London Transport Museum
Established in 1980 in an old flower market building located in the piazza of Covent Garden, the museum originally was dedicated to just trains and busses. When all the transport was combined in 2000, the museum also branched to all forms of transportation for its collections.Quick Jumps
The Arrival - Covent Garden tube station
The Museum
First Floor (Or Ground as they say there)
Next Floor Up
Top Floor
Summary
The Arrival - Covent Garden tube station
The Museum
First Floor (Or Ground as they say there)
Next Floor Up
Top Floor
Summary
The Arrival - Covent Garden tube station
I took the underground to Covent Garden, which almost always requires a train switch at some point to get here.Then up and around the market hall past buskers performing acts of various value to the southeast corner.
The Museum
Entry is an unintuitive affair, and strangely there's not a sign every 10 steps to tell you what to do like the rest of London. But, once you finally get into the museum proper, it's an easy place to navigate.First Floor (Or Ground as they say there)
Now, everyone thinks of double decker buses and the underground when envisioning London transport, but there is, and was, a lot more to it.
The public transport system was a fabulous job to get into the middle class for workers, one that many immigrants took advantage of
When all else fails, and it's 2am in Chelsea, get a cab
Solid rubber wheels, this bus service from the turn of the century was a rough ride
Pretty old buses with horrible fuel economy, but they ran forever
During the Great War, this double decker got military around the city and to the docks
The first cafe, it has ice cream. Give up parents, you're stopping here
1930s subway
1800s subway, with separate electric engine
Inside the 'padded cell' subway cars of the 1880s
Even the street cars were double decker
War time transport and alternate uses of stations at night like bomb shelters
Next Floor Up
Now the floors get smaller as they are around the edges of the building with the center atrium.
1920s subways, still using a dedicated engine
But also still rocking to the mod 60s baby!
The first underground, running in the 1860s. Imagine that pollution in a tunnel
The cars were more like overland trains at this point in the 19th century
Oh, yeah, parents, second stop you have to spend time at. Just submit now
Massive display of iconic underground posters, a mainstay for over a century
Top Floor
We have reached the apex, or the beginning. I guess I did this in reverse order.
Summary
A great place for kids, and me, a big kid. So many items, all real, all life-sized. So many tantrums thrown when it was time to leave. So many cool shirts and toys and posters and all the things. I swear the shop is half the reason to go.
