Sound of the underground: the Strand Station and LTM

Sometimes I wonder at how much control TFL has over our lives as Londoners. Whether it's kettled in Victoria station, a buss trike or a central line signal failure - well, let's just say most of us have a pretty complicated relationship with our transport authority. but TFL also has the amazing London transport museum- a journey through London's history on the carriage, omnibus, and steam-powered tube. and if that wasn't enough, well, TFL looks after heritage most of us don't even think about, including the deep mysterious depths of the tube system itself, including its ghost stations.

Finally after years of wanting to do one of London Transport Museum's oddly expensive transport themed special events, I finally managed to go on a guided tour of the Aldwych 'Secret Station'. The Aldwych station is not that secret really, if you've ever been to KCL or been on a bus down the Strand you've probably seen its red-tiled exterior. Maybe you even thought to yourself, it's pretty weird to have a station so near Temple, Embankment and Charring Cross. and you would be right - the Strand station (later Aldwych) was basically useless from its inception.

The strand station was originally a branch of the Piccadilly line, extending like a strange appendage from Holborn down to the Strand, originally built in 1907 mainly for theatre-goers. This arrangement seems somewhat baffling as the trains only ran every 9 minutes and it takes about the same time to just walk up the Kingsway. Ten years later in 1917, they closed one of the platforms due to lack of demand. Actually they didn't even finish tiling the platform that was in use because they didn't think there would ever be enough people down there to even notice. The station itself closed in 1994 when TFL realised it was frequented by a whopping 450 people per day (compared with Holborn which received about 31 million annually).

Actually the Aldwych station was more interesting closed than open. It became a bomb shelter in the Blitz and it's disused platform was used to store artwork including the Elgin marbles! I particularly enjoyed that the station was used for experiments in tube design including poster and tile patterns. Now the station is used mostly for filming as well as training emergency services staff.

All in all, TFL's exciting 'Secret Station' was really just a dinky little half-cocked Edwardian dream that they knew was going to fail even as they built it. But hey if they hadn't gone through with it where would we film Mr Selfridge?

Tatty Devine meets the London Transport Museum

London Museum meets London designer and the announcement of their love child has left us in an adoration haze here at The Ministry of Curiosity.  

Celebrating the Year of the Bus Tatty Devine has collaborated with the London Transport Museum to make some of the iconic designs of buses gone by into ultra-trendy jewellery. Unfortunately many of their designs are still embargoed but one design has been revealed on their website, along with a chance to win one of their Perspex pleasures from the series!  

The Year of the Bus hosted by the London Transport Museum (and their Mum TFL) is a yearlong celebration of the vital role that buses play in providing people with access to amenities, employment and social opportunities in London. Alongside fancy Jewelry the Museum is hosting events and a campaign to restore one of its last surviving B-Type Buses. This ‘Battle Bus’ was summonsed for use during world war two  and used to transport troops and even mobile pigeon lofts along the western front, attempting to raise £100,000 to complete the restoration the campaign neatly marking the Year of the Bus and the Centenary of World War One.

We reckon that Tatty Devine are going to bring out a corker of a statement necklace with a Battle Bus design, or at least we’re hoping they will!

My museum fear: Life-size dummies in store

Here at the Ministry we are trying to change the way that people think about museums and museum people. That includes dispelling stereotypes like we are all old white men or that objects come to life in the store rooms and chase us around. Well, not wanting to set back the dialogue but my #museumfear definitely has to be life-sized mannequins in stores.

Pilot mannequin is coming
to get YOU!

I know it sounds ridiculous. What do I think is going tohappen? I’ll tell you. I think they are going to come to life and kill me.Imagine this scenario which often faces those working in museum stores:

You go down into the basement stores alone. You unlock the heavy metal doors which swing shut securely behind you. In a miniature panic you try and turn the lights on before you are enclosed in darkness. The lights flicker on slowly to reveal an enormous store full of racking and free standing objects. The only sound you can hear is the distant murmur of water pipes. And then out of the corner of your eye, casting a shadow in between the shelves is the profile of an unidentified person. You know it can’t be another member of staff, we are far and few between in the stores. The answers are either: thief, murderer, or mannequin in the store. So about 2/3 of the time you are going to need to runaway.

Somehow even when I realise that I am not about to be attacked and it’s just a dummy from an old display, I still eye them very suspiciously. Sitting there quietly while I work. What are they thinking about?Did their eyes just move? You can imagine on the way out I practically run from the light-switch to the door.

Dummies in the London Transport Museum stores
plot their revenge

This is not to unfairly discriminate against wax models or mannequins. In displays I absolutely love them. Figures dressed up in old timey outfits re-enacting scenes from history, I love it! A very under-rated museum display technique I’d say. An oldie but a goodie. This is possibly because the mannequins are usually behind glass i.e. they are trapped and cannot come afterme.

This woman doesn't seem too scared with glass
separating here and this pile of scary taxidermy

I am not ashamed of my #museumfear. I think it is a validone many museum people probably share but don’t like to talk about. I also am not a huge fan of taxidermy in storage, but that’s a story for another time…