Driving and parking

How to get to the hotel

Coventry is in the centre of England, about twenty miles east of Birmingham. It is close to the M1, M6, M40 and M42. Driving times are approximately one-and-a-half hours from London or Manchester, subject to traffic conditions.

Approaching Coventry from any direction, follow signs to the City Centre. You will eventually arrive at the well-signposted Ring Road: this is a small 'inner ring road' around the city centre. Follow it round – either way works – always following the 'all other directions' signs until you get to Junction 2, signposted for the Bus Station, University, Sports Centre and Cathedral. Take this exit. The slip road will take you down off the ring road. Stick to this road, following the signs to Bus Station/Sports Centre etc. As you come down into the city centre, the road will bear left at a large metal archway.

The Britannia Hotel is the large modern building on your right, and the road passes under part of it. At the next traffic lights you will see the bus station on your left. Continue straight across these lights, passing the Sports Centre on your right. At the next lights turn left and then left again (following signs to 'cathedral parking'). This brings you back on yourself, and under the flyover, to the Cox Street Car Park. The Britannia is about a hundred yards away, opposite you.

If a hundred yards is too far to transport your luggage (especially if you're a dealer with a lot of space), there is an unloading bay to the right of the hotel; you can park there, put your things behind reception, then move your vehicle to the Cox Street Car Park. Note that there is only room for a couple of vehicles in the unloading bay at one time, so you may not be able to unload immediately. If you're a dealer wanting to use the loading bay to unload your things, please contact Richard Proctor (richard@wavwebs.com) in advance of the con to arrange a time.

Parking at the Cox Street car park

The hotel does not have its own car park, so guests park in the Cox Street car park, a public car park a couple of hundred yards from the hotel. At the time of writing, there is normally a daily charge of £9. We will be discussing discount arrangements with the hotel for Redemption '11, and will publish them here, once they are confirmed.

Disabled badge holders can park for free. Take a ticket when you arrive at the car park. When you are ready to leave, press the intercom button by the exit barrier and tell them you have a blue badge. They will ask you for the serial number on the blue badge and then open the barrier to let you out.

Sat nav / Google Maps

The hotel's postcode is CV1 5RP. However, as described above, the Cox Street car park is a short distance away - and it does not have a postcode. If you have a satellite navigation system, you can enter the co-ordinates 52°24'37.45"N 1°30'13.86"W into it - or into Google Maps - and that should get you to the entrance.

Other car parks

Please note that having told us that you are driving to Redemption does not guarantee you a parking space. The Cox Street car park has 346 spaces, and may get full at peak times.

Coventry's city centre car parks are managed by CV One Limited, and you can see information about the other car parks in the city centre here. That page has a link to a map of the city centre, with the car parks marked on it.

Motorbikes, vans and trailers

The Cox St car park has a 'No motorbikes' sign on its entrance. CV One, who operate the car park, tell us that as long as you're in a car space, you should be okay. However, a better option is to park your bike in the hotel's own loading bay (they have agreed that this will be possible for members of the convention). The loading bay is to the right of the hotel, as you face its main entrance. If you want to do, this, then please contact the hotel directly (there's a link to their website on ours, at http://www.conventions.org.uk/redemption/hotel.html). Explain that you're with the convention, and that you're coming via motorbike. Note that there's only a limited number of bikes they can accommodate.

At the other end of the scale: the Cox St car park also doesn't allow lorries, or trailers, or, indeed, anything else that doesn't fit nicely into a car-shaped space. If you've got a van that'll fit into a car space, you'll be okay. If you're hiring a large truck for the weekend, not so okay. If you fall into this latter category, we can make alternative parking arrangements for you: contact us if you're not sure.