Grand Arcade costs £33.50 for a weekday over five hours. Queen Anne Terrace is £24 and free after 6pm, and park and ride parking is free for 18 hours.
The same weekday in Cambridge can cost you nothing or £33.50, depending on which car park you pick. Grand Arcade is the most expensive place to leave a car in the city. Trumpington park and ride is free for 18 hours.
Cambridge City Council runs 11 car parks, five multi-storey and six at street level. Everything else on the road belongs to Cambridgeshire County Council: on-street bays, resident permit schemes, parking fines and the Mill Road bus gate. The five park and ride sites are the county’s too.
All tariffs below were read from the council’s own car park pages on 30 August 2026.
What a full weekday actually costs
The gap between the top and bottom of that chart is the single most useful thing on this page. Grand Arcade is £9.50 dearer than Queen Anne Terrace for the same day, and both are a walk from the city centre.
The five multi-storey car parks
All five open 24 hours, seven days a week, and all charge normal daily rates on bank holidays.
Grand Arcade, Corn Exchange Street, CB2 3QF. The closest to the colleges and the river, with 951 spaces and 34 Blue Badge bays. Height limit 1.98m. No motorcycles.
Park Street, CB5 8AS. Smaller at 222 spaces, but the best equipped: 26 electric vehicle charging bays, 20 free motorcycle bays and a 2.1m height limit.
| Grand Arcade and Park Street | 1hr | 2hr | 3hr | 4hr | 5hr | Over 5hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday, 8am to 6pm | £3.70 | £7.40 | £11.10 | £16 | £26.80 | £33.50 |
| Weekend | £4.70 | £9.40 | £14.10 | £19.20 | £29.70 | £36.50 |
Evenings and overnight from 6pm cost £1.80 an hour at both.
Grafton East, East Road, CB1 1PS, has 412 spaces and 46 Blue Badge bays, the most in the city. Grafton West, Fitzroy Lane off Maids Causeway, CB1 1HE, has 286 spaces and only five. Both cap at 1.98m and take no motorcycles.
| Grafton East and Grafton West | 1hr | 2hr | 3hr | 4hr | 5hr | Over 5hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday, 8am to 6pm | £3.10 | £6.20 | £9.30 | £14.40 | £23.50 | £30.60 |
| Weekend | £4 | £8 | £12 | £17 | £26.50 | £33.70 |
Evenings and overnight are £1.30 an hour.
Queen Anne Terrace, Gonville Place, CB1 1ND, is the one to know. The council calls it its cheapest car park for longer stays, and it is the only multi-storey where evening and overnight parking is free. It has 572 spaces, 40 EV charging points and free motorcycle parking on the ground floor.
| Queen Anne Terrace | 1hr | 2hr | 3hr | 4hr | 5hr | 6hr | Over 6hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday, 8am to 6pm | £2.60 | £5.30 | £8 | £10.70 | £13.40 | £18 | £24 |
| Weekend | £3.30 | £6.60 | £9.90 | £13 | £15.60 | £21 | £26 |
If you are at Parkside pool, the Grafton centre or Anglia Ruskin after 6pm, park here and pay nothing.
Free parking, and the traps
Four street-level car parks are free outside charging hours. The catch is that no two have the same hours, and the difference on a Sunday is the one that costs people money.
- Gwydir Street, off Mill Road, CB1 2LW. £2.60 an hour, Monday to Saturday only, 8am to 6pm. Free all day Sunday, with no maximum stay when free. 38 spaces.
- Riverside, Abbey Road, CB5 8HH. £2 an hour, Monday to Saturday only, 8am to 6pm. Free all day Sunday. Just 11 spaces, and it takes no cash or cards: JustPark only, ID 16803.
- Adam and Eve Street, off East Road, CB1 1DX. £3 an hour, and this one does charge on Sundays, 10am to 6pm. Bank holidays are charged too. Four-hour maximum, 37 spaces.
- Castle Hill, off Castle Street, CB3 0AT. £3.20 for two hours and £10 over four, Monday to Saturday. Sunday is £5 all day. Regular users can buy a weekly ticket for £45 covering seven consecutive days.
Two more sites charge only part of the day.
Cherry Hinton Hall, Cherry Hinton Road, CB1 8DW, charges only between 10am and 3pm, and is free the rest of the time. Maximum stay five hours, no return within two. Five hours costs £7.50 on a weekday and £5.50 at the weekend, which makes weekend afternoons here among the cheapest paid parking in the city. No cash or cards.
Lammas Land, The Driftway, Newnham Road, CB3 9JJ, changes with the season, which is easy to miss:
- 1 April to 31 October: charges apply 8am to 6pm, and the barrier drops at 10pm.
- 1 November to 31 March: charges stop at 4pm and parking is free until the barrier drops at 9pm.
Eight hours on a weekday is £25.50. At weekends the maximum stay is five hours, at £12.30. Take the barrier seriously. A car left inside cannot leave until 8am the next morning and may pick up a penalty charge.
Blue Badge parking
Blue Badge holders get three hours free, at any time of day, at all five multi-storey car parks. Take the badge to a pay station before you leave and the machine scans it and deducts three hours.
At street level, the council’s Blue Badge page lists four sites: Adam and Eve Street, Castle Hill, Gwydir Street and Riverside. Display the badge and a time clock, and buy a ticket for any time beyond three hours.
There is one inconsistency worth knowing. That page does not list Lammas Land, but the Lammas Land car park page does say the first three hours are free for Blue Badge holders. If you rely on it, it is worth ringing the car parks team on 01223 457000 first.
Blue Badge bay counts vary a lot: 46 at Grafton East, 34 at Grand Arcade, 16 at Park Street, 15 at Queen Anne Terrace, but only five at Grafton West and one at Gwydir Street.
On-street Blue Badge parking and Blue Badge access through the Mill Road bus gate are handled by the county council, not the city.
Park and ride is the cheapest way into Cambridge
Five sites ring the city: Babraham Road, Madingley Road, Milton, Newmarket Road and Trumpington. Parking is free for up to 18 hours. Beyond that it is £10 for 18 to 24 hours, £20 to 48 hours and £30 to 72 hours.
Bus fares from the park and ride pricing page:
- Adult return: £4.50
- Child return, ages 5 to 15 with a paying adult: £1
- Short hop return: £3.80
- Small group day pass, up to 3 people: £9.50
- Large group day pass, up to 5 people: £14
Two adults driving in together pay £9.50 for the group pass and nothing to park. The same day at Grand Arcade is £33.50. Coaches are barred from every city council car park and directed to Madingley Road.
Station parking
Both Cambridge stations are run by Saba Park Services, and the difference between them is large.
| Cambridge (CB1 2JW) | Cambridge North | |
|---|---|---|
| Spaces | 333, 21 accessible | 428, 24 accessible |
| Daily | £17.50 | £13 |
| Weekly | £70 | £52 |
| Monthly | £252 | £187 |
| Annual | £2,449 | £1,820 |
Figures from the National Rail station pages for Cambridge and Cambridge North. Cambridge North also sells an hourly rate of £1.20 and a weekend rate of £8.40 a day, neither of which the main station offers. A season at Cambridge North saves a commuter £629 a year.
Resident permits
Most Cambridge resident parking schemes belong to the county council. Cambridge City Council issues permits for a short list of its own addresses only, including Ditchburn Place, Hanover Court, Princess Court, Russell Court and parts of Davy Road, James Street and Norfolk Street.
- £31 a year for a resident’s permit or a visitor’s permit. You can hold one of each.
- Valid 1 April to 31 March, and the council sends no renewal reminders. Parking without a valid permit earns a fine.
- 50% off for vehicles emitting under 75g/km of CO2, or for residents receiving PIP Mobility or Attendance Allowance. The discount for benefits applies to resident’s permits only.
If your address is not on the council’s list, the county council’s resident parking schemes are the place to look next.
Related
- Cambridge roadworks and travel, including the Mill Road bus gate and its £70 penalty
- Cambridge train times to London
- Cambridge bin collection days
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