Your kids will love the London Transport Museum because they get free entry under 18, can drive real train simulators, climb inside vintage buses and carriages, explore the hands-on Future Engineers gallery, try cutting-edge palm-scanning technology, and crawl under trains with actual repair tools. They’ll also enjoy creative engineering challenges, exciting Hidden London underground tours through abandoned stations, and special holiday programming with storytelling and workshops. Discover why this interactive wonderland keeps families coming back for more adventures.
- Free Entry for All Children Under 18
- Hands-On Interactive Train Driving Experience
- Climbable Exhibits Perfect for Little Explorers
- Future Engineers Gallery Designed for Ages 7 and Up
- Creative Engineering Pop-Up Activities Throughout the Museum
- Hidden London Underground Tours for Adventure Seekers
- City Planning Challenges That Let Kids Design Their Own Transport Systems
- Palm-Scanning Technology Kids Can Try Themselves
- Special Family Programming During School Holidays
- The Sum Up
Free Entry for All Children Under 18
Why does the London Transport Museum top every family’s must-visit list? Your kids get free entry! Every child aged 17 and under enters without charge, making family adventures budget-friendly. You’ll book timed tickets online for your children alongside adult passes, ensuring everyone gets in together.
Here’s what makes it brilliant: your Annual Pass covers unlimited visits for a full year, and your kids come free every single time. That £24.50 adult ticket suddenly becomes incredible value when you’re bringing multiple children.
Kids under 12 need adult supervision, but children 12 and over can explore independently with their free booked ticket. Plus, children under 11 enjoy free travel on buses, trams, and many train services when accompanied by an adult.
This policy transforms expensive family outings into affordable adventures. You’ll visit repeatedly without worrying about mounting costs, letting your kids truly fall in love with London’s transport history.
Hands-On Interactive Train Driving Experience
While most museums ask kids to look but not touch, London Transport Museum puts your children right in the driver’s seat! Your little ones can experience driving a modern Elizabeth line train through interactive simulators in the Future Engineers gallery. They’ll test their reactions against train computers, pressing buttons and operating doors on time in the Smooth Operator game.
The All Aboard playzone targets children aged 0–7, where they can climb aboard mini trains and use the Baby DLR soft-play area with interactive walls. Children can also crawl underneath carriages to perform repairs with a spanner.
Your family can also try “Cab It!” depot experiences, driving both historic and modern trains from actual driver cabs. These hands-on activities transform your kids from passive observers into active participants, letting them experience real transport engineering challenges.
Climbable Exhibits Perfect for Little Explorers
Beyond simply watching exhibits behind glass, your kids can actually climb aboard historic vehicles and explore them from the inside out! Head to the upper floor where omnibuses and horse-drawn carriages await eager little explorers. Your children can scramble inside these fascinating vehicles and imagine traveling through Victorian London.
The ground floor offers even more climbing adventures with buses and cabs where kids can sit in driver’s seats and pretend they’re navigating London’s busy streets. Don’t miss the life-size Tube tunnel construction area, complete with interactive building toys that let your little engineers understand how London’s underground system came together. Kids can also experience the thrill of the Wrightbus Electroliner with its interactive driver cab and passenger space.
These hands-on experiences transform history lessons into thrilling adventures that’ll keep your kids engaged and excited throughout your visit.
Future Engineers Gallery Designed for Ages 7 and Up
When your budding engineers reach age seven, they’ll discover their perfect playground in the Future Engineers Gallery! This hands-on STEM wonderland lets kids tackle real transport challenges that modern engineers face daily. Your children can choose their engineering personality – dreamer, planner, or fixer – then plunge into role-specific activities that match their interests.
The Elizabeth line simulator puts kids in the driver’s seat, managing realistic scenarios while learning about precision and safety. Digital games let them experiment with traffic flow and design greener cities, balancing environmental needs with community requirements.
They’ll even scan their palms using cutting-edge biometric technology! With industry partners like Microsoft and Mastercard contributing, these exhibits showcase diverse engineering careers and inspire the next generation of problem-solvers through creativity and collaboration.
Kids can also take on the ‘fixer’ challenge to repair a train, putting their problem-solving skills to the test in realistic maintenance scenarios.
Creative Engineering Pop-Up Activities Throughout the Museum
As your young explorers wander through different galleries, they’ll stumble upon exciting pop-up engineering stations that spring up throughout the museum like creative surprises! Your kids can explore hands-on building challenges using everyday materials like straws, tape, and blocks to construct bridges inspired by London’s transport network. They’ll test how many toy buses their creations can hold while learning about forces and stability.
Creative design stations invite them to sketch futuristic trains and robots, then turn drawings into 3D prototypes. Your children will love the unplugged coding games where they sequence instructions for automated vehicles using cards and role-play. These rotating activities connect directly to real artifacts nearby, so they’re building mini models right next to actual historic buses and Tube cars! The museum’s enthusiastic facilitators use repeated key concepts and physical motions to help children understand engineering principles through interactive demonstrations.
Hidden London Underground Tours for Adventure Seekers
While younger children enjoy hands-on activities in the main galleries, older kids and teens crave something more mysterious and thrilling. That’s where Hidden London Underground Tours become absolutely perfect for adventure-seeking families.
You’ll explore abandoned stations like Aldwych, which closed after nearly 100 years, and venture into Clapham South’s deep shelters 30 metres underground where WWII refugees once lived.
These exclusive tours take you through secret tunnels, forgotten platforms, and hidden corridors that regular passengers never see.
At Charing Cross, you’ll walk under Trafalgar Square through disused Jubilee Line platforms. Baker Street reveals 160 years of underground history with hidden rifle ranges and mysterious passageways.
Tours run Wednesday through Sunday, lasting 75-85 minutes each. These fascinating experiences are open to guests aged 10 and over, making them ideal for older children and teenagers seeking adventure.
You’ll discover declassified WWII secrets while exploring these incredible time-capsule locations.
City Planning Challenges That Let Kids Design Their Own Transport Systems
After exploring London’s hidden tunnels, your kids can become the city planners themselves through exciting hands-on challenges that transform them into transport designers. They’ll design miniature cities using blocks and paper, creating roads, intersections, and buildings while solving real traffic problems.
Your children will minimize congestion by planning smart road layouts, adding crosswalks for pedestrian safety, and introducing traffic signs and signals for smooth flow management.
These activities develop spatial reasoning and geometry skills as kids connect paths and design intersections. They’ll follow the engineering design process—asking problems, imagining solutions, creating prototypes, and improving designs through testing.
The museum’s city planning challenges teach efficiency optimization, making transport systems faster and stronger while engaging young minds in practical problem-solving that mirrors real urban planning decisions. Kids learn to transform existing transit shelters with creative elements like lighting and interactive features that make waiting areas more engaging for families.
Palm-Scanning Technology Kids Can Try Themselves
Moving from designing transport systems to experiencing tomorrow’s technology, your kids can scan their palms using real biometric ticketing equipment in the Future Engineers gallery. This cutting-edge palm scanner by Cubic Transportation Systems lets children test the latest ticketing technology that’s revolutionizing modern transport payments.
As part of the fixer challenge activities, kids discover how far we’ve traveled from the historical Bell Punch ticket machine (1893-1958) to today’s biometric innovations. They’ll tackle real-world engineering conundrums while testing their problem-solving skills with actual equipment used in transport systems. These engaging activities run alongside wheel-y creative workshops that encourage playful experimentation with art and vehicles.
This hands-on STEM exhibit pairs perfectly with nearby train driving simulators and city planning activities. It’s designed to inspire young minds about engineering careers while showing them the creative range of modern transportation solutions.
Special Family Programming During School Holidays
When do school holidays become even more exciting? When you visit London Transport Museum! You’ll discover amazing special programming designed just for families during break time.
You can grab free activity sheets from the ticket desk to explore galleries while counting Routemaster passengers and identifying Underground tunnel shapes. Complete everything and you’ll create an origami book at home!
Artist-led workshops run daily from 10:30 to 16:00, where you’ll make marks with vehicle toys and design Spirograph patterns.
Don’t miss storytelling sessions featuring ‘The Curious Adventure of the Underground Mouse’ – perfect for under-7s with five daily shows.
Under-5s get special singing, crafts, and dancing sessions. Summer brings green-themed workshops about sustainability, while Depot Open Days let you explore 320,000+ incredible transport objects! These exciting holiday activities are inspired by the Museum’s exhibitions and collections, creating truly immersive learning experiences.
The Sum Up
You’ll discover endless adventures at London Transport Museum that’ll keep you busy for hours! From driving real trains to exploring underground tunnels, there’s something amazing waiting around every corner. You can design your own transport systems, try cool technology, and climb aboard historic vehicles. Best of all, you won’t pay a penny to get in! Pack your curiosity and get ready for the most exciting museum experience you’ve ever had.
