LT Museum in trouble?

As the last Front Of House Supervisor at the Museum before it closed the news of it's troubles saddens me a great deal. I spent six and half years working there. During that time I worked with a great bunch of people. Many of which accepted VS when I did and left in October 2005. I and many others hope that the Museum sees it's way through these difficult times.

It would be a shame if they closed the London Transport Museum. What I don't understand is that other museums in London (British Museum, Science Museum, etc) do not charge a fee yet they are able to remain open. Does the Transport Museum get government funding? Perhaps they can move some of the exhibits to the other museums.

That surprises me : the staff there have always been thoroughly pleasant and welcoming towards me!

Back on topic : I suspect it's far more likely that the museum scope will become smaller rather than it closing altogether - I think some sale of peripheral assets across the board is likely, along with a slowdown in restoration progress. Indeed this appears to already be happening, with the sale of a Mercedes hydrogen powered Citaro bus kept at Acton.

Sam Mullins told me I'd "completely misunderstood the ethos behind the museum's re-display" (or similar). In fact, I felt/feel I knew exactly what was going on, the answer's in the name. It's gone from the London Transport Museum (museum of LT) via London's Transport Museum (museum of transport in London) to the London transport museum (ditto) the last time I looked. The more they move away from the classic LPTB/LT design imagery and broaden into other spheres now in the TfL orbit, the less of a USP (unique selling point) they present to the public. Taking the RT out of Covent Garden (effectively because the public supposedly couldn't tell the difference from the RM) shows just how far their aims have drifted since the former Museum of British Transport exhibits were moved to Syon Park.

I agree 100% about the second re-display and the staff.

Regarding those modern traffic lights/unnecessary clutter at the museum, some old 1930s traffic signals would be suitable and look good, not the modern plastic things.





The old school, LT time served staff who used to work at the museum were friendly.

IMO, it would be far better if it went back to its former role of show casing the heritage of Underground trains, buses, trams, trolley buses. The only exception to that would be old London taxis, the handsome cab, low loader, FX3 and FX4 all of which would be of interest to tourists, all the other stuff of cycles, cycle lanes, walking, river transport, cable cars etc. gets ditched in the main displays.

Me too.

It needs to go back to its former museum principles and not to be a TfL Visitors' Centre.

I don't know. Traffic lights appeal to some people after all. :-D

As I have already stated on this thread I was a former employee of the Museum and take exception to some of comments regarding staff and "Old Compton St". I would also like to point out that not only was the displays refreshed/renewed but also heating/ventilation etc replaced etc. The working conditions were extremely demanding. 110 degrees upstairs in the summer just like a green house (Which if you remember it was in a previous life.
What I can say is a lot of thought went into the refurbishment and what should be displayed and as most of the people on this forum weren't involved in the planning can we all be a little circumspect about the commenting on the Museum.

I agree with everything you say.

The suggestion of relocating to somewhere around the Royal Docks is an excellent one. Imagine how much better that would be, showing the complete collection as well as TfL's wider operations without any problems, which it deserves. There could even be outside space to enable running of some of the road vehicles.

Let me assure you that there were a number of Focus groups from various parts of London involved with what went into the new Museum. But I do accept that you can't please everybody. However it's not a state secret that TfL were involved in the content understandably so as they were the paymasters. Therefore the content had to reflect TfL's remit. If the Museum went through the process again no doubt their would be some London Overground content. Plus anything else that TfL are responsible for.

As was pointed out to us staff when we made aware that there would be job losses change wasn't an option but a necessity. It was getting stale and lots of the infrastructure was coming apart. Everybody must realise the Museum was aimed at all types of visitors not only transport enthusiasts. Hence the "Thomas The Tank Engine and Bob the Builder events.

The A Stock is being moved here so surely that's a sign the museum's not in trouble?

I have to disagree about the non display of the RT, it is a huge gap in the history of LT buses and jumping forward to an RM without showing the intermediate step is embarrassing.

Whilst at Covent Garden the museum will remain a second rate museum with a first rate collection, no matter the good intentions of people like yourself, crusty54. RAF Hendon does not have any problems with visitors out in zone 4. A docklands location would not exactly be out of the way, zones 2 and 3, it will cost money, but it would take the museum to the next level where it deserves to be. At the moment it is a cramped museum, with an incomplete display of dead "stuffed" vehicles.

As I have said before, you have at the moment the missing links of tube trains, no pre 38 and no unpainted aluminum rolling stock, even in the form of the R49 surface stock car, or my personal preference the 1983 stock.* It is beyond a joke!

Regarding Clapham which is now a Sainsbury's, the old Victoria bus garage, would had made a better museum in Central London, but alas that is now a Sainsbury's as well.

*An unpainted 1967 TS would be a real star, but unfortunately there is not one available.

Perhaps I could chuck a few thoughts in. My partner and I visited the LT Museum a couple of weeks back for a colleagues evening event. Personally as far as exhibits are concerned I thought the place was near empty. You enter through this strange walkway, which seems a waste of space. The mapping idea which it’s supposed to depict is a very good idea. But it seems to be lost on the vast majority of visitors who happily plough past this and the Crossrail displays to enter the atrium beside a Wrights cut away double decker bus. The latter would have been better positioned facing towards visitors entering. But no, we get the back end of the display to greet us!

Then when in the Central Hall, you can see the Trains, but how do you get to them? Answer you head round the back of the tram to squeeze past the emergency exit and up some stairs. Or if your lucky you can enter the overhead walkway which is round the back of the large display and up to the walkway. The entrance to which we thought was for staff use only! Mala (my partner) kept tugging on my arm and saying – “Dont think we should be here”.
When you get to the trains they seem to be parked in an attic. Unless you really knew they were there you would walk around the lower atrium and back out the front door. Other than a German couple, we were the only people who visited them all night.

After a couple of soft drinks I decided to use the toilet. The stench in the Gents was perhaps the worst I had smelt in any public toilet. So bad in fact I decided not to dry my hands in an attempt to get out as quickly as possible. The kindly Museum helper standing outside offered me some tissues. Perhaps unappetisingly the food for the event was being brought out from the kitchen which appeared to be adjacent to these highly smelly toilets.


I accept they are trying to appeal to a wide range of tastes. But the exhibits are too thin on the ground to make any sense. It needs more pizzazz.

The site was ideally located when it moved from Syon Park and I visited many times with my free staff pass. It felt modern and cavernous. It was worth a visit. I used the shop on many occasions in the past. But now I am not sure I could persuade any of my friends that the place is worth the entry fee let alone visit the shop. The products seem overpriced and aimed mainly at tourists. That’s where the big money clearly is, but how about offering discounts to enthusiasts perhaps on production of a LOTS, LURS, or OS membership card?

Without a doubt the Museum staff worked very hard with its redesign, and I understand the reasons why. But if it’s not hitting home then the message is pointless. They do need to start listening to their visitors.

So if you do decide to try to interact with the Museum – try getting through to them. I had some problems booking the A stock tour tickets on the website – so we tried to call. You call the switch board during normal office hours, to get given another number which just rang and rang. Eventually I got the website to book my ticket, but having tried several times mistakenly forgot to change the “Tickets to collect at Ticket Office” to “tickets by post”. So the obvious question is where is this ticket office? Moorgate? Covent Garden? More phone calls – no answer. So I use the e-mail address on the ticket confirmation. The only one being “postmaster” on the bottom of the e-mail. Again no reply.

They have clearly not made it easy for the public/customers to interact with the Museum. They do not answer the relevant phone and you do not have a specific e-mail address to direct your questions too. Clearly as a customer I would like an e-mail to direct any questions to, as I needed to in this case. Eventually I used the general ‘contact us’ form and got a reply. In fairness I received a reply which confirmed my tickets would be posted once they were printed. And they did arrive in good time complete with a free admission ticket to LTM & the Acton event.

So perhaps now is the time to consider relocating to a better less cramped site. Somewhere which has the advantage to hold parallel events. I would support housing the whole museum on one site. The Royal Docks are ideal for this.

However if their target audience is the tourist, then that’s all we are going to get. Other than the occasional Acton open day of course. I doubt I will be going back to Covent Garden for another ten years!

Dean