London Transport Museum: There Is No Day Ticket

You cannot buy a ticket for one visit to the London Transport Museum. There is no such thing.

Every adult ticket is an annual pass, valid for twelve months from the date of purchase, with unlimited visits. The museum does not sell a day ticket at all.

Which sounds like an upsell and is not, because of the second half of the rule: children and under-18s go free, on every pass.

So a family of two adults and three children pays for two adults and gets a year. One visit costs the same as twelve.

£5 if you claim Universal Credit or Pension Credit

The cheapest ticket in the building, and it is an annual pass like all the others.

Unlimited Annual Pass, adult: £27.00.

Concessions: £25.00. Senior citizens 60 and over, students with a valid student ID, and visitors with disabilities, who also get a free carer or companion ticket.

Local Resident: £21.60.

Universal Credit and Pension Credit: £5.00.

Child and under 18: free, on all of them.

That £5 rate is an 81 per cent discount on the standard pass and it buys exactly the same twelve months of unlimited entry. It is not advertised anywhere except the ticket page.

The Off Peak pass excludes half term, which is when you want it

£4.50 cheaper, with a restriction that undoes it for most families.

Off Peak Annual Pass: £22.50. Entry Monday to Friday after 2pm, during term time and the summer school holidays only.

And the line that matters: “Off Peak Annual Pass holders are not eligible to visit during other school holidays or half term breaks.”

So it works in term time, when children are at school, and in the summer. It does not work at October half term, Christmas, February half term or Easter. The dates are as designated by Westminster City Council.

For £4.50, that is a bad trade for anyone with school-age children and a reasonable one for an adult visiting on a weekday afternoon.

Annual Pass Plus buys the Acton depot

Annual Pass Plus: £75.00, with children free as usual.

What the extra £48 buys: free entry at Depot Open Days in Acton for you and two children.

The Museum Depot at Acton is otherwise closed to the public and only opens for pre-booked guided tours and special Open Days. It is where the collection that is not on display lives.

Whether £48 is worth it depends entirely on how many Open Days you will actually attend, and the museum does not publish how many there are a year. Ask before you upgrade.

You still need a free timed ticket, and only one at a time

The step people miss, and it has a constraint on it.

“You’ll need a free timed ticket too for your day of visit.”

The pass is not admission. The timed ticket is, and it costs nothing.

Then the awkward part: “You can only hold one timed ticket at any one time. You can book another timed ticket as soon as the date of your current visit has passed.”

So you cannot plan two visits in advance. Book the first, go, then book the second. For an annual pass that is a genuine limitation if you were intending to line up a few dates.

Last entry is 17:15, not 18:00

Museum galleries: every day 10:00 to 18:00. Last entry 17:15.

Forty-five minutes of difference, which is wider than most London museums allow.

The rest of the site runs on its own clock:

Shop: every day 10:00 to 18:15, so it outlasts the galleries by fifteen minutes.

Museum cafe: every day 10:00 to 17:00.

Tuk Tuk cafe: every day 10:30 to 16:30.

Read those together: arrive at five and the galleries will let you in, but both cafes are shut or shutting. Eat first.

The museum is open 362 days of the year, and its own advice for a quieter visit is to come in the afternoon.

Hidden London is the other half of the museum

Not at the museum, and the reason many people buy a pass in the first place.

Hidden London tours offer access to disused Underground stations, run by the museum. They are separate, ticketed events rather than part of general admission.

Together with the Acton depot tours, that makes the museum three things: a Covent Garden gallery, a working store in west London, and a programme of tours under the city.

Gift Aid adds 25 per cent at no cost to you

Worth saying yes to, and the museum explains why.

London Transport Museum is a registered charity, number 1123122.

If you are a UK taxpayer paying for yourself or your family group, saying yes to Gift Aid lets the museum reclaim 25p for every £1 from the government, at no cost to you. You are asked at the till or in a pop-up at online checkout.

Where it is

London Transport Museum, Covent Garden, London WC2. In the old flower market building on the east side of the Piazza.

Covent Garden and Leicester Square are the nearest stations, and the museum notes it is reachable by Underground, bus, rail, boat, car or bicycle.

It won Best Museum or Gallery in the Group Leisure & Travel Awards 2024.

How to plan it

There is no day ticket. £27 buys a year whether you want one or not.

Children are free, so a family pays for the adults only.

On Universal Credit or Pension Credit: £5. Same pass, same twelve months.

Over 60, a student, or disabled: £25, with a free companion ticket for disabled visitors.

Off Peak at £22.50 excludes half terms. Only worth it for a weekday-afternoon adult.

Book the free timed ticket too, and note you can only hold one at a time.

Last entry 17:15, and both cafes close before the galleries do.

Quieter visit: an afternoon, on the museum’s own advice.

London Transport Museum

Address

Covent Garden Piazza, London WC2, in the old flower market building

Nearest

Covent Garden and Leicester Square

Hours

Galleries every day 10:00 to 18:00, last entry 17:15. Shop 10:00 to 18:15. Museum cafe 10:00 to 17:00. Tuk Tuk cafe 10:30 to 16:30. Open 362 days a year

Booking

An Annual Pass plus a separate free timed ticket for the day of visit. Only one timed ticket can be held at a time. The Acton Depot is open only for pre-booked guided tours and Open Days

Price

No day ticket exists. Unlimited Annual Pass 27 pounds adult, 25 concessions, 21.60 local resident, 5 pounds on Universal or Pension Credit, and free for under 18s. Off Peak Annual Pass 22.50. Annual Pass Plus 75

Standing

Over 200 years of London transport history in the old Covent Garden flower market, plus the Acton Depot and the Hidden London disused station tours. Best Museum or Gallery, Group Leisure and Travel Awards 2024

How to get in

There is no single-visit ticket: every adult ticket is a twelve month annual pass, and children and under 18s go free on all of them, so one visit costs a family the same as twelve. The Universal Credit and Pension Credit rate is 5 pounds for the same pass. The Off Peak pass at 22.50 admits weekdays after 2pm in term time and the summer holidays only, and is explicitly not valid at half term or other school holidays. A free timed ticket is needed on top of the pass and only one can be held at a time. Last entry is 17:15 against an 18:00 close, and both cafes shut before the galleries.

Where to go next

Covent Garden covers the streets around it, and London’s free museums cover the ones that charge nothing at all.

Tube fares and the Travelcard cover the network the museum is about.

Questions we get asked

How much is London Transport Museum?

There is no day ticket. An adult Unlimited Annual Pass is £27 and lasts twelve months, concessions are £25, local residents £21.60, and anyone on Universal Credit or Pension Credit pays £5. Children and under-18s go free on every pass, so a family pays for the adults only.

Do children pay at London Transport Museum?

No. Children and under-18s go free on every type of annual pass, including the £5 Universal Credit rate and the £22.50 Off Peak pass. They still need a free timed ticket for the day of the visit, as every visitor does.

What is the Off Peak Annual Pass at London Transport Museum?

£22.50 instead of £27, admitting Monday to Friday after 2pm during term time and the summer school holidays only. It is explicitly not valid during other school holidays or half term breaks, with the dates designated by Westminster City Council, so it is a poor choice for anyone with school-age children.

Do you need to book London Transport Museum?

Yes, twice. You buy an Annual Pass, then book a separate free timed entry ticket for the day you are coming. You can only hold one timed ticket at a time and cannot book the next until the date of the current one has passed, so two visits cannot be planned in advance.

What time does London Transport Museum close?

The galleries are open every day 10:00 to 18:00 with last entry at 17:15. The shop runs to 18:15, the Museum cafe closes at 17:00 and the Tuk Tuk cafe at 16:30, so arriving late afternoon means the galleries are open but the cafes are not. The museum is open 362 days a year.

What is Annual Pass Plus?

£75 instead of £27, adding free entry at Depot Open Days in Acton for you and two children. The Museum Depot is otherwise closed to the public and opens only for pre-booked guided tours and Open Days, so whether the extra £48 is worth it depends on how many you will attend.

What is Hidden London?

A programme of tours run by London Transport Museum giving access to disused Underground stations. They are separate ticketed events rather than part of museum admission, as are the guided tours of the Museum Depot at Acton.