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  • London Transport Museum

  • Until Nov 22 2010
  • London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, London, WC2E 7BB
  • London Transport Museum

  • By Natasha Polyviou

    Posted: Mon Nov 19 2007

  • ‘Cities could not exist without transport’, notes London Transport Museum director Sam Mullins as we tour the soon-to-be-completed museum in fetching flouro hard-hats. It’s a self-evident fact that bears emphasising as the Covent Garden institution prepares to reopen on November 22 after a two-year, £22 million refurbishment. Half the world’s population now lives in an urban environment, a reality explored in the museum’s first display: audiovisual recordings of public transport in London and five other cities – Tokyo, Shanghai, Delhi, Paris and New York – spliced by designers from videos submitted to the museum online.

    By 1915, the Metropolitan Railway had literally created suburbia, as ambitious plans for a Manchester to Paris track left them with miles of underused lines. The company took to building conurbations on surplus land by the railways in north-west London to create customers for the end of the line, christened it Metro-land and banked the cash from season tickets.

    If you think your commute is a step down from hell, pity the passengers of the first electric train in 1890, one of several museum exhibits you can board. It became known as the ‘padded cell’ on account of the genius idea to dispense with windows because there was nothing to see underground. Which of course meant that no one could tell which stop they were at. (They solved this glitch by employing an athletic announcer who ran to each carriage at every station, shouting out the stops).

    The design gallery is a tribute to Frank Pick, the man responsible for rolling out the London Underground brand and giving each line its own character. Pick’s work included ensuring the emblematic bar and circle logo became an intrinsic part of London’s visual identity, to the extent it now signifies ‘tube station’ without the need for words.

    The LTM is great for kids – the Safety & Citizenship programme has the unenviable aim of training every Year Ten student in London to sit quietly and behave considerately on public transport each year; there’s an under-fives play area decorated with Steven Appleby illustrations; and the chance to sit in the driver’s carriage of a red bus and guide a Northern Line simulator through tunnels and up to platforms (fun for adults too, incidentally).

    Save time for the shop, stocking souvenirs from ‘Mind the Gap’ mugs to highly collectable posters (5,000 of which can be viewed online), and for the snazzy mezzanine café complete with train-seat upholstery and anorak cocktails. The handy location and view over the swarming piazza mean it’ll soon be as rammed as a rush-hour carriage. The museum opens on Thursday, the café and shop are open now.
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1 comment

  1. Posted by bobbarella on 24 Feb 2008 21:43

    I was looking forward to visiting the museum when it re-opened but I have to say I was a little disappointed. I couldn't understand the layout - it didn't seem to be schematic or chronological. Related info seemed to be scattered throughout the exhibition in a way that felt repetitive and also left you disorientated as you felt like surely you hadn't followed the right order as things didn't seem to flow. Looked very child friendly - but all the screaming kids meant it wasn't so friendly for the child less.

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  • Details

  • London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, London, WC2E 7BB
    , UK
    Geo: 51.512125, -0.121222
  • 020 7379 6344/020 7565 7299 (recorded info)
  • Category: Museums & Attractions
  • Times: Mon-Thur, Sat, Sun 10am-6pm, Fri 11am-9pm
  • Tube: Covent Garden
  • Website: Website

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terry33

well done for getting this far!, i am happy in my life, enjoy an array of sports, love to travel, i eat out more often than i should, i would like...

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