Holmesdale Road and Holly Bush Recreation Ground are free every day, and the council lists them in no tariff. Every other free hour in town, checked.

Free parking in Sevenoaks does exist, and the two best options are not in the council’s list of car parks at all. Holmesdale Road and Holly Bush Recreation Ground, both at St John’s, are council car parks that are free every day of the week. Neither has a tariff, so neither has a page in the council’s car park directory, and the only place either is recorded is a table buried in the annual parking report. Almost no parking guide for this town mentions them.

After those come the arrangements people do know about: one car park free every Saturday and Sunday, a handful of streets near the railway station free all day on a Sunday, every council car park once its charging hours end, and every council car park on a bank holiday. What stays true is that nothing in the town centre itself is free all day on a weekday, and that the council withdrew most of its free weekend parking in 2024.

This page sets out each of those, with the council’s own record linked against every claim, and it is equally clear about where free parking does not exist so you do not drive round hoping. For the full tariff picture, including which car park is cheapest when you do have to pay, see our guide to parking in Sevenoaks.

The quick answer

Two council car parks at St John’s, Holmesdale Road (32 spaces) and Holly Bush Recreation Ground (123 spaces), are free all the time, and a third at Eynsford is free too. The District Council Offices car park off Gordon Road (TN13 1HG) is free on Saturdays and Sundays, 7am to 7pm, and is the free option closest to the High Street. On a Sunday, the pay and display streets on the station side of town (Ashley Road, Ashley Close, Chestnut Lane, St Botolphs Road, Morewood Close West) are free all day, because they charge Monday to Saturday only. Every council car park and on-street bay in the district is free on public and bank holidays. And once the charging hours end, at 6.30pm or 8.30pm depending on the car park, you pay nothing.

Where parking is free in Sevenoaks

Free parking in and near Sevenoaks, from the council's 2026 tariff pages and its annual parking report
WhereWhen it is freeThe catch
Holmesdale Road, St John's (32 spaces)Every day, all dayNo tariff, hours or maximum stay published anywhere: read the signs on site
Holly Bush Recreation Ground, off Holly Bush Lane, St John's (123 spaces)Every day, all daySame again, and the council charges £5.30 all day on the bays down the same lane
Eynsford High Street, DA4 0AA (21 spaces)Every day, all dayUp the Darent valley, and the only free council car park outside Sevenoaks town
Council Offices, off Gordon Road, TN13 1HGSaturdays and Sundays, 7am to 7pmNo weekday tariff is published, so do not assume Monday to Friday
Ashley Road, Ashley Close, Chestnut Lane, St Botolphs Road, Morewood Close (West)All day SundayOn-street bays, so limited numbers and popular with station users
All council car parks and baysPublic and bank holidaysSundays are not bank holidays, and most car parks charge on them
All council car parks and baysOutside charging hours, after 6.30pm or 8.30pmCheck the sign, the two groups end three hours apart
Otford Village car park, TN14 5PQFirst hour free daily; all day Sunday and bank holidaysTen minutes north of Sevenoaks, not walkable to the town centre

Free all the time: two car parks the council does not list

Sevenoaks District Council’s annual parking report for 2024/25 sets out every off-street car park it runs and how many spaces each holds. Seventeen are listed. Four of them carry the word (Free) against the name, and two of those are in Sevenoaks town: Holmesdale Road, with 32 spaces, and Holly Bush Recreation Ground, with 123. A third, the council offices off Gordon Road, is marked free at weekends only and has 146 spaces. The fourth is at Eynsford.

Holmesdale Road and Holly Bush Recreation Ground appear nowhere in the council’s car parking directory, the pages this site links against every other price below. That is not an oversight: the directory exists to publish tariffs, and these two have no tariff to publish. The effect, though, is that the district’s only always-free car parks are invisible to anyone searching the council website, which is why they are missing from almost every parking guide for the town, including, until today, this one.

Both sit at the St John’s end of town, north of the centre, Holly Bush Recreation Ground off Holly Bush Lane and Holmesdale Road a few streets east of it. Holly Bush is roughly half a mile from the High Street and Holmesdale Road a little further, so this is a ten to fifteen minute walk into the centre rather than a shopper’s car park. For anyone visiting St John’s itself, or happy to walk, it is free where everything else in Sevenoaks is not.

Two warnings, and they matter. The report gives a name and a space count and nothing else: no charging hours, no maximum stay, no restrictions, no exact address. And the council’s own 123-space free car park sits about 250 metres up Holly Bush Lane from on-street bays where it charges £5.30 for the day, so the two are easy to confuse if you park at the wrong end of the lane. Read the sign where you stop.

What it means for you: if you are working, walking or visiting at St John’s, or you are willing to walk fifteen minutes into town, there is no reason to pay anything in Sevenoaks on any day of the week.

Free at the weekend: the council offices off Gordon Road

The car park at the Sevenoaks District Council Offices, reached off Gordon Road at TN13 1HG, is listed by the council as “Free on Saturdays and Sundays 7am to 7pm” (Sevenoaks District Council). It is a five minute walk from the top of the High Street, which makes it the best free option in town for a Saturday morning shop or a Sunday walk.

Two things to know. First, the council’s entry publishes no weekday tariff at all, so treat the free arrangement as a weekend one and do not turn up on a Tuesday expecting the same. Second, four electric vehicle charging points there are open to the public from 6pm on Fridays and across weekends and bank holidays, but the charging itself is billed at standard Carbon3 rates through the Carbon3 app, and you need to bring your own cable.

What it means for you: if you are coming into Sevenoaks at the weekend and do not want to pay, this is the one to aim for, and it fills up. Arrive before about 10am on a Saturday.

Free on Sundays: the streets around the station

This is the answer most people are actually looking for when they search for free parking near Sevenoaks station, and it is a genuine one. The on-street pay and display bays on the station side of town charge Monday to Saturday, 8.30am to 6.30pm, and each council entry says the same thing: “Free on Sundays and public and bank holidays.”

Morewood Close is the cheapest of the group by a distance when you do have to pay, at £1.10 for an hour against £2.10 or £2.20 on the Ashley Road streets.

Be careful not to extend the Sunday rule across the whole town. Plymouth Drive (TN13 3RP) is also on the station side and looks like the others, but it charges Monday to Sunday, 8.30am to 6.30pm, so a Sunday there costs you. So does Bradbourne, the big 420-space car park by the station, which charges Monday to Sunday, 8.30am to 6.30pm.

What it means for you: on a Sunday, park on Ashley Road or Chestnut Lane and walk, rather than paying £5.30 for the day at Bradbourne fifty yards away.

Grid showing when parking is free in Sevenoaks: Holmesdale Road and Holly Bush Recreation Ground at St John's are free every day, the Gordon Road council offices car park is free on Saturday and Sunday, the station-side streets are free on Sunday, town centre car parks and Bradbourne charge every day, all are free on bank holidays, and Otford village gives a free first hour
Where and when parking is free across a normal week. Source: Sevenoaks District Council car park tariff pages and its annual parking report, 2026.
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Free in the evening and early morning

Council charges are not round the clock. Once the charging window closes, the car park is free until 8.30am the next morning, and the windows fall into two groups.

Charging ends at 8.30pm at Suffolk Way, Buckhurst 1, Sevenoaks Town (the multi-storey) and the Stag Theatre car park at South Park, all of which charge Monday to Sunday.

Charging ends at 6.30pm at Bradbourne and at St Johns and St James, the two 70-space car parks up the St Johns end, again Monday to Sunday. On-street, Holly Bush Lane runs to 8.30pm and Plymouth Drive to 6.30pm.

The council’s page for Blighs lists the tariff and the four-hour maximum stay but does not publish its charging hours, so read the sign at the machine there rather than assuming it matches its neighbours.

What it means for you: an evening at the Stag is free parking if you arrive after 8.30pm, and dinner on the High Street after 6.30pm costs nothing if you use Bradbourne. That is a real saving on a Friday night and almost nobody factors it in.

Free on public and bank holidays

Every council car park and on-street bay quoted on this page carries the same line: free on public and bank holidays. That covers Good Friday, Easter Monday, the early May and spring bank holidays, the summer bank holiday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

It does not cover Sundays. The council extended charging to Sundays across its car parks and on-street bays from April 2024, having previously charged on a Sunday only at Blighs and Bradbourne, and at the same time it withdrew free weekend parking everywhere except the Gordon Road offices (Sevenoaks District Council). If you remember free Sundays in Sevenoaks, that is what changed.

Free if you hold a blue badge

Blue badge holders park free, and without a time limit, in the council’s pay and display car parks, time-limited bays, resident permit bays and on-street bays. The only exception is loading bays. The council’s wording is that disabled drivers “may park in pay and display, time limited bays, resident permit bays, car parks and on street bays (excluding loading bays) for as long as necessary providing a valid Blue Badge is on display” (Sevenoaks District Council).

At the railway station the rules are APCOA’s, not the council’s, and free blue badge parking there has to be registered in advance through APCOA’s blue badge portal (APCOA).

Where free parking does not exist in Sevenoaks

Worth saying plainly, because a lot of pages about this town imply otherwise.

There is no free all-day parking in the town centre on a working day. Every council car park and every on-street bay in the centre charges from 8.30am, and the cheapest all-day ticket in the centre is £5.80 at the Sevenoaks Town multi-storey. The free car parks above are at St John’s, not in the centre: walk out that far and the council wants £5.30 all day at St Johns and St James, or nothing at all at Holmesdale Road and Holly Bush Recreation Ground.

Sunday is not free in the town centre. Blighs, Suffolk Way, Buckhurst 1, Sevenoaks Town, the Stag car park, Bradbourne and the South Park and London Road on-street bays all charge on a Sunday.

The station car parks are never free. They are run by APCOA rather than the council, with daily tickets that expire at 4am and sample rates of £8.80 on a Saturday and £5.80 on a Sunday or bank holiday (APCOA).

Westerham is not free either, despite what a few older listings suggest. The Quebec Avenue car park there charges Monday to Sunday, 8.30am to 6.30pm, from £1.10 an hour, free only on public and bank holidays.

We have deliberately left the supermarket car parks off this page. Their terms are set by private operators and enforced by ANPR, they are not published in any form we can link to, and the only reliable statement of the time limit is the sign at the entrance. Read it before you walk off.

First hour free: Otford, ten minutes north

If you can move your errand out of town, Otford Village car park (TN14 5PQ, 122 spaces) is the best-value council car park in the district. The first hour is free, two hours costs 50p, three hours £1, and each additional hour £1 after that. Charges apply Monday to Saturday, 9.30am to 6pm only, and it is free on Sundays, public and bank holidays.

Otford has the pond, the recreation ground, a handful of pubs and cafes and the station on the same line into London. For a coffee and a walk it costs nothing.

What it means for you: an hour in Otford is free where the same hour at Blighs is £2.10, and three hours in Otford costs £1 where three hours at Blighs costs £6.40.

Free in the villages: Eynsford

The council’s annual parking report marks one more car park free, and it is not in Sevenoaks town at all. Eynsford, DA4 0AA, holds 21 spaces and the council’s own record for it gives the charges in a single word: “Free” (Sevenoaks District Council). It is the only free council car park in the district outside the town, and it is the one to aim for if you are going to Eynsford for the ford, the castle or the walk up the Darent. As with the St John’s pair, no hours or maximum stay are published, so read the sign.

One place that is free to enter but not to park

Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve is often listed as free, and entry to the reserve is free, but the parking is not. Kent Wildlife Trust charges £2.50 on weekdays and £3.50 at weekends, card only, payable in the car park or at the till in the Jeffery Harrison Visitor Centre (Kent Wildlife Trust). The reserve itself is open daily, dawn to dusk. If you want a genuinely free walk near the town, Knole Park is free to enter on foot, and there are more free options in our roundup of things to do in Sevenoaks.

Frequently asked questions

Are any car parks in Sevenoaks free all the time? Yes, two, and neither is in the council’s car park directory. Holmesdale Road (32 spaces) and Holly Bush Recreation Ground (123 spaces) are both listed as free in the council’s annual parking report for 2024/25, and both are at St John’s rather than in the town centre. Because they have no tariff, the council publishes no hours, no maximum stay and no address for either (Sevenoaks District Council).

Is there any free parking in Sevenoaks town centre? Not all day on a weekday, no. The nearest free option to the High Street is the District Council Offices car park off Gordon Road, free on Saturdays and Sundays from 7am to 7pm. Every council car park is free on public and bank holidays, and free outside its charging hours, which end at either 6.30pm or 8.30pm depending on the car park. The two car parks that are free all week are at St John’s, about a ten to fifteen minute walk out (Sevenoaks District Council).

Where can I park for free near Sevenoaks station? On a Sunday, the pay and display bays on Ashley Road, Ashley Close, Chestnut Lane, St Botolphs Road and Morewood Close (West) are free, because they charge Monday to Saturday only. On any other day they charge from 8.30am to 6.30pm, and the station car parks themselves are run by APCOA and always charge.

Is parking free in Sevenoaks on a Sunday? Only in some places. The station-side streets listed above are free on Sundays, and the Gordon Road council offices car park is free on Sundays. The town centre car parks, Bradbourne, Plymouth Drive and the South Park and London Road on-street bays all charge on a Sunday. The council extended Sunday charging across its car parks from April 2024.

What time does parking become free in Sevenoaks? After 8.30pm at Suffolk Way, Buckhurst 1, Sevenoaks Town, the Stag Theatre car park and the Holly Bush Lane bays, and after 6.30pm at Bradbourne, St Johns and St James and Plymouth Drive. Charging restarts at 8.30am. The Blighs page does not publish charging hours, so check the sign there. Holmesdale Road and Holly Bush Recreation Ground never charge at all.

Does Sevenoaks offer free parking at Christmas? Not as a standing arrangement. The council ran free parking weekends in December 2020 as a town centre support measure, but no free December period appears in the current tariffs, so assume you pay unless the council announces otherwise for a given year.

Do blue badge holders pay to park in Sevenoaks? Not in the council’s car parks and bays, where a valid badge means free parking with no time limit, loading bays excepted. At the railway station APCOA offers free blue badge parking but you have to register with them first.

Sources

Every charge, charging window and free-parking exemption on this page was taken from Sevenoaks District Council’s own car park pages, and the free car parks from its annual parking report, re-checked on 14 September 2026. Tariffs are usually reviewed each April. Check the sign at the machine before you pay, or before you decide not to.