Barking (Tanner Street) practical test centre
Tanner Street is the obvious choice if you live in Barking or anywhere on the IG11 side of our patch, and its routes are shaped by two very different sorts of road. One is a compact town centre threaded with one-way streets, bus lanes and box junctions, where everything happens close together and quickly. The other is the A13, where everything happens at speed and with more room. Being comfortable on both is what a Tanner Street route is really testing.
Local route knowledge
What Barking (Tanner Street) routes tend to lean on
The town-centre one-way system
Short blocks, sudden lane changes, bus lanes with their own hours and box junctions you must not block. Decisions arrive quickly and close together, so this is where early observation stops being advice and becomes the only way through. We spend real lesson time here, because confidence in the town centre makes the rest of the route feel slow.
The A13 and Barking Road
Dual carriageway driving at traffic speeds, with slip roads to join and leave and signs to read early. Barking Road adds box junctions and heavy bus traffic to the mix. Both give an examiner a clear view of your lane discipline and your planning, and neither should be new to you by test day.
Residential streets across IG11
Quieter grids away from the centre, with parked cars narrowing the carriageway and plenty of junctions and crossings. This is where manoeuvres and the independent-driving section most often happen, so these streets get as much attention in lessons as the busier roads do.
Examiners choose from a range of routes and the details can change, so treat this as preparation rather than a script — and check the current information on gov.uk before your test.
Barking (Tanner Street) pass rate
This is the pass rate for everyone tested at Barking (Tanner Street), published by the DVSA — not our pupils' pass rate, which we don't publish because we have no independently verified figure for it. Treat it as a description of the roads, not a prediction about you.
Urban centres almost always sit below the national average, and that is the honest explanation here: a rural test route has fewer multi-lane roundabouts, fewer bus lanes, fewer cyclists and far less stop-start traffic than anything in this part of London. The examiner's standard is identical everywhere — the difference is how much is happening around you while you meet it. Preparation on these specific roads is what closes that gap, which is the whole reason this page exists.
One thing we won't do is recommend a centre on its statistics. Pupils are booked where they live and where slots are available, and chasing a percentage across London usually costs more in travel and unfamiliar roads than it gains.
The faults that most often cost a test
In DVSA rank order, and national rather than specific to Barking (Tanner Street) — the DVSA doesn't publish a fault breakdown per centre. They are worth reading anyway: the top four are all observation and mirror work, which is exactly what gets drilled in lessons.
- 1.Junctions — observation
- 2.Mirrors — change direction
- 3.Move off — safely
- 4.Junctions — turning right
- 5.Response to signs — traffic lights
- 6.Control — steering
- 7.Response to signs — road markings
- 8.Response to signs — traffic signs
- 9.Positioning — normal driving
- 10.Use of speed
Source: DVSA published pass-rate and fault data. Figures are reviewed when the DVSA updates them — see DVSA driving test statistics for the current dataset.
How the day runs
- Turn up a few minutes early — your instructor will usually fit in a short warm-up drive first.
- You can sit the test in your instructor's car if that is what you have been learning in.
- Your eyesight is checked before you drive: reading a number plate from 20.5 metres.
- Allow about 40 minutes of driving, roughly 20 minutes of which is independent, following signs or a sat-nav.
Areas booked at Barking (Tanner Street)
We teach across every part of our patch that uses this centre, so your lessons happen on the roads your test will.
Barking (Tanner Street) test centre — common questions
Other test centres we cover
Get test-ready for Barking (Tanner Street)
One quick call tells us where you're up to and when you're free. We'll build the local routes into your lessons from the start.