Shoreditch works two shifts. By day it's offices, studios and start-ups around Old Street and Great Eastern Street. By night it's bars, clubs and restaurants that stay busy until the early hours. Minibus hire Shoreditch groups book with us covers both, from a company taking forty staff to an away day to a birthday group that needs getting home to six different postcodes at 2am.
Our base in SE1 is close, usually fifteen to twenty-five minutes away outside the rush hour, which helps with late changes to timings or numbers.
Nights out and late pickups
Shoreditch's nightlife is spread across Shoreditch High Street, Hoxton Square, Curtain Road, Rivington Street, Old Street and the streets around Boxpark, with Brick Lane and Spitalfields just to the south, over the Tower Hamlets boundary. On a Friday or Saturday night, the pavements are packed and traffic moves at walking pace.
So the vehicle can't stop outside every bar. We'll agree a pickup point a short walk away, often on a quieter side street, and the driver will message with the exact spot. For a late finish, walking to it together as a group is the single biggest thing you can do to get home quickly.
Give us the drop-off addresses in advance and we'll plan the route. Late-night groups often split between north and south London, and two smaller vehicles can be quicker than one big loop. A loop round Hackney, Islington and Stoke Newington is quick at 2am. A run out to Walthamstow, Ilford or south of the river takes a little longer.
Minibus hire Shoreditch for team events
Shoreditch has a lot of tech, media and creative companies, and they book us for away days, client events, offsites and summer parties. A typical booking is a team of twenty heading to a venue in Kent or Essex for the day, or a group going from the office to a dinner and on to a bar.
For corporate bookings, the pickup point needs agreeing in advance. Many offices are on narrow streets or red routes, where a minibus can only stop for a moment. We'll find a spot nearby that works, and send the details in writing.
The area also hosts a lot of conferences, hackathons and product launches, in venues like Shoreditch Town Hall and the converted warehouses around Great Eastern Street. For those, we run shuttles from stations and hotels, or collect speakers and guests individually.
Shoreditch Town Hall is also popular for weddings, along with several warehouse and gallery venues nearby. Guests often come from across London, and a minibus from a meeting point keeps the day on schedule.
Stag and hen groups
Shoreditch is a popular place for stag and hen dos, with activities like axe throwing, escape rooms and cocktail classes, followed by dinner and a night out. Brick Lane's curry houses are a classic stop for a stag dinner. For those, one vehicle and one driver for the day keeps the group together, from the morning activity to the drop-offs at the end of the night.
Airports from Shoreditch
London City Airport is the closest, around twenty-five to thirty-five minutes via the A13. Stansted is about an hour via the A12 and the M11. Heathrow and Gatwick are both an hour or more, across London or round the river. St Pancras, for the Eurostar, is around fifteen minutes away.
Liverpool Street, ten minutes' walk away, is the station for the Stansted Express, which suits couples travelling light. For early flights, Shoreditch's quiet early-morning roads help. A 4am pickup is a clear run. A 6pm pickup is not, because the City's evening peak spills onto the roads around Old Street and Bishopsgate.
Old Street, red routes and the Congestion Charge
The Old Street roundabout was rebuilt a few years ago, with a new layout and a different route for traffic. Shoreditch High Street, Great Eastern Street and Commercial Street are red routes, and stopping on them is tightly controlled.
Parts of Shoreditch sit inside or on the edge of the Congestion Charge zone, and the charge applies during charging hours when a route enters it. ULEZ covers the whole area, as it does the rest of Greater London.
Columbia Road's Sunday flower market, just to the east of the Hackney boundary, fills the streets around it on Sunday mornings, and Brick Lane is busy all weekend.
Busy nights, narrow streets
The thing to know about Shoreditch is how quickly the streets fill up after 10pm at weekends. Minibus hire Shoreditch groups book for a late finish works when the group is ready at the agreed point at the agreed time. Waiting inside for one more round while the driver sits on a red route is how a ten-minute pickup becomes forty.
For minibus hire in Shoreditch, call 020 7183 0567.