London Transport Museum

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For a long time, I’d always wanted to visit London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. Having read through English Heritage guide book, we found English Heritage Membership Card Holders would get “2 for 1” for the admission. Due to the expansion of the exhibitions, the admission fee has risen over the last few years. The admission fee for the adult is £13.50 as of 2011.

There were a lot of people and children waiting at the reception. After Mark had made payment on the basis of English Heritage scheme, we followed the alley flanked by the metro maps of London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Paris, and got on a lift to the 2nd floor. We were transferred to London in the 19th century. The 2nd floor housed the Omnibus and carriages pulled by horses. Waxworks of drivers, horses, and passengers were on show, and we also could hear the dialogues, which made it more realistic.

Next, we went down to the first floor. We saw passenger cars of the commuter trains which ran between the late 19th century and early in the 20th century. All of the passenger cars had original maps and advertisements. The steam train was an emblem of the Victorian London, and it reminded me of reading the novel of “Tower of London, which was written by Soseki Natsume who was sent to Britain (by the government scheme) in the early 20th century and experienced of travelling with the commuter train led by the steam train. He said in the novel as follows:

My home country has just started the modernisation, but in the United Kingdom, the railway network seems to have already developed extensively. I’m getting on the underground line led by the steam train everyday. Apparently, it is one of the first underground lines in the world. Britain seems to be a more civilised country where the historic buildings like Tower of London are thriving with progressive modernisation and industry. However, I don’t personally find it pleasant to ride the bumpy and smoky train everyday.

There was chest of drawers which visitors were encouraged to open. I pulled drawers and saw collections of old tickets, maps, and posters.

We then went to the gallery on the first floor. The gallery housed collections of illustrations of “Thames River”. Many pictures contained London’s skyline, e.g. London Eye, Big Ben, St Paul’s Cathedral, and emblems, e.g. red double Decker buses, black cabs, and sightseeing cruises, and illustrated the patriotism of the United Kingdom.

After that, we walked down to the ground floor and looked at the collections of the past buses, trams, cabs, tubes, and the 2012 bus, which features wheelchair access facilities at the front of the vehicle and the rear entrance/exit door like the Routemasters. I noted the Oyster scanner installed at the rear door, and heard that the 2012 bus will be running around the London Olympic period. The collections of the past public transport vehicles, e.g. Routemasters, looked wonderful with the waxworks of the drivers and passengers, and they didn’t mismatch with the 2012 bus at all. I wished they would be returned to the present world. There were plenty of hands-on exhibits and these included the opportunity for children to put themselves in the driver’s seat of a London bus and underground train.

The development of the transport network has significantly helped the capital’s growth and prosperity of the society. In addition to the models of buses and underground’s passenger cars, we saw scores of very interesting posters, models of London’s underground station buildings, which were designed on the basis of the trend at a time, and some examples of the staff’s uniforms.

We popped in the shop. As anticipated, there were dozens of postcards of past posters, books, stationery goods, T-shirts, and bags featuring London’s transport networks, logos, and images of London’s buses and sightseeing places. We also popped in to the bookshop, which has been added recently. I found a couple of history books written by Christian Wolmer. I particularly found it interesting in “Blood, Iron & Gold” which he describes how the railway transformed the world. Mark is a wonderful man. He bought the book for me. I look forward to reading it in the near future.

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