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My wife tells me that you can no longer keep your luggage, for a few hours, in a storage room at the train station, generally, in England.

So if you're travelling from town A, where you were overnight, to town C, where you'll be overnight, with your luggage, by train, and you're changing trains in town B, where you'd like to see the sites for a few hours: What do you do with your luggage?

(To be specific, town B is Peterborough.)

(Is there, in fact, some place at a train station? Can you pay to leave it in a hotel that you're not a guest at? Or??)

(The linked question suggest doing a search for "luggage storage service" with the town in question. That turned up nothing.)

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  • You can get a list of facilities at Peterborough from the National Rail Enquiries web site, but there's no left luggage service offered. The next best offering was the National Rail Museum who have a photo of the Peterborough Left Luggage Office, c.1961. – user67901 Jan 18 '18 at 4:16
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    The left luggage facilities at smaller stations were mostly removed during The Troubles for security reasons. We are still as security conscious as ever when it comes to luggage, so sadly in many places you're still out of luck. – Muzer Jan 18 '18 at 9:51
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    Not sure about Peterborough but in many towns which are visited by tourists you will find cafes or shops near the station which offer luggage storage for a fee. – mdewey Jan 18 '18 at 10:22
  • There are still left luggage facilities at some larger stations (as others have said, not Peterborough). Most of them are now run by a company other then the rail operator. The largest one as far as I know is: left-baggage.co.uk/en/?context=station – skifans Jan 18 '18 at 12:14
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    You ask generally what to do with the luggage, is the luggage storage only one possible option? Because the most obvious answer is, take your luggage with you for a walk. This is what the roller suitcases were invented for. – Danubian Sailor Jan 18 '18 at 17:33
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In your specific case (Peterborough), I cannot find any official luggage storage facility. You might get lucky with the museum or one of the city centre hotels, even though they don't normally offer this service.

I'd suggest presenting yourself as a genuine museum visitor, hotel restaurant diner etc. and being as charming as possible! For example, arrive at the museum, buy a guidebook and engage the staff in conversation about the awfulness/loveliness of the weather. Then ask if there's anywhere you could leave your case while you go round the museum. If you get the right person on the right day, you might find someone who will bend the rules, but be understanding that they may be forbidden from storing luggage for security reasons. The more genuine you appear, the more likely you will be to get away with it.

As a more general answer, I would first approach the Tourist Information Centre for that town, if one exists. Some TICs have their own left luggage facility (e.g. Bristol, Greenwich) and others will know of e.g. local museums which have a left luggage facility. There is also a UK-wide service called CityStasher which operates in a number of cities.

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  • I was thinking more of their cathedral which isn't as likely to have a coatroom - but this is a reasonable idea. TIC is a good idea too, thanks. – davidbak Jan 18 '18 at 23:26
  • @davidbak If you managed to store your bags in the museum, you could spend half an hour looking around, then head for the Cathedral. Again, this might require a little charm if you pass by the person who stored your bags on the way out, but if you promise to be back at a certain time you should get away with it. – Martin Jan 19 '18 at 9:09
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On multiple occasions, I have found that taxi offices near train stations have such a service. I have done this both in Exeter and in Penzance when we wanted to explore the town or surrounding area, but without our luggage. They charge a fee for the service. You might have to wait a little for someone to be available, and make sure to make an appointment such that you don't come in front of a closed office 10 minutes before your train departs.

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  • Wouldn't have thought of this! – davidbak Jan 18 '18 at 23:24

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