Refresher Driving Course in Old Street cost £41 an hour and run seven days a week, 7am to 10pm. We teach on the roads that feed into Wanstead. The part of driving here that takes the most practice is the rebuilt Old Street 'Silicon Roundabout', now a signalised junction rather than a gyratory, feeding the busy City Road and Great Eastern Street, so that is where the early hours go. Lessons start wherever suits you across EC1V, at home, at work or at college, and there is no charge for the pick-up. Sessions run any day from 7am to 10pm, so a Old Street lesson can sit before work or after it, and you pay by cash or bank transfer once it has happened.
Looking for refresher driving lessons in Old Street? You're in the right place, and we cover the whole of EC1V.
We'll collect you from home, work or college anywhere in EC1V, and lessons run from 7am to 10pm, seven days a week. You can read the general guide to refresher driving lessons, then come back here for what changes in Old Street.
Traffic here moves in phases rather than flows. City Road stacks up towards the rebuilt Old Street junction, cycles run on their own green, and a driver who reads one signal as permission for everything ends up boxed in on the wrong side of a stop line. Goswell Road and Great Eastern Street hand you back into ordinary London driving.
Refresher Driving Course in Old Street at a Glance
The Old Street Detail
The old Silicon Roundabout has gone. The junction was rebuilt in 2020 as a signalised crossroads, with one arm closed to traffic and a public space in the middle. If your mental map still says roundabout, you will approach the whole thing in entirely the wrong way.
What replaced it asks for a different skill: separate signal phases for cycles and vehicles, and a segregated track you must not stop across. Returning drivers misread the phases, move on somebody else's green and end up boxed in. We approach from City Road and Old Street repeatedly.
The Roads You'll Learn On in Old Street
Bath Street and Peerless Street come first, because low-speed control and a clean reverse are what fade soonest. Then it is repeated approaches, west along Old Street and left down Goswell Road. Back north up City Road you read the signals and the lane arrows again, each lap started a little earlier than the one before it.
Test standard at this junction is unglamorous: stop before the segregated cycle track rather than across it, move on your own phase, and choose a lane while still on the City Road approach. Wanstead is twenty-four to thirty-two minutes east, and that drive is worth an hour by itself.
How This Runs in Old Street
Traffic here has an unusual shape. Deliveries and construction fill City Road early, the middle of the day goes surprisingly quiet, and then the evening brings crowds down Great Eastern Street towards Shoreditch Town Hall who cross wherever a gap opens between stopped cars.
Book a lunchtime hour and you will meet almost none of that. Pick the slot that matches when you actually drive, not the one that looks easiest.
Lessons begin on the side streets by St Luke's, then head south down Goswell Road, away from the junction, so the basics get settled with something ordinary underneath you. Great Eastern Street comes next, out towards Shoreditch and back, which puts buses, couriers and crossing pedestrians in front of you at once. The Old Street junction itself is saved for the last third, approached from City Road on repeat.
Almost nobody drives locally here, which is rather the point. People book because the journey they need back is the one out, north up City Road or east through our Hoxton page towards the A12 for a weekend away. Office staff who moved out of town and inherited the driving, and residents of the flats around Bath Street with a car used monthly, make up most of it.
What Holds Old Street Learners Back
Old Street carries one of the heaviest cycle flows in London, and returning drivers consistently underestimate it. Riders arrive on their own signal phase, filter on both sides at the lights, and are frequently moving faster than the queue you are sitting in. Sharing space with them calmly is most of what a refresher here involves.
Some drivers arrive frustrated about cyclists and expect the lesson to agree with them. It will not. What it will do is show you where riders actually come from at this junction, which turns most of that frustration into anticipation instead.
Old Street: Insider Tips
- check the nearside mirror before you creep forward at the lights, not only before you turn. On City Road a rider will move into that gap while the queue is still shuffling, and creeping forward blind is how close calls happen
- play to what Old Street teaches you: reading traffic lights that run cycles and vehicles on different phases, which most junctions never test
- get comfortable with the rebuilt Old Street 'Silicon Roundabout', now a signalised junction rather than a gyratory, feeding the busy City Road and Great Eastern Street
- book an hour immediately before your slot so you arrive at Wanstead already warmed up
Reviews and Results
“Youness prepared me to pass first time so I'm very grateful.”
“He made sure I built all the good habits I needed to pass.”
Getting Booked In from Old Street
Send a message or call 07706 876263. We will ask where in Old Street you want collecting and what your week looks like, and work backwards from there. If you want to know what you are working towards, our first-time pass guide is the place to start.
Refresher Driving Course in Old Street: FAQs
How much do you charge in Old Street?
They're £41 an hour in Old Street. Payment is by cash or bank transfer, whichever suits you.
How do I share the road with cyclists safely around Old Street?
Assume a rider is alongside unless you have just looked and seen otherwise, leave a proper gap when passing, and wait for the cycle phase to clear before moving off. The junction runs bikes and vehicles on separate signals, so a green for you does not mean the crossing ahead is empty.
Do you offer refresher driving lessons in Old Street?
Certainly. We run refresher driving lessons throughout Old Street, in automatic cars, with pick-up anywhere in EC1V and payment by cash or bank transfer.
The Old Street roundabout has changed. How does the new junction actually work?
It is a signalised junction now rather than a gyratory, so you no longer circulate. You approach on your arm, wait for your phase, then go ahead or turn as directed. The cycle track runs on its own phase, so a green in front of you does not mean the crossing is clear.
Where can you pick me up when City Road is a red route?
On a side street. Bath Street and Peerless Street have kerb space and a sensible pace, so an hour can start without a warden watching, and they are two minutes away if you live by the junction. Stopping on City Road or Old Street itself is not on, whatever everybody else appears to be doing.
My car is fifteen years old. Will it be charged around Old Street?
Possibly, though age is not the test: the emissions standard is, and it applies to City Road and Great Eastern Street exactly as it does everywhere else. Check your registration on the Transport for London site before committing to a regular run through the Old Street junction, since the charge is daily and enforced by camera. Lessons run in a compliant school car.
Same Instructors, Different Focus in Old Street
You are not locked in to one service. Any of these can be booked in Old Street, and pupils switch between them all the time.
The Same Lessons, Nearby
If it's easier to be picked up nearby, we also teach refresher driving lessons in:
Next Steps
Book refresher lessonsChecked and updated in August 2026 by our instructors.