They are the familiar grey concrete behemoths that have dwarfed shoppers and offered a sanctuary for their cars for some 95 years.
But NCP’s yellow lettered multi-storey complexes could soon be consigned to history after it was announced it had fallen into £305million debts and administration.
Assessors will now be looking at the viability of each of its 340 locations, and some sites may need to be closed as a result.
While hundreds of jobs are at risk, some drivers will be less sad to see the car parks in their current form go.
Complaints of crime, expensive prices and questionable smells have blighted some of the company’s locations.
But other motorists have praised different NCP parks for great value, design and facilities.
Here the Mail takes a look at the worst and best and why the firm’s struggles are a sad chapter in a British icon’s story.
The Worst – Bristol Nelson Street
The Nelson Street car park in Bristol has had hundreds of reports of theft and criminal damage
The Nelson Street car park in Bristol has historically been ranked among the least safe in the UK for vehicle crime.
As of mid-2020, it was ranked as one of the five least safe NCP car parks in the country.
Reports highlighted hundreds of incidents, including theft from vehicles and criminal damage.
One reviewer, writing on travel planner site Wanderlog, described his horror time using the car park.
They said: ‘A passed out addict was sleeping on the floor in a parking space, there are police warning notices in the lobby.
‘The lift doesn’t work so if you have bags or staying in a hotel you either risk going down the car ramps or risk carrying your case down stairs streaked with urine. £50 for two nights. Genuinely surprised my car wasn’t broken into.
Another car park user wasn’t as lucky as their car was broken into.
They wrote: ‘Car window smashed. Spoilt an otherwise great trip. There were no valuables whatsoever in the vehicle. £1000 additional cost to repair the glass.
‘NCP install some CCTV. You are clearly not in control of the criminal activity in this car park.’
Earlier this year, a planning application was submitted to turn Nelson Street car park into a 12-storey student accommodation with 331 bedrooms across a mix of studios, cluster flats and accessible rooms.
The car park has 271 spaces and costs £28 for 24 hours
The ‘smelliest’ car park – Cardiff’s Westgate Street
According to Google reviews, Cardiff’s Westgate Street NCP car park is one of the UK’s worst
According to drivers, the NCP car park on Westgate Street in Cardiff is also one of the UK’s worst, but the particular problem with this one is its smell.
One Google reviewer wrote: ‘This place is terrible – from the stench of urine, to the absolute rip-off prices. Parked for a little over 3 hours and got charged £23.80, after 7pm on a weekday!?’
While one person on TripAdvisor described the car park’s stench and witnessed people urinating inside.
They wrote: ‘This is a toilet we saw people urinating as we drove into the car park at 13.00 it’s disgusting.
‘You can smell the car park before you even get into the carpark.’
Meanwhile, WalesOnline also visited the car park, confirming that the smell in the stairwell in particular was ‘palpable’.
The car park has 330 spaces and cost £32 for 24 hours
The Best – Salford New Bailey
The Salford New Bailey car park has previously been nominated for ‘Best New Car Park’
This nine-storey car park was built as part of the English Cities Fund’s £650M Salford Central regeneration plans.
It received the Architectural Achievement Award at the 2016 British Parking Awards and was also nominated for ‘Best New Car Park’ at same awards.
One review left on Google read: ‘A good, clean and modern carpark. Easy to navigate and sensibly sized spaces.’
Another said:’ Clean, well lit car park. Ticketless system makes parking breeze with the app; drive in – drive out and you’re automatically charged (after setting up correctly in the app).
‘Will definitely park here again when visiting Manchester.’
A third added: ‘You can’t take your eyes off the NCP car park in the city of Manchester. Good design, spacious parking and easy layout.’
It has 648 car parking spaces and costs £30 for 24 hours.
The Biggest – Stockport Merseyway Redrock
With 1175 car parking spaces, Stockport Merseyway Redrock is NCP’s largest multi-storey car park
With 1175 car parking spaces, Stockport Merseyway Redrock is NCP’s largest multi-storey car park.
One review left on Google said: ‘Lots of parking spaces and easy to get in and out of.’
Another wrote: ‘A good ratio of spaces to demand and not excessively expensive. Not many convenient places to pay, and most are card only.’
It’s also relatively cheap, costing £10.80 for 12 hours.
The Most Expensive – London Soho Brewer Street
Brewer Street’s London Soho location is often highlighted as one of the priciest when measured by hourly/day rates in the UK
The London Soho Brewer Street car park is often highlighted as the priciest car park in the UK, costing £60 for 24 hours.
Based in the centre of the capital, it’s conveniently located, just a stone’s throw from Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery and West End’s finest.
The multi‑storey car park is even Grade II listed for its special architectural and historic interest and was officially added to the National Heritage List for England onin 2002.
Originally built in 1929 as the Lex Garage, it is thought to be one of the earliest surviving multi‑storey car park buildings in England.
One Google reviewer wrote: ‘This parking spot turned out to be absolutely perfect — convenient, safe, and easy to find.’
However, another said: ‘Absolutely extortionate prices with the worst provider. The area itself is not justified for these prices.’
While someone else agreed: ‘Very easy to find, very accessible but the is staggering…..£60 for 3hrs? I literally could of just parked on a yellow line and took a fine for the same results.’
The car park, with just 20 spaces, costs £15 for 1 hour, £30 for 1-2 hours, £45 for 2-3 hours and £60 for 3-24 hours.
The Cheapest – Leicester Lee Circle
The concrete car park in Leicester was the first automated multi-storey car park in Europe, featuring coin-operated barriers
Thought to be the cheapest NCP car park, the Leicester Lee Circle site costs just £7 for 24 hours.
It will set you back £1.50 for 1 hour, £3 for 1-2 hours, £4.50 for 2-3 hours and £6 for 3-4 hours.
The concrete car park in Leicester was the first automated multi-storey car park in Europe, featuring coin-operated barriers.
Opened in 1961, by Carry On Star Sid James, along with a Tesco on the ground floor, which was then the largest supermarket in the country, to a crowd of 200 people.
At the time, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport hailed the combination of a supermarket and a multi-storey as a significant step forward against city centre traffic.
NCP was founded in 1931 as a small, family-run firm operating parking in west London.
In 1948, entrepreneurs Sir Ronald Hobson and Sir Donald Gosling set up Central Car Parks in the city, later acquiring the family business now known as NCP in 1959.
They each invested £100 as they set up their business, initially converting a former bombsite in Holborn in 1948.
As car ownership began to expand after the Second World War, they were able to expand, owning ten premises by the 1950s.
After their takeover of NCP, by the late 1990s the firm had grown significantly and would be bought by US firm Cendant for £801million.
But this parent company would not last long amid a major accounting scandal in 1998, after Cendant merged with direct marketing firm CUC International.
Before being sold twice more in the early 2000s, NCP scored its first major partnership with Manchester City Council in 1999.
It was a sign of the company’s rapid expansion which also saw it acquire a series of car parks and petrol stations, and manage car parking contracts for third parties.
NCP was ultimately sold to Japanese firm Park24, by which time it had 150,000 parking spaces across 500 sites around the UK.
It is – for now at least – headed up by CEO Rob England and Chief Financial Officer Hideyuki Nagahiro, who joined the board at the time of the takeover by Park24.
Japanese-owned NCP employs 682 people and manages approximately 340 car parks nationwide, but after crashing into £305million of debt, its future has never been more uncertain
NCP is headed up by CEO Rob England and Chief Financial Officer Hideyuki Nagahiro (pictured), who joined the board at the time of the takeover by Park24
At the time of the takeover Koichi Nishikawa was also signed on as a director of the firm. He resigned in July 2025 after becoming CEO and President of Park24
Mr Nagahiro became responsible for revenue accounting, financial reporting and matters of tax – having worked at Japanese banks for more than 20 years.
Yet his experience in finance couldn’t save NCP, as it saw its prospects plummet in recent years.
At the time of the takeover Koichi Nishikawa was also signed on as a director of the firm. He resigned in July 2025 after becoming CEO and President of Park24.
NCP turned over £187million for the financial year ending 2023, a 7.15 per cent drop from the previous year.
But it also recorded losses of almost £27.5million in 2022 and £26.7million in 2023.
By the time the notice of administration was issued, its portfolio had shrunk to 340 sites and debts had mounted to £305million.
In 2024, Bolton Council wrote off almost £1.5million in debts owed by the company from during the pandemic.
The firm has also been frequently criticised for levying overzealous fines.
Last February, NCP apologised and quashed all incorrectly applied fines after a grandfather was incorrectly asked to cough up a £100 penalty charge for a 14-minute stay in Darlington, County Durham.
Signs at the car park stated parking was free for customers for 90 minutes.
Private companies are hitting drivers with nearly 40,000 parking charges a day, This is Money revealed last year, while the DVLA is raking in almost £100,000 every 24 hours as a result.
The agency’s full-year figures showed requests for a record 14,371,841 vehicle ownership details from private parking firms in 2024-25.
This was an increase of 13 per cent on the year previous and 39,375 per day on average.
A statement issued on behalf of NCP addressing the appointment of administrators said it had not recovered from business lost in the Covid pandemic amid the rise in flexible working.
Appointed firm PwC said NCP’s performance has ‘deteriorated over a number of years post COVID-19 as demand for parking has not recovered to historic levels, particularly across city-centre and commuter locations.’
It added: ‘Continued shifts in commuting and customer driving patterns have impacted site occupancy, while the high concentration of long-term, inflexible leases has meant the Company has been unable to reduce costs in line with revenue or to exit loss-making sites, resulting in ongoing trading losses.
‘The Company now has insufficient cash available to meet its financial obligations and the Directors have therefore taken the decision to appoint administrators.’
NCP has also cited higher energy prices since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
PwC stressed that all sites remain open and all employees are currently staying in their posts.
Zelf Hussain, joint administrator and PwC partner, said: ‘NCP has faced a challenging trading environment over several years, with changing consumer behaviours impacting volumes, and a high fixed cost-base leading to trading losses.
‘Our priority on appointment is to ensure continuity of service while we undertake a detailed review of the business. All sites are open, staff remain in post, and trading continues as normal.
‘We will be engaging with landlords, employees and other stakeholders as we explore all options, including the potential sale of all or part of the business, to secure the best possible outcome for creditors.’