London's Transport Museum

London's Transport Museum, formerly known as the London Transport Museum, is a museum which seeks to conserve and explain the transport heritage of London, the capital city of the United Kingdom.

Location and visiting

The main museum is located in the Covent Garden tourist precinct in central London, in a large building built in 1872 and formerly used as part of the Covent Garden Flower Market. The museum has on display many examples of buses, trams and rail vehicles. It also has explanatory displays on many aspects of London Transport, including hands-on displays intended to appeal to the younger visitor. The museum is open seven days a week; see the museum's website (in 'External links') for details of opening hours and admission prices.

The central location of the main museum is a great advantage, but the museum possesses many exhibits, ranging in size from postcards to a complete 1938 tube train, that it cannot display there. Most of these exhibits are held at the museum depot in Acton, a large modern purpose-built, road and rail connected facility. Whilst this depot is not normally open, it does stage several open weekends each year, and themed guided tours at other times. Again, see the museum's website (in 'External links') for details of dates, opening hours and prices.

History of the museum

The museum was opened at its current Covent Garden site in 1980. It was originally known as the 'London Transport Museum' and concentrated on the heritage of London Transport, the organisation that then ran underground railways and buses in the city.

In 2000, ownership of the museum was transferred to Transport for London, the new body set up to manage transport in London. At the same time the remit of the museum was changed to cover all aspects of transport within London, and to reflect this the museum's name was changed slightly to 'London's Transport Museum'.

In approximately 2003, the museum announced that it wished to undertake a major enhancement project with a proposed budget of £12 million. Apart from a general overhaul of facilities and introduction of modern interactive display techniques, this would involve reorganising the museum so that it could stage exhibitions contributing to understanding of the role of transport in urban development.

External links

• London's Transport Museum website