Day Out At The London Transport Museum 

As you can know from this blog, we love to travel the world as a family but we are also very passionate about exploring the UK and what our local area has to offer too. When I was approached to take part in a Staycation challenge by Scottish Friendly, I gladly accepted. Its new Disposable Income Index shows that 19% of people want to opt for more staycations, while 16% are looking for cheaper style holidays. With Brexit still causing an element of uncertainty, it’s not hugely surprising. Our challenge was to enjoy a family day out in our local area with a budget of £100. In our sights was one of the London attractions on my wish list for this year – the London Transport Museum.

My four year old daughter, Mrs T, has been learning all about transport at school so it was a perfect choice. Appropriately our journey there involved jumping on a tube train before learning more about the history behind the mode of transport we had used.

It was snowing when we arrived. The husband valiantly stood outside in the queue whilst we browsed the gift shop. I could easily have spent a fortune in there but conscious of our budget I settled on a London fridge magnet, matching mug and a children’s book about London. I had purchased our tickets online (the cheapest option). Children under 18 go free and I paid £16 each for adult tickets which will give us entry to the museum for the whole year! I am forward to making use of this ticket.

When we got to the counter, Mrs T was given a card for the stamp trail. Numbered posts for the stamps are scattered throughout the museum. The card is currently on our fridge (stuck to the fridge magnet we bought there) and my daughter studies it frequently.

We left the pushchair with the rows of others on the ground floor and carried Cheeky (who was eight months old). All of the museum is accessible by buggy although it may have been a little tricky to get through the crowds. Heading to the top floor, we were transported back to London in the 1800s when people navigated London by foot or boat. That’s until the cabriolet and omnibus were introduced from Paris. You can go up and sit in the plush, comfy seats of the omnibus, a horse-drawn taxi, not a bad way to get around (for those who could afford it).

It was then onto horse trams. Horses could pull bigger buses (with more people on) if they were on tram lines and with affordable tickets, it was how working-class Londoners got around the city. Of course, its popularity meant a fleet of horses…and their dung!

There’s little gems of historical knowledge scattered around the museum. Can you believe Queen Victoria was opposed to the building of Tower Bridge? While the Princess Alice disaster in 1878 contributed towards the demise of the paddle steamboat. If you didn’t have small people to keep an eye on you could indulge in the written details more but much of the education is told through the vehicles themselves which is why it’s such a fantastic museum for children.

Many of the buses can be climbed in and there’s plenty of tube trains too. No jostling for a seat here (even on a busy Saturday). There’s also a tube simulator where you can test your driving skills. I had to help my daughter drive the older tube (it was certainly not easy).

One of the more interesting exhibits for me was the 1st floor and the construction of the underground. The Metropolitan line was the world’s first underground railway, opening in 1863. It was incredibly revolutionary at the time with the workers having no idea what they were digging down into. It was steam trains that rattled along the tracks before electric, causing a nasty sulphurous fog. I can’t imagine what the heat and fumes must have been like but you can see the only surviving steam engine, the Metropolitan number 23, and sit in it too.

I found it  interesting to see some of the vintage posters and tickets, many of which haven’t changed hugely. Neither, I detected, was the dislike for commuting.
This poster made me giggle. 

Many of the exhibits are interactive, ideal for little hands, while the stamp trail kept them interested (and moving), with the large throng of children around the posts making them a bit easier to find.

On the ground floor there’s information about the underground’s role in the war and how it acted as shelters. There’s some film footage too which I found fascinating. Mrs T was more interested in the second (more modern) tube simulator and climbing on the buses.

Oh yes, there’s no shortage of buses, from every era, to climb and admire including one which carried soldiers all the way to the Somme in the First World War. There’s also a huge play area on the bottom floor which was a big hit! You can drive a bus, fix a tube train and see what people have left in lost property. Our daughter could have spend a long time in here! It was busy when we went and plenty of families tucking into sandwiches in the cafe area too.

After the museum, our staycation continued and we headed to Wagamamas for lunch which is just a few steps away from the museum. A favourite with the whole family, its endamame, ramen and rice always go down well and warmed us up nicely before we headed to see some more London sights.

Trafalgar Square holds many memories for my husband and I so we enjoyed pointing out the church where we got married and showing Mrs T Nelson’s column which is in the background of our wedding photos. She often looks at them, asking us where she was when we got married (she’s slowly started to understand) so I loved being able to talk her through it. 
Soon it was time to go. A thoroughly successful staycation! If my daughters had had the energy, I would have had a browse around the National Gallery but I think their attention spans had waned.

 With the snow swirling around our heads and the wind nipping at our hands we headed down to Embankment tube. We boarded the district line with a greater appreciation for its feat of engineering and how the underground helped connect London over 150 years ago.

How we spent the budget
£32 for 2 adult tickets
£16 train fare into London
£35 – Lunch at Wagamamas
£17 – Gift Shop

We could have cut down on our spending a couple of ways: by visiting London’s many other free museums, taking a picnic to eat in the museum or bypassing the gift shop. However, our day felt like a proper treat and my eldest daughter adored the Transport museum (as did I).

Need To Know
At the London Transport Museum children under 18 go free. Under 12s need to be accompanied by an adult. An adult pass is £16 online or £17.50 at the museum. Tickets are valid for a year. For ticket packages combining MBNA Thames Clipper and Emirates Airline, check the website. 
Nearest tube station is Covent Garden on the Piccadilly Line.
You can take a picnic at weekends and school holidays. There is also a cafe. It is very baby-friendly too with a feeding room, changing facilities and low basins for little ones to wash their hands in the toilets.
For more information, visit the website.

Have you been to the London Transport Museum  Where would you go for a day out ‘staycation’?

*Scottish Friendly paid for our day out but all thoughts, options and interest in London transport are entirely my own (and my daughter’s).