The London Transport Museum (LTM) is a transport museum based in

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

, London. The museum predominantly hosts exhibits relating to the heritage of London's transport, as well as conserving and explaining the history of it. The majority of the museum's exhibits originated in the collections of London Transport, but, since the creation of

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

(TfL) in 2000, the remit of the museum has expanded to cover all aspects of transport in the city and in some instances beyond. The museum operates from two sites within London. The main site in Covent Garden uses the name of its parent institution, and is open to the public every day, excluding over Christmas, having reopened in 2007 after a two-year refurbishment. The other site, located in Acton, is the London Transport Museum Depot and is principally a storage site of historic artefacts that is open to the public on scheduled visitor days throughout the year. The museum also runs a programme of guided tours, Hidden London, which takes visitors to part of the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

that are typically closed to the public, including disused stations and wartime shelters. The museum was briefly renamed London's Transport Museum to reflect its coverage of topics beyond London Transport, but it reverted to its previous name in 2007 to coincide with the reopening of the Covent Garden site. In July 2024, the Museum unveiled new branding in an attempt to reflect its coverage of all of London's transport system, not exclusively buses and trains. The new logo - still of roundel design - incorporates all the colours of TfL's transport modes.

Museum (Covent Garden)

The museum's main facility is located in a Victorian iron and glass building that had formed part of the Covent Garden vegetable, fruit and flower market. It was designed as a dedicated flower market by William Rogers in 1871 and is located between Russell Street, Tavistock Street, Wellington Street and the east side of the former market square. The market moved out in 1971, and the building was reopened as the London Transport Museum on 28 March 1980. The collection had been located at Syon Park since 1973 and before that had formed part of the British Transport Museum at

Clapham Clapham () is a district in south London, south west London, England, lying mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, but with some areas (including Clapham Common) extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. History Ea ...

. On 4 September 2005 the museum closed for a £22 million refurbishment designed by Bryan Avery of Avery Associates Architects to enable the expansion of the display collection to encompass the larger remit of TfL which administers all forms of public transport. Enhanced educational facilities were also required. The museum reopened on 22 November 2007.London Transport Museum Project Information
Archive.org copy from 19 November 2006 The entrance to the museum is from the Covent Garden Piazza. The museum is within walking distance from both Covent Garden Underground station and

Charing Cross railway station Charing Cross railway station (also known as London Charing Cross) is a London station group, central London railway terminus between the Strand, London, Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South ...

Collection

The first parts of the collection were brought together at the beginning of the 20th century by the

London General Omnibus Company The London General Omnibus Company or LGOC, was the principal bus operator in London between 1855 and 1933. It was also, for a short period between 1909 and 1912, a motor bus manufacturer. Overview The London General Omnibus Company was f ...

(LGOC) when it began to preserve buses being retired from service. After the LGOC was taken over by the London Electric Railway (LER), the collection was expanded to include rail vehicles. It continued to expand after the LER became part of the

London Passenger Transport Board The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Londo ...

in the 1930s and as the organisation passed through various successor bodies up to TfL, London's current transport authority. The collection has had a number of homes. It was housed as part of the Museum of British Transport at a disused tram depot in

High Street (now a supermarket) from 1963 to 1972, and then at Syon Park in

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

from 1973 to 1977, before being moved to Covent Garden in 1980. Most of the other exhibits moved to

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

on formation of the

National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum (NRM) is a museum in York, England, forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historical ...

in 1975. The Covent Garden building has on display many examples of buses, trams,

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

es and rail vehicles from 19th and 20th centuries as well as artefacts and exhibits related to the operation and marketing of passenger services and the impact that the developing transport network has had on the city and its population. The first underground electric train, from 1890, can be seen here. Larger exhibits held at Acton depot include a complete 1938 stock tube train as well as early locomotives from the first sub-surface and first deep-level lines.

Hidden London

In 2015 the museum launched a programme of guided tours under the name Hidden London. Tours of disused stations had previously been run by the museum since the 1990s, with one-off events taking place during the 2010s. The tours give visitors exclusive access to parts of the London underground network that are usually closed to the public and cover the history of London through its underground network. They are written using findings from the museum’s extensive archives and collection. Locations explored include disused stations

Aldwych Aldwych (pronounced ) is a street and the name of the List of areas of London, area immediately surrounding it, in the City of Westminster, part of Greater London, and is part of the West End of London, West End West End Theatre, Theatreland. T ...

and Down Street, as well as secret parts of

Piccadilly Circus Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End of London, West End in the City of Westminster. It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a ''List of road junctions in the Unite ...

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has been the notional "centre of London" and became the point from which distances from London are measured. ...

and Euston stations; and a wartime deep level shelter in Clapham South. In 2023, a tour of Baker Street underground station was added to the programme in celebration of the 160th anniversary of the London Underground. In 2024 the museum launched tour ''Holborn: The Secret Platforms.'' A new tour, ''Dover Street: Alight here for Green Park'', will also start in January 2025. There are also a series of virtual tours available, as well as a walking tour which covers the area surrounding the museum. Profits from Hidden London tours are used to support the museum's charitable activities as an education and heritage charity.

Other attractions

As of 2022, the museum offers three

simulator A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

experiences: One

Elizabeth Line The Elizabeth line is a railway line that runs across Greater London and nearby towns, operating similarly to the Réseau Express Régional, RER in Paris and the S-Bahn systems of German-speaking countries. It runs services on dedicated infras ...

simulator featuring a cab, a stand-up smaller version of the later, and a 1938 stock simulator complete with deadman's handle. A Hidden London exhibition ran until July 2023, featuring a sized-down, walkthrough replica of the

Ticket Hall and Down Street Blitz Shelter which Winston Churchill used during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The exhibition told the story of some of London's abandoned stations and hidden transport infrastructure of which the museum offers some tours of. There is the Children's interactive area complete with

Optare Switch Mobility (Optare until 2020) is a British bus manufacturer based in Sherburn-in-Elmet, North Yorkshire. It is a subsidiary of Indian company Ashok Leyland. The company is responsible for the EV operations of the group with Ashok Leylan ...

bus and the All Aboard play-zone for 0-7 year olds. London 2026

Museum shop

The museum shop sells a wide range of books, reproduction posters, models, gifts and souvenirs, both at Covent Garden and online. Profits from sales support the museum's activities.

Museum Depot (Acton)

The Museum Depot is located in Acton, west London, and was opened in October 1999. The depot holds the majority of the museum's collections which are not on display in the main museum in Covent Garden. It is the base for the museum's curators and conservators, and is used for the display of items too large to be accommodated in the main facility. The depot provides 6,000 square metres of storage space in secure, environmentally controlled conditions and houses over 370,000 items of all types, including many original works of art used for the museum's collections of

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...

s, signs,

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

s, photographs,

engineering drawing An engineering drawing is a type of technical drawing that is used to convey information about an object. A common use is to specify the geometry necessary for the construction of a component and is called a detail drawing. Usually, a number of ...

s and

uniform A uniform is a variety of costume worn by members of an organization while usually participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are most often worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency serv ...

s. The building has both road access and a rail connection to the

network, which allows the storage and display of significant numbers of buses, trams, trolleybuses, rail

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, Railroad car#Freight cars, freight and Passenger railroad car, passenger cars (or coaches) ...

and other vehicles. The depot is not regularly open to the public, but is fully equipped to receive visitors, with ticket office, shop, a

miniature railway A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by Diesel engine, ...

, and other visitor facilities. It opens to the public for pre-booked guided tours on several dates each month, and also for special events, including themed open weekends – usually three times per year. It is within easy walking distance of Acton Town Underground station.

Transport links

Gallery

References

External links

*
Resource showing the entire collections on display at the Covent Garden site

* ttps://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/photographs Explore the online photographic collection of over 16,000 photographs {{authority control Transport museums in London City museums in the United Kingdom History museums in London Railway museums in England Bus museums in England Museums in the City of Westminster History of transport in London Museums established in 1980 1980 establishments in England Covent Garden Charities based in London Tram museums in the United Kingdom Transport for London