London Transport Museum Covent Garden Review
London Transport Museum
Covent Garden, London
1 March 2015
Reviewed by Jenny Bennett
On a lovely sunny Sunday my husband, our two year old daughter and I took a trip to Covent Garden to go to London Transport Museum. The museum explores the story of London and its transport over the last 200 years and highlights how the city has grown during this time. It’s arranged over three levels and makes good use of the space with interactive exhibits for both big kids and little children!
We joined the short queue around 10:15am and only waited a couple of minutes before being served by a friendly reception team. We were given a piece of card for our daughter to stamp in at each location and they invited to use the free cloakroom upon entry to store any bags or coats we didn’t want to carry around with us.
We walked through the world cities walk which took us to a lift and then up to the second floor where we entered 19th century London and how people moved around the city before the underground and trains became common place. We were able to look at full scale sized London horse drawn busses including enormous model horses which our daughter found highly amusing. She also had a good chat with the gentlemen carrying a wealthy chap around in a chair… we didn’t have the heart to tell her these were also waxworks and not real!
On your way round the museum you have a card to stamp with 13 destinations which also acts as a guide as to where you should head next – if you go from 5 to 7 you know you’ve missed a section which is handy as there isn’t a set path to follow. Some footprints on the floor to give you a general gist would be quite handy. We never did get our 11th stamp and know we probably missed out a section of the museum because of this.
Once you leave 19th Century London you move down to the first floor. On this floor we learnt about the steam underground and the growth of the suburbs between 1863 and 1905. We loved the little dioramas showing the tunnels being built and were very pleased with the little magnifying lenses which had small speakers on. This meant Emma could look at the men digging tunnels and at the same time listen to their conversation which she thought was excellent and we found pretty fun too!
Running through the centre of the first floor is a train with a compartment you can get in and sit it – we found the seats to be much more comfortable than modern day trains and really showed us how in this time getting on a train to go somewhere was probably a rather grand and social event and my husband was amused to point out the specific Ladies Only carriage. Can you imagine such a thing now on the 18:04 from London Waterloo?! On the other side of the train is one of the first underground carriages which you can stand in but not sit in – sadly the gaps on either side of the barrier are perfect two year old size so a certain amount of distraction is required to stop the extra small people getting a little too involved in the exhibits!
We then got into another lift back down to the ground floor – the stairs are an option for moving around the museum but Emma is a fan of lifts and pressing buttons so it seemed a shame not to give her the opportunity. The lifts and ramps do mean the museum is very accessible and the facilities include baby changing facilities, disabled toilets, a café and a gift shop. There is a handy picnic area on the ground floor as well so you can bring snacks and sandwiches with you to help extend out your visit and free WiFi as well so you can upload all your pictures as you take them if you’d like to!
We took the lift down to the ground floor and saw the section for All Aboard which is the area for children under the age of six and currently closed for redevelopment until the 28th March 2015. Even without this specialised area there is plenty to do for little ones though in the main picnic area with little train sets, pedestrian crossings and miniature trams to chase along and that’s not even including the actual exhibits themselves. There is a bus and you can go up to the top floor and get a real feel for how you would have felt travelling up and down those stairs – which incidentally are very steep and harder to get down than they are up with an excitable toddler!
On the ground floor we were able to get in and out of buses and underground trains across the years which with the aids of videos and projections really gave us a feel for how that might have felt. There was a front section of a Routemaster and Emma got to sit in the driver’s seat and press all the buttons which makes for a lovely photo opportunity and she really enjoyed it – there can be a bit of a queue though as lots of people want to get this snap.
There were quite a few things that Emma was too young for that looked like excellent fun including a train driver simulator for the underground and a really excellent tablet app to try and direct a drilling machine to try and create a new tunnel. I’d say the ideal age to visit the museum is maybe ages 6+ to get a full experience of the museum and all the exhibits – especially if they are train or bus mad.
The final section looks to the future which is very interesting but definitely more of a section for grown-ups. It’s worth looking at though and has some very interesting information.
On the way out you do exit via a very nice and very tempting gift shop so you might want to have your wallet ready!
In total we spent an hour and a half at the museum and I think if Emma was older it would have been a longer visit so I’d allow between 2 and 3 hours for your visit.
We had a brilliant time at the museum and I’d recommend it thoroughly and not just as a rainy day attraction – it’s worth a visit entirely in its own right.
An excellent day all in all. I’d have given it 5/5 if there were better directions on how to move around the museum to get the best out of the day.
Rating: 4/5
Tickets cost £16 (unlimited admission for 12 months), children under 17 go FREE.
For more information or to book tickets visit www.ltmuseum.co.uk.
London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, London, WC2E 7BB | 020 7379 6344
