Wraysbury sits in a curious position. It is a Berkshire village of about 4,900 people in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, with a TW19 postcode that belongs to Staines, a railway line that runs to Windsor, and a ward shared with Datchet and Horton. It is also one of the closest inhabited places to Heathrow that most people have never heard of: Heathrow is 6.6 miles away and the drive takes about 14 minutes down the Southern Perimeter Road.
That proximity is the single most useful fact about booking a car here, and it is the reason this page leads with measured distances rather than adjectives. Clocktower Cars has run pre-booked airport work out of this corner of the Thames valley for years, covering the whole village from Hythe End at the Staines end to the lanes out towards Ankerwycke and the reservoir. Every journey is quoted before you travel — call 01372 747 747 or book online.
Every figure below was measured from Staines Road in the centre of Wraysbury on 13 October 2026, by the route a driver would actually take. Treat them as the free-flowing baseline: a 5am run will beat them, a Friday at half past four will not.
| Airport | Distance | Typical drive | Main road |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | 6.6 miles | about 14 minutes | Southern Perimeter Road |
| Gatwick | 36.7 miles | about 40 minutes | M25 clockwise |
| Luton | 37.3 miles | about 43 minutes | M25 anticlockwise |
| London City | 64.9 miles | about 1 hour 18 minutes | M25 and the Blackwall or Dartford crossing |
| Stansted | 66.2 miles | about 1 hour 10 minutes | M25 anticlockwise |
Look at the last two rows. Stansted is 1.3 miles further from Wraysbury than London City, yet the drive is around eight minutes shorter. The reason is simple: Stansted is motorway almost the whole way round the top of the M25, while London City means leaving the orbital and crossing the eastern side of the capital. It is the clearest illustration on this page of why a per-mile price list cannot work. Mileage and time pull in different directions, and the office prices the journey, not the odometer.
The same effect shows up on your doorstep. Windsor Castle is 4.8 miles from Wraysbury but takes about 16 minutes through the B376 and the town; Slough station is 5.7 miles and takes about 20. Heathrow is 6.6 miles — further than both — and takes about 14, because the Southern Perimeter Road is built for it. If you have ever wondered why a short local run can cost more than you expected while the airport run feels good value, this is why.
For a 6am departure from Terminal 5 you want to be airside by about 4am, which means a pick-up around 3:30am and a car on the drive at 3:25. At that hour the perimeter road is empty and 14 minutes is generous. The point of booking rather than chancing it is that the car is already outside before you have finished locking the door — there is no taxi rank in Wraysbury and nothing to flag down on the B376 at half three in the morning.
Clocktower Cars is a licensed private hire operator, not a hackney carriage firm, and in a village like Wraysbury the distinction matters more than it does in a town centre. You cannot flag us down, we do not sit on ranks, and there is no rank here to sit on. Every journey is booked in advance through the office, which is what being a private hire operator means in law.
The practical benefit is that the price is agreed before the car moves. Because the office takes the booking it sees the whole journey first — where you are in the village, which airport, which terminal, how many bags, what time — and can price it up front. A meter cannot do that. It is also why a quoted car sitting in perimeter-road traffic costs you nothing extra while a metered one keeps counting.
Our operator licence is held as Epsom & Ewell Cars T/A Clocktower Cars, with drivers and vehicles licensed across Epsom and Ewell, Reigate and Banstead, Mole Valley, Elmbridge, Guildford, Waverley and Transport for London. The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is not one of our licensing authorities, which is exactly why Wraysbury work is pre-booked only: the booking is accepted at one of our licensed offices and the car comes out to you. If you want the full picture of how we are licensed and how payment works, it is set out on our pricing and payment page.
We do not publish a fare list, for the reason the Stansted and Windsor comparisons above make plain: two journeys of the same length from this village can be twenty minutes apart. Here is precisely what the office looks at when it prices yours. A fuller treatment lives on what decides the cost of a taxi.
A 3:30am departure and a 5pm Friday run are not the same job. The early car has an empty perimeter road and a driver starting a shift; the Friday one may sit on the M25 slip at Junction 14. Night work, bank holidays and the Christmas period are priced differently because the cost of covering them is different.
Four people with four suitcases do not fit in a saloon, however much everyone wants them to. Tell the office the number of passengers and the number and size of bags and you will be quoted for the car that actually holds them — estate, MPV or eight-seater. Golf clubs, a cot, skis, a cello or a wheelchair all change the answer, and all of them are easier to plan for than to improvise at 4am on a Wraysbury driveway.
On the way home we watch the inbound flight. If you land early the driver comes early; if you land late the car is still there, and you are not charged for the delay the airline caused. Included waiting time runs from landing, which gives you the walk, immigration and the carousel before the clock becomes a factor.
From Wraysbury the terminal genuinely changes the journey. Terminals 2 and 3 sit in the central area, reached through the tunnel; Terminals 4 and 5 are approached off the perimeter roads. Going out is a drop-off; coming back is a meet and greet in arrivals or a pick-up from the designated bay, which is a different piece of work and priced as such.
Wraysbury has features a driver needs to know about. The lanes towards Ankerwycke and the gravel-pit lakes are narrow and unlit, and the village sits inside an Environment Agency flood warning area for the River Thames at Wraysbury — it was among the places evacuated during Storm Henk in January 2024 and badly hit in the Thames floods of February 2014. When the river is high, the sensible approach may be from Horton rather than Hythe End, and an airport run is worth booking with more margin than usual. A child seat, an assistance dog, a wheelchair-accessible vehicle or a five-passenger pick-up from two addresses in the village are all straightforward when the office knows in advance.
One cost on a Heathrow run does not belong to us and is worth knowing about in advance. Heathrow charges £7 for every entry into a terminal drop-off zone, at Terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5, twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year. It is the airport’s charge, not a Clocktower Cars fee, and if a car has to come back round and enter again it is charged again. Blue Badge holders can claim a 100% discount, including when the badge holder is a passenger rather than the driver, but it has to be registered against the registration of the car carrying them — so tell the office at the time of booking, not at the barrier. The current terms are on Heathrow’s own drop-off charge page.
Gatwick works differently: £10 buys the first ten minutes, then it is £1 a minute up to twenty, the maximum stay is thirty minutes and there is a £30 daily cap. It applies at both terminals and Blue Badge holders are exempt. Arrivals pick-ups avoid the drop-off zone entirely at both airports, which is one reason a return leg is quoted separately from the outbound. Figures here were current when this page was last reviewed in October 2026; both airports set their own charges and can change them.
Airport work is the bulk of it, but it is not all of it. These local runs were measured on the same day and by the same method as the airport table above.
| From Wraysbury to | Distance | Typical drive | Route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Staines High Street | 2.8 miles | about 8 minutes | B376 and Wraysbury Road |
| Royal Holloway, Egham | 4.5 miles | about 10 minutes | B376 and A30 |
| Windsor Castle | 4.8 miles | about 16 minutes | B376, Horton Road and B470 |
| Slough station | 5.7 miles | about 20 minutes | B376 |
| Heathrow | 6.6 miles | about 14 minutes | Southern Perimeter Road |
Alongside those, the regular work from this village looks like this:
Wraysbury and Sunnymeads both sit on the Staines to Windsor & Eton line into London Waterloo, and both are small, unstaffed-feeling stops where a missed connection leaves you stranded. The two most common bookings we take are the early run down to the platform and the recovery job when the line is blocked and the quickest way into London is a car to Slough for the Elizabeth line or to Staines for the Reading services. Either is better arranged by phone than guessed at — the office knows which diversion is working on the day.
Ramp-equipped vehicles are part of the fleet but there are not many of them, so a wheelchair-accessible car for Wraysbury needs booking ahead rather than on the day — particularly for a morning flight, when demand across the whole operating area peaks at once. Tell the office the chair type and whether the passenger transfers to a seat or travels in the chair. Assistance dogs travel at no extra charge, as the law requires, unless a driver holds a displayed medical exemption certificate, in which case the office will send a different car.
The fleet is matched to the job rather than sold as a brochure. A saloon takes up to four passengers with hand luggage or two with cases; an estate takes the same four with real suitcases; an MPV seats five or six with their bags; and an eight-seater takes a full group, though eight adults with eight large cases will need two cars and the office will say so rather than let you find out on the drive. Executive vehicles are available for corporate and event work on request. We do not promise a particular make or model at the time of booking — we promise a car with the capacity you asked for.
One frequent misunderstanding is worth clearing up plainly: Clocktower Cars is not a car hire company and we do not rent cars. Every booking comes with a licensed driver.
Wraysbury does not sit on its own. Many bookings start here and pick up next door, or start next door and come through. These are the neighbouring pages worth a look if your journey begins somewhere else:
Booking takes under two minutes by phone and the office will tell you the price before you agree to anything.
Payment is by card when you book, cash to the driver, or on a monthly invoiced account for business travel. There is no card terminal in the vehicle, so if you would rather not hand over cash, pay the office at the time of booking. Details sit on the pricing and payment methods page, and the general questions we get asked most are on the FAQs page.
Heathrow is 6.6 miles from the centre of Wraysbury and the drive takes about 14 minutes by way of the Southern Perimeter Road, measured in free-flowing traffic in October 2026. It is one of the shortest airport runs anywhere in our operating area.
We quote every journey before you travel rather than publishing a fare list, because the price depends on the hour, the vehicle the luggage needs, the terminal and whether it is a drop-off or an arrivals pick-up. Call 01372 747 747 or use the online booking form and you will have the figure before you commit.
Yes. Early-morning airport runs are the single most common booking we take from this village, and the office runs twenty-four hours a day. For a 6am departure a pick-up around 3:30am is usually right. Book the night before at the latest, and earlier in school holidays and over Christmas.
Yes. Hythe End at the Staines end of the village, the lanes out towards Ankerwycke and the reservoir, and Sunnymeads towards Datchet are all covered on the same pre-booked basis. Give the office the full address and any gate or access detail.
Heathrow charges £7 for each entry into a terminal drop-off zone, at Terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5, around the clock and every day of the year. That is the airport's charge rather than ours, and a second entry is charged again. Blue Badge holders can claim a 100% discount, but it must be registered against the registration of the car carrying them, so mention it when you book. Gatwick charges £10 for the first ten minutes, then £1 a minute up to twenty, capped at £30 a day, with Blue Badge holders exempt.
Yes, and the drive times are closer than people expect. Gatwick is 36.7 miles and about 40 minutes; Luton is 37.3 miles and about 43; Stansted is 66.2 miles and about an hour and ten; London City is 64.9 miles and about an hour and eighteen. All five are pre-booked door-to-door journeys with the price agreed first.
An eight-seater takes a full group, but eight adults with eight large suitcases will not fit in one vehicle and the office will tell you that when you book rather than let you discover it on the driveway. Give the passenger count and the number and size of the bags and you will be quoted for what actually carries them, whether that is one car or two.
Yes, ramp-equipped vehicles are part of the fleet, but there are a limited number of them so they need booking ahead rather than on the day — especially for a morning flight. Tell the office the chair type and whether the passenger travels in the chair or transfers to a seat.
There is no card terminal in the vehicle. Pay by card when you book through the office, settle in cash with the driver, or use a monthly invoiced account if you travel on business.
No. Clocktower Cars is a licensed private hire operator, not a car hire company. Every booking comes with a licensed driver and a car we provide; we do not hire out vehicles for you to drive yourself.
Fourteen minutes to Heathrow is the shortest airport run most people in this village will ever need, and it is worth having it booked rather than hoped for. Tell us where in Wraysbury you are, where you are going and when, and the office will give you the price before anything is agreed. Call 01372 747 747, twenty-four hours a day, or book online and we will come straight back to you.
Enter your mobile number and get a download link sent to you for free.
