November 26, 2007
It's a Long Way from Union Station to Covent Garden...
London's transport museum, located smack dab in Covent Garden in central London, reopened last Thursday after a two-year, $44 million redesign. This weekend saw lineups (queues?) of two hours long, filled with people who weren't just your stereotypical transit aficionados––those nervous-looking sweaty men who curl up in bed reading train timetables from the summer of 1973––but rather families, young couples on dates, professional types, and tourists.
If you can't make it to London, you can get a flavour of the museum by heading to its website, which is packed with goodies. You can search a century's worth of posters, transit art, and photographs (15,000+!), download tube upholstery wallpaper, and learn everything you ever wanted to know about arguably the world's most famous transit system.
As impressive as the new museum is the two-storey gift shop, which was filled with people browsing and buying transit-themed stationery, tea towels, tote bags, and furniture. Want to club in a London underground shirt? Shoot your favourite shot? Collect your favourite, er, ceramic cow?
Yes, we know that Toronto isn't London (or New York, which also has its own transit museum), but it's one thing to have a less comprehensive transit museum, another thing to have nothing in the same ballpark.
As for TTC shopping: we've previously reported that TTC merchandise is limited to a rather spotty store unimaginatively titled "TTC Transit Stuff" in Union Station, despite some excellent ideas for merchandise and promotion. You'd think that "Coxwell" boxer shorts would be a no-brainer.
Photo from Transport for London 2005.
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you guys post more about london than the londonist.
It was closed for ANOTHER renovation? Wow, it was closed for renovations for years when that space was created for it, and now it's been renovated again? I hope it's because of its popularity! What a great museum, something we can only wish for here. Instead we're told to visit the Halton museum, which is a great getaway, but not very accessible to tourists or even many locals. There was a great display at the Market gallery about 20 years ago called "Building the TTC" - featured all kinds of information, artifacts and displays. Even if something like that was made permanent somewhere downtown it would be a great addition. The museum could certainly be complementary to the Halton museum, or even be set up in conjunction with the Halton museum to showcase some of its collection.
I was one of those crazy people in the queue to go see the renovated museum this past weekend, and I was flabbergasted by just how beautiful the place was. To be honest, despite its shortcomings, I think the people of Toronto are actually bigger fans of the TTC than the people of London are of the Tube, so I can only imagine what kind of huge impact a transit museum would have in our city.
I love transport museums. It's be really nice to see one in Toronto, but knowing the TTC they'd produce something so astoundingly ass backwards (and expensive!) that it would enrage me.
The NYC Transit Museum gives tours of places like the abandoned City Hall station and other interesting and somewhat dangerous places like yards, car shops, and other non-public access areas. They also run some old trains for excursions, too.