Clocktower Cars runs licensed taxis, cabs, minicabs and private hire cars in Surbiton, KT5 and KT6, twenty-four hours a day. Our Kingston office is a couple of miles away. Call 0203 388 9999 for a Surbiton taxi or minicab, or book online and we will confirm the car and the price before you travel.
Worth saying at the top, because people in Surbiton use both words and some firms only answer to one.
Ring us for a Surbiton taxi, a Surbiton cab, a Surbiton minicab or private hire in Surbiton and you get the same vehicle: a licensed car with a licensed driver, arriving when you asked, at a price agreed first.
The only real distinction is a legal one. A hackney carriage — the black cab — is licensed to be hailed in the street or taken from a rank. A private hire vehicle, which is what “minicab” means, must be booked in advance. We are a private hire operator, so every car is pre-booked, and in exchange for not being able to flag one down you get a price before the wheels turn instead of a meter running. We have written it up properly: minicab versus black cab.
0203 388 9999 — our Kingston office at 39A Walter Street, Kingston upon Thames, KT2 5DS, which covers Surbiton, Tolworth, Berrylands, Long Ditton and Kingston itself. Answered by a person, twenty-four hours a day, every day. 01372 747 747 is the Epsom head office.
Surbiton station is the reason this town exists and the reason most of our work here happens.
It is a National Rail station run by South Western Railway, in London fare zone 6, 12 miles 3 chains (19.4 km) from London Waterloo — and it carries the fast main-line trains rather than a branch service, which is why people travel to Surbiton to catch one. The front ticket office is open seven days a week. The building itself has been called one of the finest modernist stations in Great Britain and is Grade II listed.
The station approach is busy at the peaks and enforced. Tell the office which side you will be on and the driver will come to you rather than circling. If the train is delayed, ring us and we will move the booking instead of leaving a car on a yellow line.
| To | Route | Distance | Typical drive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | A312 | 10.6 miles | ~39 min |
| Heathrow | Portsmouth Road / A307 | 14.1 miles | ~40 min |
| Gatwick | M25 and M23 | 25.9 miles | ~42 min |
| Gatwick | A244, M25 and M23 | 27.2 miles | ~42 min |
Look at the first and third rows together, because this is the clearest case we have found anywhere we operate.
Heathrow is 10.6 miles away and takes about 39 minutes. Gatwick is 25.9 miles away — nearly two and a half times further — and takes about 42 minutes.
Fifteen extra miles for three extra minutes. The Heathrow run is short and slow because it crosses suburban west London at traffic-light pace; the Gatwick run is long and quick because almost all of it is motorway.
A firm charging by the mile would bill you roughly two and a half times as much for Gatwick as for Heathrow, for three minutes more of a driver’s time. That is not a rounding error, it is the whole argument. We quote the journey instead: you tell us where and when, we give you a figure for that job, and it does not change because of which road the driver takes.
All four Heathrow terminals on our airport transfer service, and Gatwick has its own page. Luton, Stansted, London City, Southampton, the cruise ports and the Eurotunnel terminal are all covered.
On the way back we track the inbound flight number and set the pickup by the actual landing time rather than the scheduled one, so a delay does not become a waiting bill. Meet and greet puts the driver inside arrivals with a name board instead of in a short-stay car park.
Give us the journey and you get a figure before you commit. That figure is what you pay; it does not move because the A3 did.
Surbiton sits beside the Thames, 11 miles south-west of Charing Cross, in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. It was in Surrey historically and has been in Greater London since 1965 — which is why half the people here still say Surrey and the other half say London, and both are right depending on the decade.
It was founded in the 1840s as the railway arrived, under the name “Kingston-upon-Railway”. The result is a town of grand nineteenth-century townhouses, Art Deco courts and later blocks mixed in among twentieth-century semis. With a population of 45,132 it accounts for about a quarter of the whole borough, and it spans five wards: Alexandra, Berrylands, St Mark’s, Surbiton Hill and Tolworth.
Two practical consequences for a booking:
Seething Wells sits on the boundary between Surbiton and Elmbridge — historically a waterworks that supplied London with water drawn from the Thames, and now mostly residential apart from the decommissioned filter beds in the north-west, down by the river. It is a common pickup and a confusing one for a driver who does not know it, because the approach is not obvious from the main road. Name it when you book.
Riverside and towpath makes this dog country, and a dog is the commonest reason a booking falls apart at the kerb. We run pet-friendly taxis with drivers who have agreed in advance to carry animals. Tell us the size of the dog and whether it travels in a crate when you book, not when the car arrives. Assistance dogs travel as of right and need no notice.
A town of 45,000 spread across five wards has a school run that crosses itself constantly, and the A3 and the railway both cut through it. Surbiton children travel to schools across the borough and over into Elmbridge and Epsom and Ewell.
We run school taxis in Surbiton as standing term-time bookings: same pickup, same time, same named driver wherever the rota allows. For a child making the same journey 190 mornings a year, a familiar driver is worth more than a marginally cheaper fare.
Drivers carrying children are licensed and DBS-checked. Child seats and boosters are provided when you tell us the child’s age and weight at the time of booking — not on the morning. If the school needs a named driver on a list, we will supply the details.
Two or three families going to the same school at the same time can share one booking and split it. Parents arrange that between themselves; we run the route and invoice whoever you nominate.
We run wheelchair-accessible vehicles with ramp access, proper restraints and drivers trained to use them. There are fewer of them than saloons and they are often committed ahead, so a day’s notice is comfortable and an hour is optimistic. For a course of appointments, book the series in one go.
Kingston Hospital is the acute hospital for this area — run by the Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust, with an accident and emergency unit and a maternity unit — and it is a short run from Surbiton, in the same direction as our office.
Our medical appointment transport is built around how hospital days really run. Clinics overrun and discharges happen when they happen, so we hold an open return rather than booking you for a time you cannot keep. If the patient should not be left alone at the door, say so when you book and the driver will see them in.
Surbiton is commuter country with a fast line into Waterloo, which means most of its business travel starts at a front door and ends at a station or an airport. That is the profile an account suits.
There is a corporate chauffeur service for client work and a same-day courier service for items rather than people.
The branch locator will tell you which of our offices is nearest to any address.
The station car, the airport run, the school contract, the hospital appointment, the wheelchair-accessible vehicle, the dog, the eight-seater, the executive car for a client. One office, one account, one number: 0203 388 9999.
Kingston is a couple of miles away and a person answers at any hour. If a driver is late you speak to someone who can see where the car is — which is the practical difference between a local operator and an app at half past four in the morning.
Every car is a licensed private hire vehicle, every driver is licensed, and every journey is insured for hire and reward. Because the booking goes through the office there is a record of who drove you, when, and where — which matters most for children, elderly relatives and anybody travelling alone at night.
You get the figure on the call or in the booking confirmation. No meter, no surge multiplier, and no per-mile arithmetic that would charge you two and a half times more for Gatwick than for Heathrow over three minutes. If the job changes, we tell you what that changes before the car sets off.
Card in the car, card over the phone, or on account. Account customers are invoiced monthly and never handle payment at the kerb.
We are a taxi and private hire operator. We do not hire out self-drive cars or vans, and we do not do servicing or repairs — a fair number of people reach this page looking for car hire in Surbiton and we would rather say so plainly. If what you want is a car and a driver for a day, ring the office and we will price it as a day booking.
0203 388 9999 — our Kingston office at 39A Walter Street, KT2 5DS, covering Surbiton, Tolworth, Berrylands, Long Ditton and Kingston. Answered by a person twenty-four hours a day. 01372 747 747 is the Epsom head office.
For our purposes, yes — ring for either and you get the same licensed car and driver. The legal distinction is that a hackney carriage can be hailed in the street and a private hire vehicle, which is what a minicab is, must be booked in advance. We are a private hire operator, so every car is pre-booked and priced before you travel.
Yes, and it is our commonest booking here. Surbiton carries the fast Waterloo trains, so as well as taking Surbiton residents to the station we bring people in from Tolworth, Chessington, Hook and the Ditton side to catch the express. Tell us which side of the station you want and, if it is tight, which train you are aiming for.
About 39 minutes for 10.6 miles, measured on 28 September 2026. It is a short distance and a slow one, because the route crosses suburban west London rather than using a motorway. We build that into early-morning pickups rather than trusting the mileage.
About 42 minutes for 25.9 miles via the M25 and M23 — nearly two and a half times the distance of Heathrow for three minutes more driving, because almost all of it is motorway. It is the clearest illustration we have of why we quote journeys rather than charging by the mile.
London fare zone 6, 12 miles 3 chains from London Waterloo, run by South Western Railway. The front ticket office is open seven days a week, and the building is Grade II listed — one of the finest modernist stations in the country.
Yes, all of them, on the same number. Berrylands and Tolworth are two of Surbiton’s five wards, along with Alexandra, St Mark’s and Surbiton Hill, so “Surbiton” covers a lot of ground — give us the KT5 or KT6 postcode when you book.
Yes. The office is staffed around the clock and cars run through the night. The honest caveat: a pre-booked car at four in the morning is guaranteed and an on-demand one is not, because fewer drivers are on at that hour. Early flights and late returns should always be booked ahead.
Yes. We run wheelchair-accessible vehicles with ramp access, restraints and trained drivers. Give us as much notice as you can — a day is comfortable, an hour is optimistic — and tell us whether the passenger stays in the chair, what type of chair it is, whether a carer is travelling, and whether there is a steep approach or a step at the door.
Yes, with notice, so we can send a driver who has agreed to carry animals. Tell us the size of the dog and whether it travels in a crate. Assistance dogs travel as of right and need no notice.
No. We are a taxi and private hire operator, not a rental company — no self-drive cars or vans, and no servicing or repairs. What we can do instead is a car with a driver for a day or half day, or an eight-seater for a group.
It depends on the journey rather than the mileage, which is why we quote instead of publishing a rate card. The price is set by how long the journey takes, the time of day, the vehicle, whether the car returns empty, and any waiting or extras. Ring 0203 388 9999 with the pickup, the destination and the time and you will have a fixed figure before you commit.
Call 0203 388 9999, or book online and we will confirm the car and the price. Twenty-four hours a day, every day.
Surbiton taxis, Surbiton cabs, Surbiton minicabs and private hire in Surbiton — taxis in Surbiton and minicabs in Surbiton for the station, Heathrow, Gatwick, the school run and the hospital appointment, across KT5 and KT6, Berrylands, Long Ditton, Seething Wells and Tolworth. Licensed drivers, and a price agreed before you travel.
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