London Transport Museum turns 40 this weekend — and although you can't celebrate by visiting right now, you can learn about the museum's history, courtesy of a fascinating online archive.
The Covent Garden museum has teamed up with Google Arts & Culture, to tell a visual history of the London institution, and how it came to occupy part of the former Covent Garden flower market in 1980.
The museum collection dates back much further — almost a whole century in fact. In the 1920s, the London General Omnibus Company decided to preserve two Victorian horse buses and an early motorbus for future generations, and so the seeds were sown.
The museum has been housed in several locations since then, including in an erstwhile bus garage in Clapham during the 1960s, and a stint at Syon Park in west London from 1973, as the London Transport Collection.
Over in Covent Garden, meanwhile, the flower businesses were moving out to modern warehouses at Nine Elms in 1974. This left some beautiful premises, with their train station-esque cast iron fans windows, empty — and it wasn't long before what was to become London Transport Museum made plans to relocate once again.
On 28 March 1980 the new Covent Garden museum was officially opened by Princess Anne (who we know loves a cheeky tube ride), and has grown to become one of London's great cultural institutions.
Discover more about London Transport Museum's history — with many more wonderful images from the archives — on Google Arts & Culture.
Images © London Transport Museum
