London Transport Museum – Acton Depot Open Weekend!

I frequently talk about the London Transport Museum and always have done. It’s been a favourite of ours since we lived in London visiting every week and still is today when we only get to go occasionally – this is for many reasons not least because they’re so geared up for children! The ticket price is also pretty darn brilliant with adult tickets for as little as £16.50 (when you buy on line) as this price covers the cost of your entry for a whole year! As if that didn’t make it extra good value on its own then you have to note the fact kids go completely FREE of charge at all times – I’m not sure you could say fairer than that!

Inside the Covent Garden Museum there’s a stamp trail, two brilliant indoor play areas (transport themed of course), many out of service vehicles to climb aboard and discover – from as far back as 1800 you will enjoy learning about public transport life in London with a really immersive and fun way of doing it. Learn to drive a tube train, find out how to cross the road safely, control the wheel of a bus and plenty more all absolutely hands on!

There’s also a fab cafe and shop which sells amazing furniture and the restaurant serves totally yummy food – it’s not inexpensoin but worth splashing out on and this gem of a place inside the hustle and bustle of London offers us a slice of calm when we visit. Popping in for an hour with an annual ticket always afforded me some shopping first and then a bargain with the children that they would be rewarded with a stop at their fave.

ALL my friends in London had tickets (honestly at that price who wouldn’t?) but even if you don’t live in the capital, making sure you visit is a must. A one off stop is absolutely worth it but keep hold of your annual pass because I bet you’ll make a special visit to London just so that you can go again!

Now… The London Transport Museum holds some amazing items for you to see but they actually own an amazing amount more – more trains and buses, carriages, machinery, artefacts, memorabilia and artwork which has adorned the tubes since it first began – initially to make people feel safe to travel on this new underground network offering brightly coloured posters to counteract the frightening unknown of a dark tunnel and later to advertise – efforts for the war, London attractions like the zoo and of course products! Over the years there have been some pretty famous pieces of work, I think the one that always springs to my mind is the David Booth poster of paint tubes squeezed out to create the tube lines – called Tate Gallery By Tube, it has a blue paint tube finishing at what looks like Pimlico, the location for the Tate Britain, and I remember this being on the trains in 1986 when I was just the same age as Jimmy. The original hangs in the Covent Garden Museum but many more posters and artworks live in the Acton Depot which, usually closed to the public, invites visitors a handful of times every year with their open weekends.

This year the open weekends still to come are in July (13th and 14th) for their Family Fun days where they have planned lots of child friendly activities and in September (28th and 29th) where the All Change theme will look a little further than London and visit some destinations outside the capital shining a spotlight on further rail travel.

Tickets to a day at the Acton Depot Open Weekend cost £12 (children are free) and we visited this weekend for their first open weekend of the season with a theme of ‘Love Your Line’. They hold over 320,000 objects and we were really looking forward to seeing some of them. The big kids are very interested in the vehicles, Jimmy with how they all work, and my Mum was keen to see some of the artwork.

We arrived – it’s FAR when coming from the East side of London but we found lots of permit free (on a weekend) residential parking spaces just a stone’s throw from the museum depot which is almost directly opposite Acton Town Tube station – around half eleven and were excited to see bus ride tours leaving and a miniature ride on train as we walked up to the depot entrance. It all looked very exciting this place which is usually closed home to the artefacts and curators who are there to restore, and conserve the items for our future heritage. Lots of restoration takes place in the depot which is a working museum store including controlled conditions for delicate items such as the art work.

I won’t say it’s an unsafe environment for visiting with children but we did find it a bit of a nightmare to navigate around with little ones who want to touch everything when if they did, they could break something easily. I hate to say this but I’m not sure they’ve got it quite right yet when it comes to small children visiting the depot. I’m sure it would be fine for families with children around 9 or 10 plus but for me, with my younger boys, I found it all extremely stressful which was a real shame.

On paper this place is JUST the train ticket for little boys who love transport. In reality the ‘do not touch’ signs and over zealous staff members made the experience something I wouldn’t want to repeat. The museum had made GREAT efforts to entertain the children with a mezzanine floor dedicated to dressing up, train track play and crafting and my children all had a brilliant time playing here. Jimmy in particular loved the craft activity but poor Florence, who was trying to play with her baby brother while I flitted between being with Jimmy and them (my Mum was there too), got shouted at by the person looking after the area. The lady wanted to know where her grown up was on repeat even though I’d made contact with her and she knew I was there. We had a number of words where I assured her that either I, or my Mum, were on the floor a few steps away. At one point she watched me, I made eye contact with her, walk from one side of the room where Raffie and Florence were, to the other side of the room so that I could read what a display was all about. This took me less than a minute but by the time I’d turned back she was already badgering Florence as to where her grown up was knowing full well I was over the other side of the room. I tackled her at this point as it had all become too much, I felt constantly got at the entire time we were on the level and the enjoyment factor was zero. She half apologised but at the same time insisted she was worried about my child insinuating I wasn’t looking after him. Now that really grated…

I actually spoke to the manager at this point who remembered me from previous visits to the main museum and he was lovely. Very down to earth and friendly and apologetic explaining that the staff were over keen to make sure nothing went wrong and as the depot isn’t usually open to the public this was quite a heightened extreme. He immediately spoke to the person who had upset us and I feel totally confident that he just wanted to get things right so was very happy and welcoming to hear my comments. I was very impressed with the way it was dealt with and indeed later on, after watching my Instagram stories and realising the day still wasn’t quite right for us I know that he again made efforts to rectify the situation. Mistakes are made and people are human so  though I was irritated, I understood and he couldn’t have done more – we moved on. Me a little calmer!

We enjoyed a tour of the art work (kiddos and I only managed half as it wasn’t really geared up for them but my Mum loved it) and had a brilliant time looking around the restoring projects in the depot. Old district line trains, buses and objects which were extremely interesting and then we made our way outside for lunch where there were more buses to hop on and off and some yummy food carts. We had pizza (delicious and £9.50 did me and the kiddos) and slouvaki (also yummy, £7, my mum was very happy) and then we had a look on some of those buses.

I, unfortunately, found it was here that we got shouted at again. And again. And again. ‘Where’s your grown up’ was barked so many times on our climb up a double decker set of stairs (single file with me at the back behind the baby going slowly) that by the time I arrived at the top I was ready to burst with annoyance at her. Another mother with a baby and I made eye contact and exchanged woes about this constant bombardment. I turned to the voice and told her what I thought. Her response was to simply restate they need an adult with them. I loudly confirmed, as if it wasn’t plain to see in front of her, that I WAS THERE! She proceeded to tell me she was ‘just protecting the bus’! Well I won’t tell you what I’d like to have said to her at that point but it wasn’t very polite so I settled on a simple but firm ‘Chill it out and leave it now, I won’t discuss this further’ before turning away – I storied the whole shebang (you know me) and I know LTM were on it like cheese on toast realising that this wasn’t the kind of experience families would welcome and wanting to change it immediately – good for them!

Moving on we went back out the front to see if we could get on a bus ride but we seemed to have missed the old route master style bus and it looked pretty regular so we decided not to go – my mum said she goes on buses all the time and couldn’t be bothered, ha ha! At the beginning of the day the old hop on/hop off open backed buses were running so we should have gone then, alas but at least the miniature railway was still running!

Now… The kids had fun on this, they really did (big ones at any rate – Raffie was a bit scared and preferred watching and waving) and they went on twice BUT… It cost a quid a go. I know they have to cover costs but for me the surprise element of having to pay out more for stuff when out with the kids is a big no NO and though it could cost exactly the same I would MUCH prefer the pound to be in the initial ticket price so that I don’t have to worry about spending pennies once there. Perhaps they could do an entry ticket that includes a ride on the train and a bus ride for the future and build that cost in.

I guess I sound a bit tight but for us the day had already cost £35 in petrol and £20 in lunch and drinks. A further fiver wasn’t really on my agenda but we had to make it so and that’s annoying. You’ve got to remember had we not been kindly gifted tickets in return for a review we’d have also spent £24 on two admissions for me and my Mum. It’s a small note but one which irked.

Back in the museum and we had another quick look at the signs, Jimmy had a go at building a Lego signalling system for a train (that was fun) and we tried very hard to make this last bit fun while still wrangling the baby around the many ‘DO NOT TOUCH’ signs.

I think, in all, it wasn’t the visit for us. They’ve made a tremendous effort to welcome families of which I am grateful for and wouldn’t expect anything less of them knowing their Covent Garden Museum, but, the depot simply wasn’t the right place to have an enjoyable visit with the kiddos as far as I’m concerned. It invited far too much stress and anxiety from both them (the curator and her over protectiveness of the bus for example) and me trying to make sure no one touched anything!

It was a nice idea and we DID have a great day regardless but I will wait until the kiddos are bigger before attempting it again and stick to our regular fave haunt, the Covent Garden London Transport Museum!

I was gifted entry to the depot open day in return for an honest review.