Exploring the London Transport Museum (for the first time)

Exploring the London Transport Museum (for the first time)

Show Video

Hi everyone, it's me. My name is Alanna and I'm a Canadian, but I have been living here in the UK for the last 9 years. Recently, I found out about a museum that I did not know existed. So today we are going to the London Transport Museum. Yes, it does exist. I have absolutely no expectations. I didn't Google anything. I didn't look at the pictures or any videos. We're just gonna go and see what happens. So I hope you will join me. Guess what? It snowed yesterday. Actual snowflakes falling from the sky in England yesterday. Of course it did.

But it doesn't look like much has stayed. It's just really cold. Of course today is the day that I picked to do this, but here we go. I still get pretty nervous doing stuff on my own. This is very much a solo trip. It's just you and me, alright? So a little bit anxious, but I have my morning coffee. I have my bag. I've got my camera. And we're gonna have a great time. Alright, we're gonna learn something new. I have absolutely no idea what we're gonna see. And our train's not gonna be cancelled because I'm just gonna will it into existence. Anywho, I get crazy anxious about missing my train. Don't know if that's you as well. Hi. Yep. I get there way too early. But I'm gonna finish my coffee. Gonna get my coat and my bag. We're gonna go to the train station and we are gonna go to the TFL museum.

And I'm really excited. I'm anxious and I'm nervous, but you know what? I'm excited. We're doing something new. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you like it. And without further ado, let's go! Alright everyone, and we are off. Now yes, we are going to the London Transport Museum. And yes, we are using public transport to get there first. So you're kind of seeing transport in real life before we get there. So this museum is not free. You have to buy an annual ticket.

So for me as an adult, it was like £24.50 I wanna say. Let's say £25. And the idea is like, ooh, you can go as many times as you like in a year. Now, I don't really know how many people are gonna go multiple times. You can obviously decide when we get to the museum if this is something you would like to see multiple times. So for argument's sake, let's say an entry ticket is about £25. Which, to be fair, is a little bit pricey when you compare it to other London museums like the British Museum or like Victoria and Albert that all are free entry.

Now I will say, I think visiting London, visiting the UK as a whole, you have to have data. Just, there's no way around it. When I first moved to England, oh god, 2015, I didn't have a smartphone and I just tried to get by. And even then, it was a nightmare. Nowadays, it really is impossible. And if getting access to data is something that's gonna be a problem for you, may I suggest today's sponsor, HolaFly. HolaFly is a global eSIM provider that offers data plans to over 213 destinations. So instead of wasting any of your time while on holiday, while abroad, having your own solo adventure, whatever you're up to, rather than wasting time trying to set up a new SIM, you can get an eSIM with HolaFly in minutes and have it sent to you digitally right away.

So it's as simple as visiting HolaFly.com, search where you're going, pick the plan that you want, and then you scan the QR code and you're good to go. If you're traveling through multiple different countries, you can check out their seven regional plans or they even have a global plan if you're doing loads of traveling. And HolaFly offers unlimited data plans for 160 different destinations. Since it is the new year, I try to sketch out my yearly travel plans. So I have an idea, you know, for this year, where are we traveling, hopefully, where would I like to go. So I'm now in the process of figuring that out. And at this point, I refuse to travel without data, not only for the peace of mind, but also so much of travel requires it now.

And HolaFly makes that really simple. Currently on my shortlist for 2025 is Italy. And wouldn't you know it, HolaFly has plans for there too. Whether you're visiting the UK or you're going abroad like me, make sure to use my discount code. That is ADVENTURES and NAPPS. You're going to get 5% off all purchases, not just your first time purchase. And check out my link in the description.

Now once we finally finish with our public transport, it was just a short walk to the museum and I didn't know, maybe you didn't know either. This is in Covent Garden, like literally just right in it. I've walked by this place, I've never noticed it before, but we're here and let's go. So the museum starts with this time travel elevator and we begin in the 1800s. So when I thought about the TfL Museum, I guess I thought of it more as an engineering museum, but really largely I would say this is a history museum. This is the history of how London became the city that it is today. Which is very cool. There's also loads of little things for the kids like this.

The smelly old Thames. Is it because of fecal matter? Is it because of dead animals? How about dead people? Maybe it's the dead fish. But yeah, loads of, a combination of like kids stuff that people, little kids can interact with, but also so much history. So as you'll see in this room, there's a lot about horse buses and horse trams. Which I gotta be honest, I never thought of before. So horse trams were obviously like horse buses, but they did actually run on rails.

The idea was that two horses could pull a heavier vehicle more easily on rails than on an uneven road. So trams were much larger than the buses and could carry nearly twice as many passengers. The first passenger horse-drawn tramway, do you know where it was? Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales. Guess what year?

I'm gonna tell you 1807. Oh and another thing, these guys were some of the scariest mannequins I've ever seen. There's mannequins all over the place, which I appreciate. You know, they're kind of demonstrating what the people of the time might have looked like. But you're gonna see some mannequins coming up that will give you nightmares. So you've been warned. Here's another one. Although he looks a bit less frightening. I did notice, especially in this room, they talk about how truly horrible working these sorts of jobs were.

Like the operators and stuff basically had to stand for like 12 hours a day and you know you're getting rained on. And when we get into more of the like trains in the underground, a reoccurring theme is how truly horrific it was to work there. So it definitely gives you a appreciation for using the trains and the buses and the tube now when it's less horrible. So walking down from that level of the horse-drawn buses and trams, we start getting into the nitty-gritty, the big stuff, the trains and building the first underground train.

So lots of models kind of showing just the scale of what it took. Which again, I'm gonna repeat this a lot throughout this video. They're things that I just never considered. But so much of this was state of the art. It was figuring out how to do it as they were doing it. Which is wild. So this big guy is from 1866. Now as a Canadian, I love history. Maybe you're the same. Canada doesn't really have as much history. So for reference, Canada became independent from the United Kingdom one year after this train. Okay, just to put it into perspective.

But anyway, a lot of the big vehicles had these interactive screens, which were great so you can choose what you wanted to learn about. And also, who doesn't love touching a random touchscreen? And up next, I thought it was pretty cool, it talks about the world's first underground railway was this metropolitan line. And they have this table that shows you all of the train times. Which I thought was so fun. And the times for the various routes during the week and then versus on Sunday. I don't know, I just thought this was really cool. So up next, behind all this is the carriage, the passenger carriage for the metropolitan rail lines. This is like 1900s. And yes, we've got more really expressive mannequins. Oh, you love to see it. But also kind of terrifying.

But I loved the wood on these. And you could go inside, you can see the interior design of it. I don't know, it just looked really fun. Maybe fun's not a great word because actually riding on a lot of these underground railways was torturous. In an editorial in the Times in 1884, they complained that a journey from King's Cross to Baker Street is a mild form of torture which no person would undergo if he could conveniently help it. So apparently the underground, well it was used really well, but it was super smoky, not only at the stations but just the atmosphere of the tunnels. That it was hugely unpleasant. We did just see the ladies only carriage if you caught that.

So the metropolitan railway introduced these carriages in around 1874 mainly to address concerns over women's safety. However, only a year later they were withdrawn due to lack of use because women typically preferred just to sit where everyone else sat. Next up, this was a Q-Stock underground car from around 1923. So this one definitely looks a bit different than our wooden carriage.

I don't know, the wooden carriage, even though apparently it was horrible to use because the smoke was so bad. Also look at the bit of machinery in there. I thought the wooden one looked really cool, but I guess the experience was dreadful. This one looks maybe a bit more like the tube and yes you can get on it and yes there are weird mannequins which I just love. Imagine being here at night, okay scratch that, imagine being here at night in a power outage. I just couldn't. Moving right along, I want to say this was a Thursday. As you can see it's pretty empty. Oh there's also model trains literally everywhere. These are all different types of tickets which I thought was super cool. It was pretty quiet.

I do try to cut out people when I'm filming out and about just because I don't want to include people in a video that they didn't really want to be in. Do you know what I mean? It wasn't that busy, although there were loads of kids which we'll probably get to shortly. Lots of stuff for the kids to do, lots of interactive bits. Also a bit about train spotters which I thought was cute. So all of these like historical like train spotting books and magazines and pamphlets and stuff.

How adorable. So in the main sort of hall area, I guess the main open bit you can see a bunch of different buses and train carriages and that kind of stuff. So that's all on the main floor, but there is a exhibition I guess you'd say, a section all about art on the underground which I thought was really cool. There's no kids there obviously because it's kind of boring. I thought it was great and it showcases all of the artwork and the posters and things.

And they come from all different eras. So this one is from 1911 of course. Some of the posters are artistic and some of them are political and some of them are instructive. But they all have their own individual style and I thought this was really neat because I'd never really thought about art on the underground as art before. It's just there. Do you know what I mean? I really liked this one from 1934. This was done by Sybil Andrews. I just think the imagery is so nice. There's loads of different styles and this one too actually, the space one, keeps London going I thought was really neat.

This one's actually done by an American in 1938. So it is kind of crazy you think of like okay London Transport Museum. We're talking about history, we're talking about engineering, we're talking about trains. But we're also talking about art and I really loved this section. Anyway I could go on and on for a while but let's just have a just a quick graze over all the different styles and vibes. This one I thought was pretty cool. It's like a mosaic. Love it. Anyway this was done over a couple of floors.

Don't miss it if you do come to this museum. There was no kids, there was no screaming, there was pretty much just me. So yeah I definitely recommend this section but we will exit out through this area and back to the main hall with all of the trucks and buses and stuff. And I think these vehicles are a bit more recognizable right? We're a bit more in like modern history. Especially with their red double decker. Obviously very iconic, very recognizable. But first up we have this B-type bus which I hadn't seen before.

It's London's first successfully mass produced motor bus and it was actually used during the war. So in 1914 B-type buses were commandeered for the war effort and over a thousand were sent to Europe. Some as far as Greece. And next to it we have the West Ham Corporation tramway. It's a double decker from 1910.

Which is wild and you can't go in it but I tried. And it is the double decker so there are the stairs. These have the exposed stairs and they're so narrow. Imagine walking up there in the rain. Incredible. Rather not if at all possible. Another thing I thought was kind of funny is you've got these bench seats facing each other. Imagine Londoners nowadays having to sit on the bus facing each other. I can't think of anything worse. But the tram itself is really beautiful. I love the coloring. There's also like a really cool um crest on the side of it.

I don't know I feel like a lot of these older vehicles had so many really neat details that you don't really see on mass produced buses nowadays. And next to it we have this one from 1939. Now these are really starting to look recognizable right? They're really starting to take on that London double decker red bus look. So I think this was a K2? Yes I'm learning so much. So yeah 1939 by this museum this is like modern day standards.

But across the hall there's a couple more buses. This one back in time 1908 motor bus. I love the color on this one. It felt so I don't know it's quite different to the other ones. And again the exposed stairs on the outside. Can you imagine trying to climb up there with your shopping in the rain? No thanks but yeah love the paint job on this. Love the colors and it does feel just a bit different than some of the other ones.

It's certainly not that classic red double decker. And you do have the two rows of seats just looking at each other. Can you imagine? But I did notice that on one of the double decker red classic boys there were mannequins. And I said I gotta see them. And this one you could climb up on the back and it had a nice little big button you could press.

And you could see all of the creepy mannequins in the light. Hey I think that's Ringo moving right along. We had some more carriages and things that you could climb on. Love to. This was from 1938. Making my way slowly slowly but surely. How are you guys liking this museum? Interested? Bored? Don't care? Leave a comment down below. This one again is starting to look very much like a tube that I would recognize.

You know the seats. Also like the advertisements and the maps along the the top look very familiar. Which is kind of wild how these trains have been around for so long and they obviously have changed. But not that much either. And as someone, so I really like history. I really I did enjoy this museum. I wouldn't say that I'm into trains or I'm into engineering per se but I really found the history aspect of it quite interesting.

However there was a section about the underground and the war which I think would be really cool. But at this point I was getting so tired of reading plaques that I kind of just glazed over this. Maybe in my yearly pass I'll have to go back. I do get to a point when I'm in museums where you just read so much.

It gets to a point where I like I can't read anymore but I did take my picture. There is a kid's game. Look at me. I'm a train surgeon. At this point yeah I was just like I was tapped out. I wanted to enjoy the museum but I didn't really want to read much anymore. You know just too much information. But we've still got some carriages to board. This one from 1890. I thought the machinery was pretty cool. Again I'm not really into like engineering stuff per se but the history of it I find really fascinating. And I do like that they have these carriages that you can get on. Look at the plush seats.

So fascinating and yes more scary mannequins. Something about these ones in particular. I think because we were like in this little carriage with like not many windows made it scarier. I don't know. I just kind of got hyper fixated on these mannequins and they really freaked me out.

I think too being in there by myself it's a no for me. Let's get out. And of course there's a lot of interest in the trains and the carriages. But they had to build the lines. They had to dig out these tunnels. So there's a lot of information and history about the actual engineering work that went into building the tunnels. Digging out all these underground railway lines. But also things like how do you get people to the train line when it's underground?

Well you have to build escalators but you got to invent escalators and all this kind of stuff. Which is very cool. A lot of history and a lot of stuff again that I just never really considered. I just kind of took it for granted to be fair. When I think about how many times I've used the tube. I never really thought about how they dug it out. How they invented the technology to make it possible.

There's just a lot here to unpack. So at this point I was getting pretty tired. I was also getting a bit hangry. So I was ready to make my way slowly out to the gift shop. Although I really did like this one poster. The rain sort of vibe. That looks like London to me. Enough about posters Alanna. We've talked too much about posters. Anyway yes you exit through the gift shop and yes there are model trains. So if that is your vibe. There are loads of them here. Tons. But also maybe more interesting or not. It was more interesting to me.

They sell the fabric that covers the various stations. Like the seat cushions and stuff. So you could actually buy a cushion in the fabric of your favorite station. I've never seen anything like that before but it does make sense right. At least it makes sense to me.

And I was kind of considering it but one of these little guys I think he said 35 pounds. Bit pricey for a tiny cushion but I do love the vibe. And one more thing I was kind of interested in. This um tote bag. Cool. Love it. 95 quid. Oh my god don't touch anything else Alanna.

But it was time to eat. Not a huge selection in this cafe. I went for a sandwich and a chai latte. I think it was just under 12 pounds which sucks for such a tiny lunch but you are in London and you are at a museum. So you just gotta suck it up. So I grabbed my seat. The sandwich unfortunately really sucked.

It was basically just bread but the chai latte was great. And to be honest when I started doing these solo trips. I used to get really embarrassed about eating by myself. I've pretty much gotten over that now. It doesn't matter. Nobody nobody cares. You know what I mean? Just just eat. The sandwich sucked. Great tea though. Now would I recommend this museum? So I would consider this to be a specialty museum. It's not cheap but it is interesting if that is something that you are interested in. So if you like history, if you like engineering, if you like trains you will find something here that you'll like.

If none of that interests you then I would say don't bother. There's a lot of other great museums in London that are free. Well everyone that was the London Transport Museum. I want to say that took me about an hour. I definitely glazed over certain sections and there was so much stuff to read. It's like anytime you go to a museum and there's just like a million plaques. And I just realized I probably still have some of that sandwich in my teeth. Hopefully Alanna did a nice overview of the museum and if she didn't that sucked. So that took me about an hour with a sad sandwich and a really nice chai tea at the end. But because it took me double the

amount of time to get into London we are not done yet. But that is for another day. If you want to watch that make sure to subscribe. Maybe like the video. You don't have to do that but it would be nice. Don't forget to check out Holofly in the description whether you're coming to London or you're going abroad. Maybe someplace warm and you need an e-sim. Yeah I had a really nice time and

I'm not quite ready to go home yet so I'm going to carry on to our next solo activity adventure. I hope to see you back here probably it won't be next week maybe the week after week after that. Keep an eye out and if it works out if it doesn't work out and you never see it just pretend I never said anything. I can't get over what a beautiful day it is. I don't know how this will pick up the sky. Can you see how blue that sky is? Probably not. Okay it's absolutely freezing I need to start walking. Thank you guys so much for watching. If you'd like to watch something more right now

may I suggest this one. I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and had an amazing time. But as always thank you guys so much for watching and until next time bye.

2025-02-01 06:34

Show Video

Other news

This is Why I Keep Coming Back to Sri Lanka 2025-02-15 09:41
Finally Dream Comes True || Umrah On Bike From Kashmir || Makkah To Madinah || Ep-23 || The Umar 2025-02-13 06:55
A Girls’ Road Trip Through the UK: Motorcycles, Views & Laughter | FULL MOVIE 2025-02-10 20:14