quicker. Boroughs where it is 5% or more.
How does your borough compare?
Tower Hamlets has the shortest commutes: half its land is within 20 minutes of Bank. Hillingdon has the longest, with a median of 65 minutes, and none of it is within 45 minutes. Sutton is the only other borough with nowhere inside 45 minutes.
The table shows each borough’s median door-to-door time, the share of its land within 45 minutes, and its quickest and slowest stations for their distance. The figure beside each station is how many minutes quicker or slower it is than typical for a place that far from Bank. Select a borough to see it on the map.
| Quickest for its distance | Slowest for its distance | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tower Hamlets | 20 min | 100% | 13 min · 8 min quicker | 25 min · 4 min slower |
| Westminster | 26 min | 100% | 19 min · 6 min quicker | 24 min · 6 min slower |
| Islington | 27 min | 100% | 22 min · about typical | 39 min · 14 min slower |
| Southwark | 29 min | 93% | 11 min · 5 min quicker | 38 min · 8 min slower |
| Camden | 30 min | 100% | 11 min · 4 min quicker | 32 min · 8 min slower |
| Hackney | 31 min | 100% | 18 min · about typical | 28 min · 10 min slower |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 32 min | 100% | 21 min · 5 min quicker | 31 min · 3 min slower |
| Lambeth | 32 min | 96% | 17 min · 6 min quicker | 40 min · 8 min slower |
| Newham | 33 min | 95% | 15 min · 10 min quicker | 28 min · 3 min slower |
| Lewisham | 36 min | 90% | 22 min · 8 min quicker | 38 min · 5 min slower |
| Wandsworth | 37 min | 83% | 24 min · 7 min quicker | 38 min · 5 min slower |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 38 min | 95% | 24 min · 5 min quicker | 37 min · 10 min slower |
| Haringey | 39 min | 85% | 23 min · 5 min quicker | 34 min · 8 min slower |
| Redbridge | 41 min | 69% | 26 min · 11 min quicker | 33 min · 7 min quicker |
| Waltham Forest | 42 min | 60% | 20 min · 10 min quicker | 41 min · 12 min slower |
| Greenwich | 43 min | 64% | 23 min · 11 min quicker | 26 min · 2 min slower |
| Merton | 46 min | 43% | 28 min · 7 min quicker | 53 min · 12 min slower |
| Ealing | 48 min | 38% | 36 min · 11 min quicker | 53 min · 9 min slower |
| Barking and Dagenham | 49 min | 27% | 27 min · 8 min quicker | 43 min · 4 min slower |
| Brent | 49 min | 25% | 38 min · about typical | 40 min · 9 min slower |
| Barnet | 50 min | 27% | 28 min · 3 min quicker | 32 min · about typical |
| Croydon | 53 min | 21% | 27 min · 13 min quicker | 60 min · 10 min slower |
| Kingston upon Thames | 55 min | 9% | 31 min · 16 min quicker | 50 min · 5 min slower |
| Bexley | 55 min | 6% | 36 min · 6 min quicker | 48 min · 3 min slower |
| Enfield | 56 min | 6% | 44 min · about typical | 49 min · 9 min slower |
| Richmond upon Thames | 57 min | 8% | 35 min · 6 min quicker | 58 min · 11 min slower |
| Harrow | 58 min | 4% | 34 min · 12 min quicker | 55 min · 10 min slower |
| Bromley | 58 min | 12% | 30 min · 17 min quicker | 47 min · 11 min slower |
| Sutton | 60 min | 0% | 42 min · about typical | 66 min · 18 min slower |
| Hounslow | 60 min | 4% | 46 min · 6 min quicker | 55 min · 8 min slower |
| Havering | 60 min | 5% | 30 min · 17 min quicker | 45 min · 2 min quicker |
| Hillingdon | 65 min | 0% | 43 min · 13 min quicker | 64 min · 7 min slower |
Median time is the middle value across all of a borough’s land. Select a column heading to sort the table.
Where can you go near Bank after work?
If your commute ends at Bank, these activity bars are in the City, within walking distance of the station.
Venue pages
How did we work out the journey times?
Where to. Bank station, at street level, on a weekday morning.
The network. Every tube, DLR, Elizabeth line, Overground and tram line in London, plus National Rail services into the London terminals, built from timetabled running times between stations and typical peak frequencies. We checked National Rail and Overground timings against published timetables for more than 30 journeys, including Orpington to London Bridge (15 minutes on fast trains) and Surbiton to Waterloo (15 to 16 minutes).
Door to door. Walking at 4.8km/h on streets 20% longer than the straight line. Where a station is more than half a kilometre away, a bus is used if it is quicker: 7 minutes to walk to the stop and wait, then 11km/h. The wait for the first train is 2 minutes on frequent lines, rising to 7.5 minutes where trains run every 30 minutes. Each change adds half the gap between trains plus about 3 minutes between platforms, more at the big terminals.
Distance and speed. Distance is the straight line from the hexagon or station to Bank. Speed is that distance divided by the door-to-door time.
For the distance. We fitted a curve of typical journey time against distance across London. A place is quicker or slower than typical when it beats or misses that curve. For example, the typical time for 12.3 miles is about 47 minutes, so Orpington’s 30 is 17 minutes quicker.
Limits. These are modelled times for a normal morning. They leave out delays, strikes, engineering works and crowding, and buses are modelled simply, so places far from any station, such as around Biggin Hill, are the least precise. Journey planners such as Google Maps can show times a few minutes shorter, because they assume you reach the platform just as the train arrives.
Journey times are modelled and change with timetables. Always check before you travel.
Sources. Station locations: Powered by TfL Open Data, contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026; uk-railway-stations by David Wheatley and the Trainline EU stations dataset, Open Database Licence, including data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Borough boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence, contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right. Tube running times: the open tubemaps dataset. National Rail times checked against published operator timetables, October 2026.
Can you use these figures?
Journalists and local sites are welcome to use the map and figures. Please credit Where To Go London and link to this page.
Source: Where To Go London (wheretogolondon.co.uk), modelled weekday-morning journey times to Bank, October 2026.
Common questions about getting to Bank
- How long does it take to get to Bank from Orpington?
- About 30 minutes door to door on a weekday morning. The quickest route is Southeastern to London Bridge, then the Northern line. Orpington is 12.3 miles from Bank, and a typical place that far out takes about 47 minutes.
- Which London borough has the shortest commute to Bank?
- Tower Hamlets. Half its land is within 20 minutes of Bank. Westminster and Islington come next, with median door-to-door times of 26 and 27 minutes. We left out the City of London, because it is where everyone is going.
- Which London borough has the longest commute to Bank?
- Hillingdon, with a median of 65 minutes, and none of it is within 45 minutes of Bank. Sutton is the only other borough with nowhere inside 45 minutes.
- Which station has the fastest commute to Bank for the distance?
- Romford, Orpington, Upminster and Surbiton, at about 25mph in a straight line. Our times are accurate to a few minutes, so treat them as joint first. Under 10 miles out, East Croydon is the quickest, at 27 minutes for 9.6 miles.
- How much of London is within 45 minutes of Bank?
- About a third (34%) of London’s land is within 45 minutes of Bank, door to door, and about three-quarters (76%) is within an hour. Half of London’s land is within 51 minutes. Use the buttons above the map to shade everywhere further out.
- Is it quicker to cycle to Bank than take public transport?
- For about 6% of London’s land. The bike wins across most of Hackney (83% of the borough), Islington (81%) and Southwark (76%). We assumed a cyclist averaging 9mph on roads a quarter longer than the straight line, plus two minutes to lock up.
- Why does Google Maps show a shorter journey time?
- Journey planners such as Google Maps assume you reach the platform just as the train arrives, so they can show times a few minutes shorter. Our times include a wait for the first train and for each change.
- Do these journey times include delays and strikes?
- No. They are modelled times for a normal weekday morning, and they leave out delays, strikes, engineering works and crowding. Always check before you travel.