Happy Volunteers' Week 2022!

Volunteers at London Transport Museum contribute a phenomenal amount of time, energy, enthusiasm, skills and expertise to the work we do, ensuring that our visitors have a fantastic time at our sites in Covent Garden and Acton. Our volunteers also play a pivotal role in bringing our collection to life, providing a friendly face at our events, restoring vehicles (and even driving them!), leading our popular guided tours behind the scenes at the Museum Depot, and everything in between.

To shine a spotlight on their amazing contributions, we are taking part in Volunteers’ Week 2022 (1-7 June 2022) on social media and highlighting a range of teams and projects where our volunteers play a significant role in their success. Here, we share personal insights from two of our volunteers themselves.

I have been a London Transport Museum volunteer for well over ten years now. I have volunteered in various ways but the aspect that I enjoy the most is the object handling trolley. There, we have ticket machines from the past where we can explain to children (and often their parents!) how payment was made for travel in years gone by and we can also introduce thoughts about the pre-decimal currency that we used until 1971. It is especially wonderful when grandparents join in the discussion. I also introduced some model buses representing the vehicles that served London from the 19th century to encourage discussion about changes that have occurred. As a long-since retired primary school headteacher, I love the enthusiasm of the younger children and, in many ways, I get as much from working with the children as they do from me. I also obtained my PCV driving licence when I retired and I do occasionally help by driving the Museum’s buses - Peter Brown

I’ve had a really good experience for years volunteering as a Welcome Host at the Museum in Covent Garden, as an Event Steward at the Depot Open Days, and helping with train equipment displays and object handling. Besides my volunteering experience with the Museum, in 2021 I also joined the Advisory Board that helped create the exhibition Legacies: London Transport’s Caribbean Workforce. I enjoyed talking to other members of the group about the history of Caribbean workers being recruited and trained to work at London Transport - Francis Wadsworth

If you are interested in volunteering with us, whether to keep busy, learn new skills or to meet new people, you can find out more about our many volunteering opportunities, and sign up to our enewsletter to hear more about ways you can support the Museum.

Happy Volunteers’ Week!