suitcase not allowed at V&A

Paddington Station has luggage storage in the front area. It is easy and quick to take the Heathrow Connect or Heathrow Express train to Heathrow from Paddington.

Claudette,

Your Hotel may store the luggage, even though you've checked out. I had a similar situation in Stresa last year, and the Hotel owner kindly stored my luggage while I went out touring for the day. I returned in the late afternoon, collected my Packs and got the train to Milan.

It doesn't hurt to ask.....

Claudette, it's whopping two stops from Victoria Station to South Kensington. (Closest stop for the V & A). Should take you ten minutes--max.

I'd suggest just asking your hotel to store your bags. Go to the V & A, collect your bags, and head to Heathrow.

Going to Paddington first, then back to the V & A, will add a good half hour or more to your journey.

If you're taking the Heathrow Connect or Express train from Paddington, store the bags there and take the District or Circle between Paddington and the V&A.

If you're taking the Underground to Heathrow, your best bet for storing your bags is your hotel or Victoria railway station.

Unattended storage lockers in train stations and airports have been rendered extinct by security concerns. The luggage storage at London's rail stations is handled in staffed facilities. Details at http://www.left-baggage.co.uk/locations.php It's about eight GBP per bag per day, IIRC, at the railway stations.

I haven't used the luggage storage at any of London's rail stations. But I noticed the other day that Rick Steves warns readers (in Great Britain 2010) to expect "long waits in the morning to check [bags] in (up to 45 mins) and in the afternoon to pick up".

In response to a reply above, yes I know that Paddington is farther from the V&A than Victoria. I mentioned Paddington because bag storage there would make sense IF you're taking the Heathrow Connect or Express train. Bag storage opens at 7 AM, which is much earlier than the V&A. If you make an early-bird start and get to Paddington along with the zillions of morning commuters (assuming it's a weekday), by 8:30 or so, you could get your bags stored and be back in the V&A area by its opening time. That would give you two and a half hours at the V&A, then you could go to Paddington, get your bags and get on the Heathrow train. (My rule of thumb would be to be at Heathrow no later than 2PM for a 4PM international flight. YMMV on that.)

As you didn't say how you plan to travel from London to Heathrow, I addressed the options of Tube and Heathrow trains. Another option is a hire car service; if you left your bags at your hotel you'd just have to get back there at the appointed time for the car to pick you up for the airport. The car service would tell you its pick-up time once you give them your flight and hotel information. Depending on where your hotel is and maybe the time of day, you could shave a few minutes off travel between the V&A and your hotel by taking cabs.

Thanks for all your great suggestions. I'm actually staying at the Luna Simone hotel which is supposed to be 5 min walk to Victoria Station and I did read somewhere that the lines for checking in luggage at train stations can be pretty long. I may just ask our hotel to babysit our luggage while we go to the V & A. I'm thinking if we get there at 10 and stay till noon that should give us plenty of time to get back to the hotel and to Heathrow. Still trying to decide if we should take the Express, the Connect or just the regular tube. Any advice on that anyone??

I just posted a question on taking the train so please just ignore that last question I posted on this thread. Thanks so much for reading and posting, it's greatly appreciated.