London at night

Getting home from Soho at night: Night Tube, night buses and booked cabs

By Pavel Vassiltsenko, founder · 26 October 2026

Short answer

On Friday and Saturday nights, four Night Tube lines stop at or beside Soho: the Central, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines, from Tottenham Court Road, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus [1][2]. On the other five nights, take a night bus. Twenty-two night routes stop within about 450 metres of the middle of Soho, and 16 of them start or finish at Trafalgar Square or Oxford Circus [3]. For a car, hail a black cab or book a licensed minicab, and do not get into a minicab you did not book [4].

Which stations serve Soho at night?

No station is called Soho. MYSOVA draws Soho as one of its 17 zones [5], and these four stations sit inside that zone or within 200 metres of its edge [2][5]:

Station	Where it sits	Lines	Night Tube lines (Friday and Saturday)	Fare zone
Tottenham Court Road	inside the zone	Central, Northern, Elizabeth line	Central, Northern	1
Piccadilly Circus	inside the zone	Bakerloo, Piccadilly	Piccadilly	1
Leicester Square	about 20 m outside the edge	Northern, Piccadilly	Northern, Piccadilly	1
Oxford Circus	about 170 m outside the edge	Bakerloo, Central, Victoria	Central, Victoria	1

TfL runs the Night Tube on six lines: Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria and the Windrush line of London Overground [1]. Three details matter if you leave from Soho:

Northern line. Night trains run between Edgware or High Barnet and Morden by the Charing Cross branch, through Tottenham Court Road and Leicester Square. The Bank branch has no night service [2].
Bakerloo and Elizabeth lines. Neither runs at night [1][2]. After the day service ends, Piccadilly Circus keeps the Piccadilly line and Tottenham Court Road keeps the Central and Northern.
Jubilee line. It runs at night, but its nearest stations, Green Park and Bond Street, sit about 550 and 700 metres from the zone's edge [2][5].

Is the Night Tube more expensive?

No. Night Tube fares are always off-peak [6]. An off-peak Day Travelcard covers journeys that start before 04:30 the next day, so a Friday Travelcard still gets you home in the early hours of Saturday. Daily capping on Oyster and contactless applies as well [1][6].

Night buses from Soho

TfL runs night buses on every night, not only Friday and Saturday, and every bus carries CCTV [4]. These 22 night routes stop within about 450 metres of the centre of the Soho zone [3]:

N3, N5, N8, N9, N15, N18, N19, N20, N25, N29, N38, N41, N55, N73, N97, N98, N109, N113, N118, N136, N207 and N279.

Nine of them start or finish at Trafalgar Square (N5, N18, N20, N29, N41, N97, N113, N118, N279). Seven start or finish at Oxford Circus (N3, N8, N15, N25, N55, N73, N136) [3]. If you do not know your route, walk to Trafalgar Square or Oxford Circus and search your stop in Journey Planner or the TfL Go app, which show the next bus due [4].

Black cabs and minicabs

TfL's rules split cars into two kinds [4]:

Black cabs are the ones with the orange TAXI light. They are the only cars you can hail in the street or take from a rank without booking. London has more than 600 ranks, and every taxi has a card machine. TfL also publishes a map of the Night Tube stations with a working taxi rank [1].
Minicabs have to be booked with a licensed operator: in an app, by phone or in person at the operator's office. Your booking confirmation has to show the number plate, the driver's first name, the driver's private hire licence number and a photo of the driver. If the car or the driver does not match it, TfL's advice is not to get in.

TfL calls unbooked minicabs illegal and uninsured for passengers. A minicab counts as unbooked, even with a TfL licence sticker in the window, if you approach the driver, the driver approaches you, or a bouncer walks you to the car [4].

If something goes wrong

TfL staffs every Tube station while trains are running. To report an incident on the network, text the British Transport Police on 61016 or call 0800 40 50 40. In an emergency, call 999 [1].

Where MYSOVA comes in

MYSOVA is a London social passport: clock in at bars, pubs and clubs, earn XP and meet people where you go. Soho is one of the app's 17 zones, and a clock-in at a venue inside it earns 1.5× XP, level with Shoreditch and Mayfair [5]. The Soho zone page lists its venues and the multiplier. Clock out before you head for the train, so the app saves your time at the venue.

Your first clock-in starts your passport.

Free · UK App Store and Google Play · 18+

Sources

All fetched or read on 21 October 2026.

Transport for London, "Night Tube": https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/tube/night-tube (lines, Friday and Saturday service, fares, staffing, British Transport Police contacts, taxi-rank map).
TfL Unified API: Line/{line}/Route/Sequence/outbound?serviceTypes=Night for the six Night Tube lines, and StopPoint/{id} for each station's lines and fare zone. Station positions from StopPoint/Mode/tube.
TfL Unified API: StopPoint?lat=51.5136&lon=-0.1340&radius=450&modes=bus (21 bus stops) and Line/{route}/Route for each night route's end stops.
Transport for London, "Safer travel at night": https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/your-safety-and-security/safer-travel-at-night (night buses, black cabs, ranks, minicab booking rules).
MYSOVA zones table (production, read-only SELECT id, name, multiplier, polygon FROM public.zones, 21 October 2026). Distances are straight lines from each station to the edge of the Soho polygon.
Transport for London, "Tube and rail fares": https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/find-fares/tube-and-rail-fares (off-peak Night Tube fares, off-peak Day Travelcard validity).