How Middlefinder works
What is this?
Middlefinder finds the fairest place in London for a group to meet, ranked by real transit times — not whatever's geographically halfway. Enter your people's postcodes or nearest stations, and it ranks meeting spots by how fair and fast the trip is for everyone, not just the average.
How does it work?
Every journey time is precomputed from TfL's own timetable data, not calculated live — that's what makes a search of 250+ candidate areas for up to 10 people return in milliseconds instead of minutes.
Fastest, Balanced and Fairest change how heavily an uneven trip gets penalised — one person's 10 minutes against another's 50. Once you pick a place, Middlefinder asks TfL directly, from your browser, for the actual timetabled route. That part is live.
What counts as a meeting place?
252 curated areas, each a cluster of stations that a person would call one place — Bank, Monument and Cannon Street count as one, not three. Every area is guaranteed at least a dozen pubs, cafés or restaurants nearby, so you'll never get sent to a random residential street.
What does the last train home check actually check?
Whether each person has a way back on the Tube and rail network at typical late-night frequencies, roughly 22:30 to 00:30 — not buses, and not the exact time you searched for. It's a same-ballpark check, not a live simulation of your specific night.
What are the limitations?
Plainly:
- Rankings are precomputed and approximate — typically close to TfL's own numbers, but any individual journey can be off by a couple of minutes. Only the route you open afterwards is exact.
- Tube, DLR, Overground and the Elizabeth line only. Buses only get you to a station, never between meeting areas, and National Rail beyond what TfL's feed covers isn't included.
- The last train home check doesn't cover anything after about 00:30, or account for night buses.
- Coverage is Greater London. Somewhere with no nearby station, over 1.2km away, won't have a result.
What happens to my data?
Postcodes are geocoded via postcodes.io. The live route lookup for your chosen place is called directly from your browser to TfL — not through Middlefinder's server.