London traffic this week sits beneath a deceptively calm Monday surface, with the threatened tube strikes of 16 and 18 June called off and the Underground running a full timetable, yet the road network across the capital and its approaches faces a dense, dated schedule of confirmed overnight and weekend closures — on the M25 orbital, the A3 south-west corridor, the A21 into Kent, the A303, the A40 Westway and the A4 through the heart of Westminster — that The WP Times has checked line by line against live Transport for London and National Highways feeds, so that drivers can see precisely which route shuts on which night, until what time, and plan around it rather than discover it at the cones. The hard truth of the week is that almost nothing major closes during the daytime commute and almost everything closes after dark or at the weekend, which means the drivers who come unstuck will be the ones who saw a clear road on Monday morning and assumed the rest of the week would match it.
What follows is the week in full and in order: the strike picture first, because it decides how many cars are on the road at all; then the standing schemes that run every night regardless of the date; then a genuine day-by-day breakdown from Monday 15 to Saturday 20 June, with times; then the Westminster close-up; and finally a plan you can act on. Read the day you need, but read the standing schemes first — they are the spine the whole week hangs on.
The Tube: Running All Week, but the Peace Is Conditional
Start with the Underground, because whether the trains run determines how many people take to the roads. They run. The 24-hour walkouts that had been pencilled in for 16 and 18 June have been called off, just as the rounds in April and May were suspended before them, and the Underground is expected to run a full service all week. The Victoria, Jubilee, District and Circle lines that serve Westminster and Pimlico should carry their normal timetables throughout.
The relief, though, is a ceasefire rather than a settlement, and it would be dishonest to dress it up as anything more. The dispute that drove the strikes — the RMT's objection to what it describes as a compressed four-day working week for drivers, with the union citing roster changes, fatigue and safety — has not been resolved. It has been parked while talks continue. The Aslef union has already accepted the voluntary arrangement, viewing it as good for work-life balance, which leaves the RMT as the live front, and the union has said plainly that further action will follow if sufficient progress is not made. The year's pattern has been a wearying loop: dates announced, last-minute movement, strikes suspended, fresh dates threatened.
For the traveller weighing tube against car this week, the calculation is therefore straightforward. The tube is a safe bet for these six days. But build the habit now of checking the TfL status page the night before any journey you genuinely cannot afford to lose — a flight, a hospital appointment, an exam — because the next walkout, if it comes, must carry a fortnight's legal notice yet will land in a public that has long since stopped paying attention. This week you ride as normal. You simply keep the instinct sharp.
The Standing Schemes: What Runs Every Night, All Week
Before the daily detail, understand the works that do not care what day it is. These long-term schemes run nightly, or continuously, right through the week and well beyond it, and once you know them most of the day-by-day picture becomes predictable rather than alarming.
The south-west is where the heaviest standing disruption lives. On the A3, two major overnight schemes run every single night between 21:00 and 06:00: the southbound carriageway between the A320 and the A322 junction, scheduled all the way through to mid-September, and the northbound carriageway between the A322 and the A3100 junction, running to late September. For anyone whose route uses the A3 around the Guildford and Woking stretch after dark, these are not occasional inconveniences to plan around but a fixed nightly condition for the whole of the summer. Closer to town, also on the A3, the Tolworth junction has lane one of three closed and the entry slip shut for roadworks through to late July — and this one bites in daylight, with delays already tailing back toward the Malden Underpass, making Tolworth a standing daytime pinch point rather than an overnight one.
On the M3, works on the eastbound exit slip at junction 9 run nightly between 21:00 and 06:00, a pattern that started this week and continues deep into the autumn — a standing nightly obstacle for anyone running south-west toward Basingstoke, Winchester and the coast.
On the A40 Westway, the westbound closures at the Westway Roundabout return every weekend through to July: open midweek, shut westbound on Saturday and Sunday, with diversions onto surrounding local roads and delays building on those diversions. It is the single most predictable piece of disruption in the entire week.
Further out, two long-term schemes sit unmoving in the background. The A249 southbound in Kent remains under all-lane roadworks through to the end of July, a real obstacle for anyone heading toward the Kent coast or the Sheppey crossing. And to the east, the Gallows Corner Flyover refurbishment on the A12 at the junction with Colchester Road keeps a full westbound closure of the flyover in place, displacing traffic onto local roads — Ardleigh Green Road, Gubbins Lane, Gooshays Drive — and pushing peak delays of up to ten minutes onto the westbound A13 and the southbound M11 as drivers seek alternatives. Both are constant; neither changes by the day.
Hold those in mind. Now the dated detail.
Day by Day: Monday 15 to Saturday 20 June
Monday 15 June — calm by day, busy after ten
Through the daytime peak, Monday carries ordinary volume: no major central-London closure, the M25 clear of significant incident around its western and southern arcs, and only the usual scatter of borough and utility lane closures across the outer boroughs.
The night is when Monday earns its place. From 22:00 Monday to 05:30 Tuesday, road-marking works close lanes 1 and 2 on the M25 anticlockwise entry slip at junction 7, where the M23 joins from the north. From 21:00 Monday to 06:00 Tuesday, the A303 westbound entry slip from the A3057 closes for roadworks — the first night of a recurring nightly pattern. And the standing A3 and M3 overnight schemes are all live from 21:00. Monday's rule: drive it freely by day, but if you are out on the western motorways after ten, assume slip closures.
Tuesday 16 June — the Kent corridor joins
Tuesday is the day the A21 enters the schedule, and it matters for anyone heading south-east. From 20:00 Tuesday, the A21 northbound entry slip from the A26 closes for roadworks, and it does so every night through to 06:00 on Friday 19 June — a four-night recurring closure, not a single evening. Drivers using the A21 toward Tunbridge Wells and the Kent interior after eight in the evening should route around it for the rest of the working week.
On the orbital, emergency roadworks are scheduled on the M25 anticlockwise entry slip at junction 14, on the Heathrow side, from 22:00 Tuesday to 05:00 Wednesday. The standing A3, A303 and M3 overnight works continue. By day, Tuesday is again ordinary, the warmth climbing toward 25°C but the roads carrying normal midweek volume.
Wednesday 17 June — the clear day
Wednesday is the quietest of the week for new closures, which makes it the day to move a flexible journey to. No significant new daytime or overnight scheme is added. The standing A3, A303 and M3 overnight works continue, and the A21 northbound closure is in its second night, but that is all. If you have a west-bound or south-bound trip you can shift within the week, Wednesday is the day to make it — the standing works are the only thing between you and a clear run.
Thursday 18 June — the A3 tightens
Thursday is where the A3 sheds extra slips on top of its standing nightly works, marking the start of the weekend build-up. From 21:00 Thursday to 06:00 Friday, the A3 southbound entry slip from the A322 closes, and the A3 northbound entry slip from the A31 closes on the same overnight pattern. Layered onto the nightly A3 schemes already running, this makes Thursday night the most A3-disrupted night of the week for the south-west corridor. The A21 northbound closure is in its third night; the A303 and M3 works continue. The day itself is ordinary — it is the night that tightens.
Friday 19 June — the hinge of the week
Friday is where several recurring closures end and the weekend's bigger disruption begins. The A21 northbound nightly closure reaches its final night, ending at 06:00 Friday. The A3 southbound between the M25 and the A247 junctionis scheduled for overnight closure from late Thursday running through to Saturday morning, so it spans Friday night too. The standing A3, A303 and M3 overnight schemes continue. Friday daytime carries the heavier getaway traffic of the week's end, and with a warm weekend pulling leisure trips out of town, the evening outbound rush meets the start of the weekend roadworks. Anyone heading west or south-west for the weekend should leave early on Friday or accept a slow evening.
Saturday 20 June — the Westway dominates
Saturday belongs to the A40 Westway, where the westbound closure at the Westway Roundabout is in place all day, throwing west-bound traffic onto diversions through surrounding local roads and building delays on those routes. The A3 southbound between the M25 and the A247 runs its overnight closure into Saturday morning. The M25 junction 10 (Wisley) weekend works — the long-running upgrade adding lanes and rebuilding bridges — continue to make the J9–J11 stretch, the artery toward Gatwick and the south coast, slower than the map suggests. And the warm, dry forecast reliably swells leisure traffic on exactly these western and southern escape routes. Saturday's rule is the clearest of the week: heading west on the A40, the Westway is shut westbound, so plan the diversion before you leave; heading south for the coast, the M25 J10 works plus fine-weather volume mean an early start is worth an hour saved.
The Westminster and Pimlico Close-Up
Bring the map back to the centre, where these pages' readers actually drive. The most significant central scheme this week sits on the A4 at Piccadilly, in the heart of Westminster. The Piccadilly Underpass between Knightsbridge and Down Street is subject to closures on some weekends for routine maintenance, with emergency works also closing the underpass eastbound at times. For drivers crossing the West End on the A4 — a principal east-west artery — the underpass cannot be relied upon at the weekend, and surface-level diversions through the Hyde Park Corner area should be expected. Allow extra time for any weekend A4 journey through Knightsbridge and Piccadilly, and check before setting off, because the emergency element makes the pattern imperfectly predictable.
On the A501 Marylebone Road, the eastbound bus lane at the junction with Harewood Avenue is closed for works, with Harewood Avenue itself closed northbound as part of the same scheme — a long-term closure running into July that pinches capacity on one of central London's busiest east-west corridors, felt most in the peaks.
Closer to Pimlico, the week is governed by sheer volume rather than closure. The Vauxhall gyratory will do its usual peak-hour crawl every morning, northbound from the Vauxhall Bridge approach the slowest of it. The Victoria grid — Buckingham Palace Road, Vauxhall Bridge Road and the station approaches — stays its usual competitive squeeze of buses, taxis and private cars. And across the river, Albert Bridge remains closed entirely for borough works, throwing every cross-river journey in that stretch onto Chelsea Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge, both of which carry heavier loads all week as a result. For any peak-hour southbound crossing from Pimlico, add ten minutes as routine and expect a queue on the approaches.
Here is the whole week distilled into something you can act on. The tube runs all week, but check the status page the night before anything critical, because the strike threat is paused, not gone. The M25 is clear by day — treat Monday and Tuesday nights as slip-road closures at junctions 7 and 14, and treat the weekend as slow around junction 10. The A3 carries standing nightly works all week and adds further slip closures from Thursday night through Saturday morning. The A21 into Kent closes northbound every night from Tuesday to Friday, ending Friday at 06:00. The A303 westbound slip closes nightly from Monday. The A40 Westway is open midweek and shut westbound at the weekend. And in the centre, the A4 Piccadilly underpass is unreliable at the weekend, Marylebone Road pinches eastbound, and Albert Bridge's closure loads Chelsea and Vauxhall bridges every day. If your journey has any give in it, the single most useful sentence of the week is this: Wednesday is the clearest day, the weekend is the worst, and every night after ten is a slip-road lottery on the western and southern routes. Move what you can to midweek daylight.
And the caveat that no dated, checked guide can write around: live traffic is live. A shed load on the A40, a stall on the Vauxhall gyratory, a broken-down vehicle on the M25 — any of these can appear and clear within the hour, indifferent to any schedule, including this one. Everything above has been verified against live data as the week opened, but the most valuable habit a London driver can build is to open a live map — National Highways for the motorways, TfL's traffic status page for the inner city, or a JamCam camera service for a visual check — before turning the key. A guide gives you the shape of the week; only a live map gives you the state of the road under your wheels right now. That is the week, seriously and fully: a calm weekday surface over a dense, dated schedule of overnight and weekend closures, the tube running but the dispute simmering, and one shut Victorian bridge quietly reshaping the south-west of the centre. Plan around the nights and the weekend, favour Wednesday, keep a live map to hand — and a week that looks daunting on paper becomes entirely navigable in practice.
Frequently Asked Questions: London Travel, 15–20 June 2026
Is there a tube strike this week in London?
No. The 24-hour RMT walkouts that had been pencilled in for 16 and 18 June have been called off, and the Underground is running a full timetable all week. The Victoria, Jubilee, District and Circle lines serving Westminster and Pimlico are operating normally. The underlying dispute over the compressed four-day driver week is unresolved, however, so check the TfL status page the night before any critical journey in case fresh dates are announced.
Is the M25 closed this week?
Not during the day. The M25 is clear for the daytime commute, but there are overnight slip-road closures: the anticlockwise J7 entry slip (from the M23) closes 22:00 Monday to 05:30 Tuesday, and the anticlockwise J14 entry slip (Heathrow side) has emergency works 22:00 Tuesday to 05:00 Wednesday. At the weekend, the long-running junction 10 (Wisley) upgrade keeps the J9–J11 stretch slow.
Which day is best to drive in and around London this week?
Wednesday 17 June. It is the only day with no significant new closures — just the standing overnight schemes. If your journey is flexible, move it to midweek daylight.
Which is the worst day to travel west out of London?
Saturday 20 June. The A40 Westway westbound closure at the Westway Roundabout is in place all day, with diversions onto local roads, and warm weather swells leisure traffic on the western and southern escape routes.
Is the A3 closed this week?
Yes, but overnight. Two stretches close nightly 21:00–06:00 all summer: southbound between the A320 and A322, and northbound between the A322 and A3100. From Thursday night, extra slips close too — southbound from the A322 and northbound from the A31 (21:00 Thursday to 06:00 Friday). The A3 Tolworth junction also has a lane and slip shut in the daytime until late July.
What's happening on the A21 into Kent?
The A21 northbound entry slip from the A26 closes every night from 20:00 Tuesday 16 June through to 06:00 Friday 19 June. If you use the A21 toward Tunbridge Wells after 8pm this week, route around it.
Is Albert Bridge open?
No. Albert Bridge remains fully closed to traffic for borough works, so all cross-river journeys in that stretch fall onto Chelsea Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge, both of which run heavier all week. Add about ten minutes to any peak-hour southbound crossing from Pimlico.
Can I drive through Piccadilly and Knightsbridge this weekend?
The A4 Piccadilly Underpass between Knightsbridge and Down Street is subject to weekend and emergency closures, so it can't be relied upon at the weekend. Expect surface-level diversions around Hyde Park Corner and check before you set off, as the emergency element makes the timing unpredictable.
What's the quickest way to check live road conditions?
Use a live map before turning the key: National Highways for the motorways, TfL's traffic status page for inner London, or a JamCam camera service for a visual check. A guide gives you the shape of the week; only a live map shows the road under your wheels right now.
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