Custom House for the west entrance, Prince Regent for the east entrance, and the walk between the two is about a kilometre through the building. From the West End the Elizabeth line takes 16 to 20 minutes, and only the Abbey Wood branch stops at Custom House.
Excel London is the exhibition centre in the Royal Docks in east London. It is a single building roughly a kilometre long with entrances at each end, and the whole difficulty of getting there is not the journey from central London, which is short and easy, but choosing which end to arrive at. Get that wrong on a wet February morning and you walk the length of an exhibition hall with a suitcase before you find your event.
The venue now spells its own name Excel London, without the internal capitals that older maps and signs still show. Our guide to staying near the exhibition centre and in Stratford covers the hotels and the spelling in more detail; this page is about the journey and the doors.
Getting to Excel London at a glance
- West entrance
- Custom House (Elizabeth line and DLR), about 200 m
- East entrance and ICC London
- Prince Regent (DLR), about 200 m
- Third station
- Royal Victoria (DLR), at the western end of the site for the waterfront
- Inside the building
- West to east entrance about 600 m; Prince Regent to Custom House about 1 km through the venue
- From Tottenham Court Road
- 16 minutes, Elizabeth line, no change
- Fare zone
- Zone 3, so ordinary pay as you go fares and daily caps apply
- Step-free
- Yes at both stations and throughout the venue
The Elizabeth line trap: Abbey Wood or nothing
Custom House is on the eastern branch of the Elizabeth line, and that branch splits at Whitechapel. Trains towards Abbey Wood call at Custom House. Trains towards Shenfield do not. Neither do any of the services that terminate at Paddington or Liverpool Street.
Transport for London's own route data confirms it: Custom House appears on the Abbey Wood branches and on none of the Shenfield ones. On the platform at Bond Street or Liverpool Street, look at the destination on the front of the train and on the platform indicator, and let a Shenfield train go. If you board the wrong one you will notice at Stratford, which is on the other line entirely, and you will lose 15 minutes.
A Shenfield train will not stop at Custom House. Both Elizabeth line branches serve Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street and Whitechapel, and only the Abbey Wood ones continue to Canary Wharf, Custom House and Woolwich. Check the destination, not just the line.
Photo: mattbuck (category) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
How long it takes from central London
These are journey times from Transport for London's journey planner for a weekday mid-morning in October 2026, station to station, not including the walk into the building:
| From | To Custom House | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Liverpool Street | 10 minutes | Elizabeth line, direct |
| Tottenham Court Road | 16 minutes | Elizabeth line, direct |
| Bond Street | 18 minutes | Elizabeth line, direct |
| Paddington | 22 minutes | Elizabeth line, direct |
| Waterloo | 23 minutes | Jubilee line to Canning Town, then DLR |
| King's Cross St Pancras | 24 minutes | Northern line to Tottenham Court Road, then Elizabeth line |
| Victoria | 30 minutes | District and Jubilee lines, then DLR |
| Canary Wharf | 8 minutes | Elizabeth line, direct |
The pattern is worth noticing. Anywhere on the Elizabeth line is quick and simple. Anywhere on the south or west of the Underground network, Victoria most of all, involves two changes and takes twice as long, so allow 45 minutes door to door from a hotel near Victoria and 30 from Bloomsbury. Fares are ordinary zonal fares, and a day of travel counts towards the usual daily cap.
From the airports
The Elizabeth line makes Heathrow the easy one: about 50 minutes from Terminals 2 and 3 to Custom House with no change at all, which is faster than getting to most West End hotels and then out again. Terminal 4 is about 56 minutes, Terminal 5 about an hour. Compare that with the alternatives in Heathrow to central London, and note that an Elizabeth line journey to or from Heathrow is charged at the peak rate at all times.
Gatwick is about 57 minutes, on Thameslink to Farringdon and then the Elizabeth line east. London City Airport is the closest airport in London to any major venue in the city: it is three DLR stops away, under ten minutes, and if you are flying in for a single day of a trade show it is the reason to pay more for the flight.
Which station for which hall
The venue's own guidance is short and worth following: Custom House is nearest the west entrance, Prince Regent is nearest the east entrance and the ICC London conference auditoria. Both stations are about 200 metres from their entrance. The central boulevard that runs the length of the building is 600 metres long, and the walk from Prince Regent through the venue to Custom House is about a kilometre.
Your ticket or joining email almost always names an entrance and a hall. If it does not, the venue asks visitors to check its own event listing or to email its accessibility team for the closest recommended entrance and station for a specific event. Do that the day before, not on the concourse.
Two adjacent doors can be a 15-minute walk apart. If you arrive at the wrong station, do not walk along the dock outside: go back one DLR stop. Custom House to Prince Regent is two minutes on the train and considerably drier than the boulevard on a busy show day.
Arriving by cable car, which is not a gimmick here
The London Cable Car crosses the Thames between Royal Docks Terminal, next to Royal Victoria DLR station, and Greenwich Peninsula Terminal next to North Greenwich. For a tourist it is a ten-minute ride 90 metres above the river. For someone attending an event at Excel it is a genuine link to the Jubilee line, and the venue publishes an offer of 50% off, giving a £3.50 single fare, on production of an event confirmation email or ticket.
The standard adult fare is £7.00 one way or £13.50 return, and pay as you go with contactless or Oyster works but does not count towards your daily cap. It runs Monday to Thursday 08:00 to 21:00, Friday 09:00 to 22:00, Saturday 09:00 to 23:00 and Sunday 09:00 to 21:00, and it closes in strong wind. Our guide to the London Cable Car has the full picture, and getting to The O2 covers the other end of the ride.
Buses, and why they are a last resort
Routes 147, 241, 300, 304, 325, 474 and 678 serve the Royal Docks, with night bus N551 after the trains stop. They are useful for local hops, for getting to Canning Town or to Woolwich, and for the moments when the DLR is disrupted. They are not a sensible way in from central London, which is a long crawl through the East End for the sake of a £1.85 fare. Our guide to London buses explains the Hopper fare if you do end up on one.
Step-free routes and access inside
This is one of the better venues in London for access, and the transport matches it. Every DLR station is step-free from street to train, and every Elizabeth line station is step-free from street to platform. At Custom House, level access from platform to carriage is from the fifth carriage only, so if you use a wheelchair, position yourself accordingly or ask staff; the DLR alternative at Prince Regent has level boarding throughout.
Inside, all public entrances have low-gradient ramps and automatic doors, and every floor is level. The venue lends wheelchairs and mobility scooters free of charge, subject to availability and pre-booking, and has Changing Places facilities at the east end on level 1 and in the Maritime Suite on level 0, both operated with a RADAR key. For Blue Badge drivers the venue quotes £27.50 per calendar day pre-booked and £30 on the day, with an £80 charge if a valid badge is not displayed. Its pages give two different totals for accessible bays, 134 across the zones in the FAQ and 80 on the accessibility page, so book rather than assume. Our guide to step-free transport in London covers the network side.
The thing people get wrong before they set off
Events are still advertised as being "at Earls Court" by promoters who have not updated their copy, and the Earls Court exhibition halls were demolished years ago. If a ticket says Earls Court, read the address: it is usually here in the Royal Docks or at Olympia in west London, which is an hour away across the city. Our guide to Earl's Court and West Brompton explains what happened to the site.
The other trap is luggage. Many people come here straight from a plane or a train, and large exhibitions restrict suitcases in the halls. There is no station left-luggage office in the Royal Docks, so if you are travelling on the same day, leave bags at a main-line station before you come out east: left luggage at London's stations gives the locations, hours and prices.
Frequently asked questions
Which station is closest to Excel London?
Custom House, on the Elizabeth line and the DLR, is about 200 metres from the west entrance. Prince Regent on the DLR is about 200 metres from the east entrance and the ICC conference rooms. Royal Victoria on the DLR serves the western waterfront. Which one you want depends on the hall, so check your ticket.
Do all Elizabeth line trains stop at Custom House?
No. Only trains on the Abbey Wood branch call at Custom House. Trains to and from Shenfield use a different branch east of Whitechapel and do not stop there, so check the destination shown on the train and the platform indicator before boarding.
How long does it take to get to Excel from the West End?
About 16 minutes from Tottenham Court Road and 18 from Bond Street on the Elizabeth line with no change, plus a walk of two or three minutes into the building. Allow 30 minutes door to door from a central hotel and 45 from Victoria or Kensington, which need two changes.
Is Excel London in Zone 3?
Yes. Custom House and Prince Regent are in fare Zone 3, so a return trip from central London is covered by the ordinary pay as you go fare and by the Zones 1 to 3 daily cap. The cable car is charged separately and does not count towards the cap.
Can you walk between the two entrances inside the building?
Yes, and in bad weather you should. The central boulevard is 600 metres long and connects the west and east entrances under cover. From Prince Regent station through the venue to Custom House station is about a kilometre in total, which is ten to fifteen minutes at a normal pace, longer in a crowd.
Sources
- Excel London - Getting here, with walking distances inside the venue (checked September 2026)
- Excel London - Public transport (checked September 2026)
- Excel London - Cable Car offer (checked September 2026)
- Excel London - Accessibility (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Unified API, Elizabeth line branch data (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Journey Planner API, sample weekday journeys (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Cable car fares (checked September 2026)