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On Thursday 28 March, we are holding a Schools Early Explorer Morning. The Museum will open to the public at 12 noon.

About London Transport Museum

The world’s leading museum of urban transport and an award-winning day out.

The exterior of the Museum

About London Transport Museum

We explore the powerful link between transport and the growth of London, its culture and society since 1800. By sharing this story of innovation, ingenuity, creativity and design, we ignite curiosity about the world around us and how to shape its future.  

Our collection is Designated Outstanding by Arts Council England. It includes more than 500,000 objects, from locomotives which powered the world’s first underground railway, to one of the most important collections of 20th century poster art.

Discover our collection

Discover the history of London's transport and stories of the people who have travelled and worked in the city over the last 200 years, as well as a peek into the future of travel in the Capital with a visit to London Transport Museum.

The interior of the Museum

The Museum Depot at Acton holds the majority of the Museum's collections which are not on display in the Museum in Covent Garden. Only open for special events and guided tours throughout the year.

Museum Depot

Discover stories from our collection that reveal the intriguing and often unheard of history of people, places and transport across London

Black and white photograph from 1942 of 12 women lined up in their bus and trolleybus conductors uniform

What we do

Working with the transport industry, we’re inspiring children and young people to be curious about STEM to become tomorrow's engineers

A child holding their hand up too a Museum volunteer

An exclusive benefit of Corporate Membership. The programme attracts more than 300 senior transport industry professionals, leading academics, politicians and policy-makers each year to share cutting edge ideas about the future of cities, transport and infrastructure.

Group of people standing around a table talking

Thank you to all of our supporters, sponsors, corporate partners and patrons

Champagne glasses in front of the corporate members reception

Your donations help us to continue our conservation work and carry out our day-to-day activities, education programmes and special projects

Two people looking out across the Museum

Our history

Our collection originates in the 1920s, when the London General Omnibus Company decided to preserve two Victorian horse buses and an early motorbus for future generations.

Over the years, the Museum has had a several homes: as part of the Museum of British Transport, housed in an old bus garage in Clapham during the 1960s and at Syon Park in west London in 1973 as the London Transport Collection.

The collection moved into the Flower Market building in Covent Garden in 1980, being officially opened by Princess Anne.

See the history of the Museum and the iconic building in our Google Arts & Culture story.

Our journey to equality

Like the Capital itself, London Transport Museum is open for everyone.

Putting this principle into practice for all our visitors, colleagues and volunteers is an ongoing long-term priority. One to which we are dedicating time, energy and resource.

Our goal is to be a museum that celebrates diversity and is inclusive in its culture. A museum where everyone is welcome, and which grows and evolves as the city around us does.

Together, our leadership team and trustees are working with colleagues to put plans for change into action. 

We will remove barriers which prevent inclusion. We will stand up to attitudes and behaviours which discriminate. And we will focus on reflecting the rich diversity of London in how we collect, curate and share historic and contemporary stories.

We know we have more work to do. But we are committed to making sure our museum, like our city, is open to all.

In October 2020, we committed to:

  • Improving our practices around contracts and recruitment
  • Providing training to our managers to identify issues and better support colleagues
  • Reviewing the historical narratives in the content we create and share to better reflect the diverse history of London’s transport.

Update - May 2021:  

Since making these commitments we have: 

  • Committed to a strategic plan for our people and culture which is aligned to the Museum’s principles of being for everyone, being entrepreneurial and playful, being relevant and authentic, and being dedicated and personal. This includes specific actions, key measures and working groups who will champion progress long-term
  • Signed the TfL Anti-Racism Leadership Charter and reaffirmed our commitment to listening and learning from colleagues’ experiences of racism
  • Committed to improving our collection and reporting of diversity and inclusion data, to ensure we are transparent and accountable  

  • Asked colleagues to join our All Change working group, which will develop a new progression framework for diversity and inclusion and act as an advisory board to colleagues 
  • Reviewed the status of our contracts and are in the process of converting the final tranche of temporary contracts to permanent roles 
  • Reviewed and installed new gallery content which shares diverse stories from London’s transport history past and present with our visitors:  
    • London’s original LGBT+ Rainbow crossing and our ‘My Journey to Pride‘ video are both on display for visitors   
    • Digital animated recordings of poems by TfL colleagues sharing their experiences and connections to the history of the Windrush will go on display in Summer 2021
    • A new exhibition exploring the legacy of London Transport’s direct recruitment from the Caribbean, beginning in the 1950s, will open in 2022. Its development is being supported by an advisory panel of people from Black communities with personal experience of and connections to this history, including members of TfL’s Raising Awareness of Culture and Ethnicity (RACE) Staff Network Group 

We are also continuing to:    

  • Share stories from our collection about the people who have shaped London’s transport
  • Deliver activities and events which reduce and remove barriers to enjoying the museum for neuro-diverse families and children
  • Work with transport businesses to increase diversity within today’s workforce, particularly addressing the under representation of women and people from different ethnic and racial backgrounds. We do this though our:
    • Enjoyment to Employment programme which engages children and families with careers in STEM and transport from an early age 
    • Route into Work scheme which supports young people not in education and employment, or who may not consider careers in transport and engineering as being for them, into transport industry jobs
  • Create opportunities for young Londoners to take their first steps into work in the cultural sector, gain training and build their networks through our Young Freelancer and Apprenticeship programmes
  • Engage with pupils at primary and secondary schools across the Capital, particularly schools with high percentages of students receiving free school meals   

Our green journey

Our green journey - information

Climate change threatens our planet.

What we do to today to protect our climate will shape a greener future for us all.

As a leading museum in London, we are committed to working towards being carbon neutral by 2030 to reduce our own impact on the planet. This aligns with the Mayor of London’s target for the Capital to be a zero-carbon city.

Actions we have taken include:

  • Setting up a steering group with colleagues from across the Museum, TfL and external advisors to review progress keep us accountable.
  • Commissioning a new decarbonisation and environmental comfort report. This will help us to better understand where we need to make progress, inform our sustainability targets and shape the actions we take now and long term. It will also inform how we heat and cool our Covent Garden building.
  • Upgrading our Grade II listed building in Covent Garden to reduce CO2 emissions and improve waste management. Solar panels and waterless urinals have already been installed and new meters have been fitted to better monitor our utilities usage. Where possible, our lighting will be upgraded to use energy efficient bulbs and environmentally friendly chillers and condensers will be installed to improve energy usage.
  • Reviewing our retail textiles, packaging and supply chains and seeking external advice on sustainable alternatives. We now aim to only use Forest Stewardship Council (FCS) approved packaging, reuse supplier packaging where possible and are reducing the use of air freight. Plastic bags have been replaced with paper bags.
  • Using eco-friendly, renewable or recyclable materials to create new gallery content and exhibitions with a focus on reusable designs. We are also working with suppliers committed to eco-friendly practices, including solvent free or waterless ink printing.

As our journey progresses, we will continue to share new updates.

Through our Climate Crossroads programme, we are also engaging our visitors with climate protection too.

By imagining what a green future could look like for London we want to ignite people’s curiosity and inspire them to take action with us.

Charitable status

London Transport Museum is a registered charity (number 1123122). 

The Museum’s charitable objectives are to:

  • Preserve our transport heritage and interpret the vital role transport has played in the life of our city
  • Deliver education programmes for schools, working with over 100,000 young people every year
  • Work with communities throughout London on creative and educational projects both within and outside the Museum
  • Raise awareness of future transport issues and opportunities to promote a sustainable London

More about us

Get in touch with us. Contact us via our helpful contact us form, give us a call or send us a note!

A black and white photo of people walking towards the front of the Museum

Sign up to our enewsletter and be the first to know about new exhibitions, events, appeals, special offers, shopping, audience research and more.

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Keep up to date with the latest goings-on at the Museum with our recent news and press releases.

A black and white photo of people walking towards the front of the Museum

From volunteering to working with us, apprenticeships and support for young people, there are many ways to get involved with London Transport Museum. Find out more here.

The exterior of the Museum

Thank you to all of our supporters, sponsors, corporate partners and patrons

Champagne glasses in front of the corporate members reception

London Transport Museum Limited is a registered charity to help advance the heritage of transport in London and to educate the public about the history of transport in London

Two red double decker buses

Read about London Transport Museum's policies and procedures including our privacy policy, collections policies, ticketing policies and safeguarding policy

A drawing depicting a Victorian building with arches and large buildings and a sign reading London Transport Museum

London Transport Museum's learning programmes ignite curiosity to shape the future, catalysing the stories of London transport to make a positive difference in people’s lives

Four children dressed up with transport worker clothes jumping out of a play area

We have been recognised for our events and exhibitions, collections, innovation and people. See more about our awards and recognitions.

Champagne glasses in front of the corporate members reception