Transport aficionados are going to love the London Transport Museum, a three floor attraction located in the Grade II-listed Flower Market building in Covent Garden Piazza.
The museum is dedicated to exploring the story of London and its transport system over the last 200 years, highlighting the powerful link between transport and the growth of modern London, culture and society since 1800.
The collection originated in the 1920s, when the London General Omnibus Company decided to preserve two Victorian horse buses and an early motorbus for future generations.
The Museum of British Transport opened in an old bus garage in Clapham, south London, during the 1960s, before moving to Syon Park in west London in 1973 as the London Transport Collection.
In 1980, the public display moved again, this time to occupy the Victorian Flower Market building in Covent Garden as London Transport Museum.
Here’s some photos from my recent visit.
Unfurled bus destination blinds.
I do love a good moquette.
Moquette, derived from the French word for carpet, is a type of woven pile fabric in which cut or uncut threads form a short dense cut or loop pile. As well as giving it a distinctive velvet-like feel, the pile construction is particularly durable, and ideally suited to applications such as public transport. Its upright fibres form a flexible, non-rigid surface, which are constantly displaced to give durability and anti-stain benefits. [—]
Tube locomotive.
It’s a bit depressing when you see things in a museum that you can remember being in everyday use.
Steam engine! This is more like it.
Preserved railway carriage.
I’m digging the psychedelic moquette.
View from the top.
Horse drawn tram.
Looks quite comfy inside.
This excellent exhibition runs until Nov 2018 – see a review here.
Inside the world’s first tube carriage, nicknamed ‘the padded cell.’
The City & South London Railway tube railway opened in 1890 with electric locomotives hauling three carriages like the above.
Originally only provided with small windows, they were replaced with standard tube stock when the line was rebuilt in 1923.
Old posters.
Museum info
London Transport Museum
Covent Garden Piazza
London WC2E 7BB.
• Advance online booking: adults £16.00 (concessions £13.50)
• On the door: adults £17.50 (concessions £15.00)
• Kids go free.
For advance booking information, call +44 (0)20 7565 7298
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