Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 2 and Version 1 of London Transport Museum

Museum covering the history and future of transport in London, located in Covent Garden. Reopened in November 2007 after two years of refurbishment.

Admission fees as of December 2007 are £8 for adults, £6.50 for seniors, £5 for students, and free for Freedom Pass holders and under-16s. If you plan to make multiple visits it might be worth becoming a Friend of the museum, which as of November 2007 is (according to uk.transport.london) £20/year and gets you free entry to the Transport Museum plus 10% off in the shop and also concessionary rates at the Brunel Museum, the Museum in Docklands, and special exhibitions at the Museum of London.

Kake and friends visited less than a month after reopening, and not all the exhibits were working yet. Some of us found the layout a bit confusing; it wasn't always clear how to move around the museum if we wanted to see the exhibits in chronological order. They had a kind of numbered punch-card system which helped a bit (but not much) to make sure we'd not missed any exhibits. We hadn't bought the guidebook (£5, I think), and perhaps should have.

The trail starts on the top floor, with horse-drawn vehicles and river transport, then continues down to motorised buses, taxis, and trains. Throughout the museum there are large-scale reconstructed or refurbished vehicles, some of which you can go inside. There are also some recordings (by actors) describing life as, for example, a crossing-sweeper, a horse bus driver, or a conductor. Right at the end is some rather marketing-like stuff about the future of transport in London.

The museum includes a library with over 12,000 items; entry to the library is by appointment only, and you will need to bring formal ID with you (e.g. passport), though admission is free. A post on <tt>uk.transport.london</tt> says there's a "little reading library" somewhere in the main museum too, but we managed to miss it.

Apparently the cafe is rather expensive; one price quoted on uk.transport.london was £2.50 for a cup of coffee. There's a theatre downstairs too - the Cubic Theatre.

You can visit the shop (and presumably the cafe) without paying to get in to the museum itself; the interesting part of the shop is the book section, which is upstairs, and worth a look. The posters are upstairs too.

The museum has some other holdings which are not on display at this site; they can be seen at the Museum Depot in Acton during open weekends; these don't seem to happen very often - at the time of writing, the next one is three months away, in March 2008.

See also:

• Other reviews on uk.transport.london: Mr Thant, Dr. Barry Worthington, bowroaduk, Ian Jelf

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