Transportation Nerds to go Transportation Nerd Land

Yesterday being your typically snowy, early-April Sunday, Mark and I found ourselves in need of some sort of indoor activity so we would have to leave the flat at some point during the day (it's just sad if you don't leave all day). While eating my toast, which clearly helps me think straight, I came up with the idea of hitting the London Transport Museum. Although I had technically been there before (in 2004), they had closed for absolutely ages and redone everything, reopening last November. This fact, along with the fact that having used London Transport considerably more than I had before my first visit, made me think a re-visit would be worthwhile.

We timed the visit to try and avoid the Olympic torch relay, which according to the news was causing mayhem wherever it went, and it was basically going right by Covent Garden. Instead we got there shortly after it had passed, so a number of people were walking towards the tube with Tibet flags and protest signs as we were walking away from it. Might I add it was freezing and a light snow was falling.

Anyways, the transport museum was relatively hopping. You learn about pre-tube days and the start of the 'omnibus' service, and luckily a lot about the tube itself. The tube map of today is almost identical to the tube map of 1920, save the additions of the Victoria line in the 1960s and the Jubilee Line sort of gradually between the 1980s and 1990s. Apparently the tube was a very popular way of getting around town in like, the 1870s, when they had first, second and third class options. There was an old first class car (magically elevated to the third floor, which I thought was impressive in its own right) with separate doors for each row and cushy seats, with a few compartments at one end of the carriage reserved for ladies only. There was also a 1920s District Line train looking rather woodsy and smelling a bit dusty, but it's upholstery has seen a lot of dirty bottoms and smokers so I suppose it's understandable.

One of my main points of grief during the visit was the amount of children running around as if it were some kind of candy store. They were clearly not there to learn about London transport history, but instead seemed preoccupied with finding levers you could pull and buttons you could press. I was even attempting to do a multiple choice trivia game when one of them walked between me and the buttons as if she was the 5 year-old owner of the place. If this were my child I would be like, no child, but none of the parents seemed to care that this sort of thing went on. The same thing happened when we were learning about water pumps in Munich, actually, when some kid actually came and took something out of Mark's hand as if he didn't actually notice he was there. Not impressive people.

There is of course a very nice gift shop attached to the place that had remained open during the renovation, but it held little post-museum draw for me as I've been shopping there regularly for some time now. As a side note, you'll find many gift opportunities for transportation nerds in that place.

Overall, I would recommend the museum. However, be prepared for your learning to be constantly interrupting and the placard you are attempting to read being constantly blocked by a child who is pushing a button with little regard to what the display is actually trying to show you (like how they dealt with steam back before they used electric underground trains). Oh, but it's a good place to go if you want to see creepy mannequins dressed in period costumes!