At London Transport Museum we care about making a difference, and we want to reach out and inspire people to shape a better city for the future. Our core purpose is the inspirational educational work that we do to promote youth engagement with the transport network, to help young Londoners realise their potential and to access all that London has to offer.
As a charitable institution, we have made significant progress on many fronts this year. We have extended the reach of the STARS (Safer Travel, Sustainable, Active, Resilient) programme, and plan to reach all Year 6 children in London in 2020.
We have welcomed an ever growing number of visitors at Covent Garden, encouraged by new interactive exhibitions such as Untangling the Tracks, and thanks to our award-winning Visitor Services team.
Our Hidden London programme continues to grow and embrace new sites and experiences such as Piccadilly Circus, launched in July this year, and Moorgate coming up in February, as well as old favourites Down Street and Clapham South. The programme of tours is supported by a handsome book and the immersive Hidden London: the Exhibition.
In June, we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the District line with a final weekend of steam hauled services on the Underground in central London. The sight of teak Victorian carriages and Met 1 in steam weaving through one of the busiest metro networks in the world delighted and amazed today’s customers. We also operated heritage buses at events across the Capital as well as the unique Imberbus day in the middle of Salisbury Plain.
Our Museum Depot at Acton celebrated its 20th anniversary this year with a record attendance at three Open Weekends, as well as school visits, guided tours and skills sessions which use our rich collections. The London Transport Miniature Railway carried record numbers of passengers, and its operations were improved with new carriage sheds and works on the tracks during a family volunteering day in October.
The Depot is still nearly unique as a publicly accessible store, enabling public access to our extensive collections, hosting a raft of significant volunteer projects such as the restoration of the Q stock and the Victoria line automatic train exhibit, a base for heritage bus and rail operations, and a secure store for posters, artworks, ephemera and the whole spectrum of our collections.
We can only produce such a busy programme thanks to wonderful volunteers, corporate support and London Transport Museum Friends working with our creative staff group. You too can support us as a volunteer and with your visit. Every purchase made in our shop in Covent Garden and online helps us deliver our charitable work, so you can even support us by wearing our moquette socks!
Next year our visitors can look forward to a new London at War gallery in the Museum, celebrations of TfL’s 20th anniversary, a refreshed holiday activity offer for our younger visitors, three Open Weekends at the Acton Depot and more Hidden London tours.
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