ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG5 N1426

Location of meeting
The meeting will be held at the headquarters of the British Standards Institution in London. It will start at 9am on Monday 30 July and is scheduled to finish at 1pm on Friday 3 August, 2001. The BSI building is some 6 miles west of central London and is adjacent to Gunnersbury station on the London underground system (click here for a street map and aerial photograph of the surrounding area).  The postal address of the building is 389 Chiswick High Road, London W4 4AL.

A total of four meeting rooms, one large and three break-out rooms, has been reserved.  For contact during the meeting, the telephone number is +44 20 8996 7442; the fax number is +44 20 8996 7448.  The main meeting will be in room 410.

Hotel accommodation
There are relatively few facilities for visitors in the immediate area of the BSI building and arrangements for accommodation have been made with the Vencourt Hotel, about one and a half miles away in Hammersmith  (click here for another description of the hotel, click here for a street map and aerial photograph of the area). This is a modern hotel which has good public transport links to BSI and to central London and which has a wide selection of restaurants and shops within walking distance. The discounted price for a single room is £69.00; for a double room it is £89.10 (approximately $103 and $134 or Euro 109 and Euro140 respectively at the time of writing).

The postal address of the hotel is: 255 King Street, Hammersmith, London W6 9LU, telephone +44 20 8563 8855, fax +44 20 8563 9988, email vencourt@bestwestern.co.uk. To reserve a room, please book direct with the hotel, mentioning "BSI WG5 Fortran" in order to obtain the reduced rate. You can book by letter, fax or e-mail, specifying: your name including initials, arrival and departure dates, credit card number to guarantee the booking and a contact telephone number in case of any problems.

Travel to the hotel from airports (and Waterloo International)
These are the simplest, but not the only, ways to travel.  Other than from Heathrow (12 miles) a taxi is likely to be prohibitively expensive unless several people are sharing.  Where a journey involves both national rail and London underground services, fares are quoted separately but in some cases through tickets may be available.  Please ask at the ticket office.

From Heathrow
Take an underground (not Heathrow Express) train to Acton Town station (all underground trains from the airport go to Acton Town).  Change to an east-bound District Line train and go to Ravenscourt Park (the single fare is £2.30, total journey time 39 minutes).  Turn right then left outside the station and go to the main road.  The hotel is the tall building to the right on the opposite side of the road.  Total walking distance ca 300 yards.

From Gatwick
Take a Gatwick Express train to London Victoria station (single fare £10.50, journey time 30 minutes, frequency every 15 minutes); Connex trains take slightly longer but the fare is £8.20.  Take a west-bound underground District Line train (destination Ealing Broadway or Richmond, not Wimbledon) to Ravenscourt Park (single fare is £1.90, journey time 16 minutes).  Then as above.

From Stansted
Take a Stansted Express train to London Liverpool Street station (single fare £13.00, journey time 41 minutes, frequency every 15 minutes).  Take a west-bound underground Hammersmith and City train (destination Hammersmith) to Hammersmith, change to a west-bound District line train to Ravenscourt Park (single fare is £1.90, journey time 42 minutes).  Then as above.  The change at Hammersmith involves apparently leaving the station and crossing the road to get to the District Line platforms.  Alternatively walk from Hammersmith to the hotel, distance ca 900 yards.

From City Airport
Take the airport bus to Liverpool Street station and then proceed as if from Stansted.

From Luton
Take the shuttle bus to Luton Airport Parkway station and take a Thameslink train to Blackfriars (single fare £9.50, journey time 42 minutes, frequency every 15 minutes).  Change to a west-bound District line train and proceed as from Gatwick above.

From Waterloo International
Take a north-bound Jubilee line underground  train to Westminster, change to a west-bound District line train and proceed as from Gatwick above (single fare £1.90, journey time 29 minutes).

Travel between the hotel and the meeting place
By bus
Probably the most convenient method is by bus.  There are three services (267, 391 and H91) which go direct from the hotel to the BSI building and vice versa; each service operates every 12 minutes and the scheduled journey time is 11-13 minutes.  The single fare is £0.70.
By underground
West-bound District line trains from Ravenscourt Park towards Richmond stop at Gunnersbury station, which is adjacent to the BSI building (scheduled journey time 6 minutes).  Alternatively, trains heading for Ealing Broadway may be taken to Chiswick Park, from where it is a five minute walk to the BSI building.  The single fare in either case is £1.20.
On foot
The walk takes about 25 minutes.

Travel cards
At previous WG5 meetings in London, attention has been drawn to travel cards which offer discounted local travel over a period of a week.  For this meeting however, costs are such that it is unlikely that there will be any advantage in buying such a card unless one intends to go into central London each evening; click here for fuller details.

For tourist purposes at the weekend, however, a one-day travel card is often advantageous (it is not available for use before 9.30am on Mondays to Fridays).  The card gives unlimited travel on underground, buses and national rail services for £4.00 within zones 1 & 2, £4.30 in zones 1-4 and £4.90 in zones 1-6.  Central London is zone 1, the hotel is in zone 2, BSI is in zone 3. Click here for a zone map; click here for general tourist information for London.

Food
Full English breakfast is included in the room rate at the hotel.

Lunch possibilities are limited.  There is a cafeteria in the BSI building which is said to be relatively good and relatively cheap, but is 'dry'.  I have never used it, having invariably needed an alcohol infusion after a morning in the building.  There is the John Bull pub across the road which has an unreconstructed chips-with-everything, 1950s-style lunch menu and also sells sandwiches.  Other lunch possibilities will be described at the meeting.

For the evening, the hotel itself has a bar and restaurant.  There are a large number of small restaurants (Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Thai, etc) within walking distance of the hotel.  These are mainly in King Street, eastwards from the hotel towards Hammersmith.  Hammersmith itself has further facilities.  More details will be given at the meeting.

In case of any questions or any difficulty, please contact David Muxworthy, EUCS, JCMB, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, tel +44 131 650 3305, fax +44 131 650 6552, e-mail d.muxworthy@ed.ac.uk.