Naval Row: A New Way to Park near Canary Wharf
Hozah opens Naval Row, a 130-bay barrierless car park beside East India DLR station, bringing a long-disused site back into use for drivers across east London's Docklands.
1 week ago
Introduction
Britannia Shopping Centre sits at the heart of Hinckley town centre, feeding footfall into Castle Street, Stockwell Head and the shops around it. For most people, a trip into town starts and ends in its car park, so how that car park runs colours the whole visit.
When NCP went into administration, the site’s future was left uncertain and the car park that thousands of shoppers, workers and theatre-goers rely on needed a fresh start. Hozah has taken it on, replacing NCP as operator and switching the site from a pay-on-entry system to a pay-on-exit one.
The Challenge
Britannia Shopping Centre needed a parking upgrade that improved the experience for visitors without adding cost or complexity to the site. It also needed to rebuild something less tangible: trust. Under the previous operator, many local drivers had come to associate the car park with penalty charges, and that reputation had put people off using it at all. Winning back the community mattered as much as the technology.
The priorities were:
- Modernise the car park without a capital outlay on new barrier infrastructure or ticket machines.
- Remove the friction of queuing at entry and exit, a key part of the overall trip into town.
- Rebuild trust with local drivers who had lost confidence in the car park under its previous operator.
- Give drivers a fair, transparent way to pay for the time they actually use, rather than guessing their length of stay and risking a penalty charge.
- Use the switch as an opportunity to bring people back to the site and grow payment adoption.
The Results
Speed of switch: The car park moved from barrier-based operation to a fully barrierless, ANPR-based system in just three days, with the switch completed between the 3rd and 5th of August.
Driver experience: Shoppers can pay however suits them, at the on-site kiosks, through app-free PayByWeb, or automatically through Hozah AutoPay. Parking starts from just 50p, with tariffs clearly displayed on-site and online so drivers know what they will pay before they park. Hozah also introduced season tickets and corporate rates for regular parkers and for neighbouring businesses.
Longer opening hours: For years, local people had asked for the car park to stay open later. Hozah has extended the opening hours to make this possible, so the site can once again serve visitors to the neighbouring Concordia Theatre. It’s a change the community had wanted for a long time, and a practical reason for people to give the car park a second look.
Parking control and compliance: ANPR cameras handle vehicle recognition on arrival, replacing the manual processes tied to the old ticket-and-barrier system. With pay on exit, drivers no longer have to guess how long they will stay, which takes the anxiety out of parking and removes a long-standing source of frustration.
Giving back to the community: The relaunch is about more than changing how people park. Hozah is also partnering with Jordan’s Weeones, a Hinckley charity supporting families caring for children with cancer. A percentage of parking revenue will be donated to the charity, helping fund grants for families facing costs such as travel, parking, food, accommodation and childcare during hospital stays.
Bringing people back through the launch: To mark the switch, Hozah is running a free parking competition from the 6th of August to the 6th of October. Visitors who register for Hozah AutoPay and park as normal during that window are entered into a prize draw for a year’s free parking, with a winner announced in October.
Ongoing Management
The transformation doesn’t stop at installation. Hozah continues to manage the car park through the Hozah Console, using real-time data to monitor revenue, compliance, dwell time, peak periods and turnover. This gives the operator an ongoing view of how the site is performing and where further improvements can be made.
If you own or manage a car park that could be working harder for your site and your community, we’d love to hear from you. Book a meeting using the button below and we’ll walk you through what Hozah can do for it.
