Birmingham Life in the UK Test Centre

Car

Gateway House is where the Life in the UK test is held in Birmingham. It is right in the middle of the city centre. Birmingham is a big city in the UK, so there are a lot of road entrances and public transport options. If you are coming by car, please take either the M6, M5, M6 Toll, A38(M), or M42, depending on which way you are going. These highways are linked to different parts of the city by a number of “A” roads. 

Additionally, there are many places to park at the test site because it has a central base. With a list of a few fairly priced parking lots close to the test centre below:

Shaw’s Passage

This location is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. There is a fee for parking at the following times:

• £2.50 for two hours
• £5.50 for 4 hours
• £5.50 for 8 hours
• 12 hours = £6.50

The parking lot is very close to the test site, so please keep that in mind. You probably won’t leave your car there for more than two hours. Only cash is accepted here.

For your information, this site can only hold 30 cars at a time, and there are no disabled parking spots available. So, if you need parking for people with disabilities or are worried about finding a spot, you might want to check out the Bull Ring & Grand Central Car Park below.

From here, take Park Street south and go under the train tracks to get to the test site. To get to Moor Street, turn right at the end of this road. After going forward for about 50 metres, follow the road as it turns to the right. 

Head northeast for about 50 metres before turning left onto the route, which crosses the B4100. You can get to the Carrs Lane crossing by turning right on this slip road. Moving forward for about 20 metres, turn left, and then turn right. 

Go through the park in front of the Central Moor Street Travel Lodge, then turn left onto New Meeting Street. Move 20 metres forward; the testing site is on the left side of the Gateway House, but you’ll have to walk all the way around the building to get to it. It will take about five minutes to get there.

Bullring and the Grand Central Car Park

The number of parking spots here is much higher than at Shaw’s Passage Car Park because this is a big, multi-story building. The unit is open from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm, Monday through Saturday, and from 7:30 am to 10:00 pm on Sunday.

These are the charges:

• £3 for an hour
• It costs £5 for two hours and £7 for three.
• £8 for 4 hours

It might be worth it to buy a longer parking ticket if you plan to stay in Birmingham longer than your testing time. Parking for eight hours costs £12, and parking for the whole day costs £20. If you do decide to buy all-day parking, please keep in mind that you’ll have to leave the spot before midnight on the day in question.

Sadly, this site does not accept cash payments. So, please be ready to pay with a bank card (this place allows mobile payments). There are parking spots for people with disabilities, and the parking lot also has charging stations for electric vehicles. 

Additionally, the path to the test centre is very similar to the path from Shaw’s Passage Car Park. This building is at the end of Park Street, so please use this place to start following the travel instructions given earlier.

For more parking choices, or if these ones are full, please go to Parkopedia. Visit this page for a list of nearby alternatives, along with details on how to pay and when they’re open for business.

Bus

There are a number of bus lines that go through and around the centre of Birmingham. Here are five important services that stand out. All of these come into the city centre from different areas, so hopefully at least one of them will be a good transit line for you to use.

13A:

The 13A bus goes from Blackheath to the city heart going east. Please get off the bus at the Colmore Row (SH2) stop if you want to use this service. The test spot is about 500m away and takes about six minutes to reach it. Drive south through the grounds of St. Phillips Cathedral and keep going south until you reach Martineau Place. When you get to High Street, please keep in mind that the Gateway House building is on your left.

45:

This service starts at Longbridge and ends in the city heart of Birmingham. It goes from southwest to northeast. The bus stop on Moor Street Queensway is where you should get off. The test spot is a short two-minute walk to the northwest from here.

4A:

This public transport line begins on Robin Hood Island, which is on the southern edge of Birmingham and ends in the middle of the city. Get off this bus at the Carrs Lane Church Centre stop. How to get to the test site after the test overlaps with the information in Shaw’s Passage Car Park part. Please make sure you follow these notes.

94:

For east-to-west travel, this line goes from Chelmsley Interchange to Birmingham. Please get off at Dale End if you are taking the 94. Going west, this bus stop is about a four-minute walk from the test centre.

87:

If you’re in Dudley, take the 87 to get to the centre of Birmingham. Like with the 13A, please get off this bus at Colmore. Please keep in mind, though, that this is a different bus stop on the same street, about 75 m west of the “SH2” drop-off place we talked about earlier. That’s why you should go to SH2 from this bus stop and then follow the directions in the 13A service notes.

If you don’t think these routes work for your trip, please go to the proper “Moovit” dashboard page. Just click on the link below to find this.

Instead of the test place, there are a lot of other bus stops nearby. If you are taking a different service than the ones above and the stops named are not open, please know that the following bus stops are all within a five-minute walk of the test site:

You can get to Moor Street Station, Priority Square, Dale House, Old Square, and Moor Street Selfridges on Moor Street.

Train

Near the test site, there are three train stops. The third stop, Birmingham New Street, is the city’s main train station. The other two are pretty small. Birmingham Snow Hill and Birmingham Moor Street are the two “satellite” stops that are close to each other. If you want to get to the test site, you should use Moor Street instead of Snow Hill because it is a little shorter.

Services come to Birmingham New Street from all over the country, so it has great connections to places right outside the city. If you get off at this stop, please know that it will take you about five minutes to walk to the test centre. If you want to leave New Street station, go out the eastern exit and keep going northeast towards High Street. When you get close, the door to Gateway House will show up on your right.

Stations like Leamington Spa, Kidderminster, and Stratford-upon-Avon are not too far away from Birmingham Moor Street. The station is right next to the Bullring and Grand Central Car Park. To get to the test spot from here, please follow the directions that were given earlier.

Visit the National Rail website, which can be found here, to find out more about when trains leave and arrive at the above stops.