By Sam Mullins OBE, Museum Director
I am delighted to announce that at last, after 173 days closed, our Covent Garden doors open to visitors once more on Monday 7 September 2020!
We have moved our opening times back to 11:00 to enable visitors to use the public transport system while it is off-peak and quieter. You might enjoy arriving to the Museum by foot or bike. My favourite London views are up and down-river while crossing Waterloo Bridge from the mainline station, with the City and St. Paul’s Cathedral to one side and the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey on the other. You might try my commute from Temple station through the Inns of Court and the majestic Somerset House or from Embankment through the gardens and up Carting Lane and across the Strand to Covent Garden Piazza.
The coming weeks are a great time to visit; Covent Garden is for once not too busy with crowds, so it’s a rare opportunity to savour the Piazza and a quieter London Transport Museum.
Before you visit us, you will need to book timed tickets in advance, even as a season ticket holder, to allow us to monitor visitor numbers and ensure social distance. We will also make provision for spur of the moment visits, from passing trade too. The Museum has met the We’re Good to Go standard in terms of cleanliness, social distancing and safety – be assured, we are sanitising the building but not your experience. You can see this for yourself in our ‘welcome back’ video.
You will be welcomed by my colleagues and I with open arms (and a visor), and be able to enjoy our displays showing how transport has shaped the capital’s personality. You will see Tube trains, buses, trams and even a sedan chair, admire Edward Johnston’s iconic typeface and the revolutionary map of the city created by Harry Beck’s Underground diagram. Our immersive Hidden London exhibition, where you can experience disused stations and their rich stories, has been extended; see Churchill’s dining room in the WW2 bunker at Down Street, the bunk beds in Clapham South deep-level shelter recreated in our Global gallery, as well as clips from films featuring lost tunnels and stations.
Through September and October, we are offering late night openings on Thursdays from 18:30 until 21:00. With fun transport-themed quizzes in our Lower Deck café and a complimentary cocktail in hand, you and your friends can share a night at the Museum, enjoying our galleries after dark as our vehicles shine in the display lights.
We are reopening into uncertain times, especially for the former honey pot of the West End. Like the theatres, restaurants, coffee shops, galleries and museums around us, we have made a great success of our location and its high footfall. This has been much diminished. We are awakening the Museum from its slumber and we need the patter of both tiny and bigger feet to put us back on our journey to inspire you with the stories of this great city.
We hope you will enjoy a visit with us soon!
