London`s journey – past, present and future

Supported by
London Transport Museum Ltd
Charity number 1123122
Company number 6495761
Registered address:
Windsor House
42–50 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0TL
London Transport Museum (Trading) Ltd
Company number 6527755
Registered address:
Windsor House
42–50 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0TL
London’s journey – past, present and future
Yearbook 2008/09
ltmuseum.co.uk
London Transport Museum Yearbook 2008/09
London Transport Museum
Covent Garden Piazza
London SW1H 0TL
Tel. +44 (20) 7379 6344
London Transport Museum
London’s journey – past, present and future
Yearbook 2008/09
05Message from the Chair of Trustees
and Chief Executive
07 Introduction
09 Education and engagement
Encouraging safety and citizenship
Mind the skills gap
17Access and museum operations
The power of objects
User-generated content
23Heritage and collections
Getting communities talking
The art of the poster
31 Future plans
Future generator: the results
37 Income and support
44 Performance review
46 Statement of accounts
48 Public programme
51 Trustees and advisors
London Transport Museum is
an educational and heritage
preservation charity whose
purpose is to conserve and
explain London’s transport
heritage. It offers people
an understanding of the
Capital’s past development
and engages them in the
debate about its future.
Message from the Chair of Trustees and Chief Executive
Sir David Bell and Sam Mullins, LTM
We are delighted to present the first
London Transport Museum (LTM) Yearbook
to celebrate our wide-ranging work for the
benefit of the Capital, based in a freshly
redesigned museum in Covent Garden.
In addition to presenting an overview of the
charity’s activities, this Yearbook includes seven
short articles which offer a closer look at specific
aspects of the Museum’s work.
The 18 months since LTM reopened in November
2007 have seen the Museum bedded down –
a new charity governance model instituted, a new
Visitor Services team installed, the mounting of
four special exhibitions, the publication of a
top-selling book, the regular running of heritage
trains and buses, the implementation of new
styles of engagement and collecting, and the
creation of a Thought leadership programme.
It has been a remarkably fruitful period where
LTM has proved to be a platform for influence
well beyond the confines of Covent Garden.
We are a museum at the heart of London and
one of its success stories.
LTM’s progress since reopening can be seen in
its record visitor numbers and increased public
engagement, both on-site and online. By the
close of July 2009, over 500,000 visits had been
made to the new Museum, 302,000 of those in
2008/09. This represents almost 50% more than
the annual average of 209,000 in the decade
before the Museum closed for refurbishment
in 2005. We are proud of the new Museum’s
achievements and the recognition we have
received for the whole spectrum of our work,
from exhibitions and marketing to education
and visitor services.
The year’s full and varied programme included
The art of the poster exhibition, which looked at
the artworks behind LTM’s much-loved collection
of classic posters. This major exhibition was well
received by both press and public. The Spectator
praised it as ‘a real oasis among the alarms and
excursions of London today’.
04
Outstanding among the year’s many other
events were topical debates about the role of
transport in creating environmentally sustainable
cities. Our new Thought leadership programme
engages pre-eminent transport, urban planning,
and infrastructure experts on issues such as the
engineering skills gap, urban development and
new ways of working. As public transport forms
the lifeblood of major cities across the world,
LTM seeks to share thinking about transport
issues and be a place where new ideas can
be tested. We seek not only to present our
own knowledge, but to be a venue where the
knowledge of others is disseminated and debated.
Future projects include World city: stories
from London. This programme of community
and youth engagement for London’s Cultural
Olympiad will look at how journeys to and
within London shape identity and a sense of
place across the Capital. In partnership with the
London Museums Hub, it will culminate in a
major exhibition in 2012, London journeys, and
will be closely followed by Underground 150 in
2013, marking the anniversary of the world’s first
underground railway opened in 1863.
As always, we are grateful for the partnerships
that enable us to broaden our funding base and
extend the Museum’s reach more widely across
London. We would like to express our gratitude
to all our supporters and funders within Transport
for London (TfL), the Museum, Libraries and
Archives (MLA) Council’s Renaissance in the
Regions initiative, LTM Friends and our many
corporate and charitable sponsors.
Our staff and volunteers also deserve our sincere
thanks for their outstanding work in making the
new LTM such a success. We look forward to an
exciting future for the Museum and to welcoming
the many people who visit and support us.
Message from the Chair of Trustees and Chief Executive 05
London Transport
Museum’s mission is
to collect and share
knowledge about the key
role of transport in the
development of London’s
past, present and future.
Education and engagement
Led by the Museum’s Learning
department, our education and
engagement activities deliver innovative
learning opportunities to a wide range of
audiences through on-site activities and a
variety of outreach programmes off-site.
Access and museum operations
Led by the Visitor Services department,
our access and museum operations
make the collection available for the
enjoyment of people of all ages, abilities
and backgrounds. This is accomplished
through the permanent displays in LTM
galleries, special events at the Depot in
Acton and extensive online resources.
Heritage and collections
Led by the Collections department, our
heritage and collections work involves
preserving, managing, researching and
acquiring transport-related objects
and information. The public use of
this material is made possible through
exhibitions, heritage vehicle outings and
other collections-based activities.
Future plans
LTM aims to maintain user numbers by
mounting a major exhibition every year,
develop our online content, increase
young people’s engagement with
engineering and remain a venue
for thinking about London’s future.
06
Introduction 07
Education and
engagement
08
Education and engagement 09
Education and engagement
LTM Learning department offers a range of educational opportunities
inside the Museum and throughout the community.
Our on-site schools programme hosted 24,000 pupils in 2008/09.
The programme addresses the needs of students and teachers by
creatively linking the Museum’s collections to diverse topics including
art, history, design, technology and engineering.
The Safety & Citizenship programme engages primary and secondary school
pupils through interactive sessions. These build the practical skills required to
use London’s public transport system, including how to avoid dangers, dealing
with emergencies and getting help.
Our audience development team delivers a vibrant and diverse programme
for groups that face barriers to museum engagement. Outreach activities such
as reminiscence sessions with older people and storytelling for children at
community centres across London attracted nearly 3000 participants.
Six interactive projects with community groups produced an in-depth series
of exhibitions and videos.
LTM library supported 600 visitors conducting independent research on public
transport issues. Whether they were authors, family historians or visitors
inspired to dig a bit deeper, the library service assisted them in gaining the most
relevant access to our large store of primary and secondary sources of transport
information.
A significant new approach to schools began in 2008. It was inspired by TfL’s
Skills and Employment Strategy, which identified a shortfall of engineers in
the UK. In response, LTM developed a set of inspirational hands-on activities
for young people. Over 500 students took part in a trial programme which
allowed them to meet engineers from TfL, explore career paths and educational
options, and participate in a unique engineering challenge called ‘Eggsperiment’.
Ninety-five percent of the participants stated that the event increased their
understanding of engineering and we are actively seeking to find partners to
expand this area of engagement in the future.
10
Education and engagement 11
This year the Museum joined forces with leading law firm Eversheds to launch
a new Thought leadership programme for industry professionals. This annual
series of thought-provoking and challenging events enables industry colleagues
to come together and debate issues affecting their business. It was launched in
March 2009 with Mind the skills gap chaired by TfL Commissioner Peter Hendy.
Subsequent sessions included Technology and changing travel behaviours
chaired by Steven Norris and De-carbonisation and you chaired by David
Quarmby. Future sessions in 2009 will cover Funding transport, High-speed
rail and Intercity travel.
12
Education and engagement 13
Encouraging safety and citizenship
Mind the Skills Gap
Chris Nix, LTM
Hillary Alexander, Arup
One of LTM’s most far-reaching
educational activities is the Safety
& Citizenship programme, which
promotes safe, responsible and
respectful behaviour on London’s
transport network.
Delivered by the Learning department, Safety &
Citizenship works because it focuses on direct,
personal engagement between TfL staff and
young people. Rather than giving lectures, we
create time for well-trained adults, equipped with
engaging resources, to discuss with children and
young people what happens when they travel on
public transport.
Since it was established in 2005, the programme
has had immense success. In 2008/09, the team
worked with over 130,000 children and young
people in Greater London, with funding provided
by London Buses, London Underground, and
the Community Safety Enforcement and Policing
team. The core staff are supported by 80 trained
Voluntary School Liaison Officers (VSLOs),
including bus drivers, Tube staff, revenue
officers and transport police.
Safety & Citizenship employs a variety of
resources to engage young people with the
experience of travel – from display boards
to inflatable trains, single-deck buses to
mock Underground stations. With these, the
programme prepares children who, at 10–11 years
old, are about to begin travelling independently.
It gives them the skills and attitude to make
those journeys with responsibility and awareness.
Knowing how to do this is essential in the Capital,
where many children take public transport to
and from school. As a result, LTM works free-ofcharge with virtually all 10–11-year-old children
in London. Last year over 88% of primary schools
booked LTM sessions, and we reached 82,000
Year 6 children.
14
The team engages the children in a variety
of ways. Role-play is used to get young people
thinking about different scenarios they might
encounter, including how others might experience
their behaviour. Structured discussion offers a
forum for debate and asking questions. We also
work in schools where children are experiencing
difficulties or causing problems while making
their journeys. In 2008/09 an additional 48,000
young people were seen in response to reported
youth behaviour issues on the transport network.
These restorative programmes are especially
rewarding. This year the British Transport Police
referred a 14-year-old boy to the team. He had
been arrested for track trespass and criminal
damage on the Underground. Through a series
of sessions run by LTM, the boy was asked to
reflect on his behaviour and the reasons for it.
He met one of our VSLOs from the British
Transport Police who had first-hand experience
of the tragic consequences of track trespass.
Finally he had an educational tour of the Museum
Depot, where the dangers of criminal damage
and track trespass were explained in full. Part way
through the scheme, the boy left the gang he had
been with and by the end the arresting officer
felt able to advise the Courts not to pursue any
further action against him. The boy’s family felt
that they had benefited from the intervention
as much as their son. As the young man said,
‘I’m glad I got caught. I would have done
worse otherwise.’
Chris Nix is the Safety & Citizenship Programme
Manager. More information about the programme
can be found at www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate/
projectsandschemes/communityandeducation/
safetyandcitizenship
Why is it that 50% of engineering
graduates do not go into industry
after graduating?
That was one of the issues delegates discussed
in March 2009 at the first in a series of Thought
Leadership events organised by LTM and law
firm Eversheds. The Mind the Skills Gap business
breakfast was chaired by TfL Commissioner
Peter Hendy and its delegates came together to
address what can be done about the predicted
skills shortage in the transport sector.
Recent research by the Department for Transport
(DfT) has found that by 2013 there will be an
estimated 26% gap in the skills required for
London’s transport infrastructure projects. This
presents a critical challenge for major projects
such as Crossrail, Thames Tunnel and Thameslink.
‘There is one overall reason for committing to the
skills agenda,’ warned Peter Hendy. ‘The numbers
are so high and the gaps are so wide that if the
industry fails to act now, then it will fail in terms
of cost or delivery.’
The gap in engineering staff has many causes.
One is the difficulty that the ageing workforce has
in inspiring young people to choose engineering
as a career. Women, too, as well as those from
diverse backgrounds, are not being recruited in
sufficient numbers. Only 10% of engineers are
women and more should be encouraged into
the industry.
Another problem is the competition the UK
faces from a booming international transport
construction industry, as well as internal
competitors. Traditional sectors such as utilities,
power, rail and highways, alongside newer sectors
such as nuclear decommissioning and new
power stations, all demand resources. This in
turn creates more competition for skills in the
transport sector.
Industry experts at Mind the Skills Gap
brainstormed a variety of solutions and
suggestions that might rectify the problem.
This may be a good time to encourage students
to give engineering another look. Even in the
difficult economic climate, infrastructure
construction is predicting a record 7% growth
over the next seven years. Transport investment
is thriving internationally, with £400bn of known
investments planned for the next 10 –12 years.
In the context of rising unemployment, the choice
of engineering looks like a healthy option for
young people.
Firms from across the sector have recognised
that the skills shortage is something that will
affect their business in the future. Many are taking
steps to address the issue through different
means. TfL’s Project Brunel is evaluating how to
address this critical challenge. Other organisations
are looking at their graduate training, schools
outreach and also internal training processes.
Participants agreed that the role of government
is crucial. Funding has been allocated to help
industry in their plans for improved training
opportunities, but access to that support
requires promotion and strategic commitment
to reassure firms that projects will have a reliable
flow of investment.
Recruitment is key, and everyone agreed that firms
will need to find ways to draw from a larger pool
of talent to attract the brightest and best young
people into their world.
Hillary Alexander is a consultant at ARUP, a global
firm of consulting engineers, designers, planners
and project managers and a lead supporter of
LTM Thought Leadership programme.
Education and engagement 15
Access and
museum operations
16
Access and museum operations 17
Access and museum operations
Over 300,000 people visited LTM in 2008/09, making it the most
successful year in the Museum’s history. Operating the Museum every
day except Christmas Day and Boxing Day, the Visitor Services team
achieved a consistently high standard of customer service throughout
the year and attained Visitor Attractions Quality Assurance Scheme
(VAQAS) Accreditation as a result.
When our Acton Depot opened to the public on two weekends during 2008/09,
over 7000 people visited. The November weekend had a family-fun theme,
while ‘London’s Transport in Miniature’ in March featured model railway and
tramway layouts and was the most popular open weekend that has ever been
held at the Depot.
The popularity of the permanent galleries, particularly with families, was
enhanced by a range of events that attracted new audiences. We participated
in the London Design Festival in September 2008 and created a programme of
events as part of the London Festival of Architecture which included a talk on
Shanghai eco-city Dongtan and a talk by Wayne Hemingway on his vision for
sustainable communities.
In June 2008, the Museum opened its Futures galleries, sponsored by Orange.
These include the Future Generator – an interactive that presents four different
urban living scenarios that could be realized by 2055 and allows visitors to
discover which scenario they are most likely to bring about by their actions.
The galleries were launched with a major public debate: Survive or thrive?
Urban choices for the 2050s, which was chaired by BBC Radio Four presenter,
James Naughtie.
Our online museum was also launched in 2008. It makes available online
the entire collection that is on display at Covent Garden. In addition, for the
first time we put an entire special exhibition, The art of the poster, online in
order to preserve all the text and provide future access to the exhibition via
the web. For the centenary of the LT roundel logo in September 2008, we
launched a roundel web resource which included many web firsts for the
18
Museum – high-quality zoomable images, a flash-based matching pairs game,
Web 2.0 Flickr group feed integration and a new online evaluation module.
The Museum also enhanced the website with Share your memories.
This facility allows web visitors to add their personal interpretation of the
Museum’s objects. Its goal is to capture stories and information that will enrich
the meanings of the collection for new and culturally diverse audiences.
Access and museum operations 19
The power of objects
User-generated content
Kerry Foster and John Bull, LTM
Rob Lansdown and Bryan Wills, LTM
When LTM was looking to reinvent
itself, we recognised that the
display of our outstanding
collections held the key.
When we asked potential visitors how we could
deliver a world-class museum, people loved the
appeal of objects, but demanded that we use
them in imaginative ways. ‘It should be full-on,’
said one young adult. ‘Bombard you with colour…
really waking you up to see the everyday.’
The creative use of the LTM collection became
our goal. We would use objects to transport
visitors to another place or time, capturing their
imaginations, prompting memories, surprising
them with stories they didn’t know. When people
are startled by what they see in the galleries,
their often childlike wonder reminds us that in
some ways, we all share the eyes of younger
visitors. It’s a quality no museum would want to
lose, and we were determined to hold onto it.
LTM is a favourite museum for children.
Each year, over 20,000 visit in school groups
and 90,000 as part of families. They give many
reasons for coming – the children’s galleries and
interactives, the shop (a perennial favourite for
school groups) – but it’s the objects that come
out top:
My favourite vehicle was the horse-drawn
tram. It was made in 1866. It was my favourite
because it had special tracks. I learned that
the bus used to tip over. I will remember the
bus forever because it was funny.
Owen, Eltham Junior College
Personal memories are another attraction
for visitors. Every day people share with us
anecdotes prompted by our galleries. It is this
interaction between public and collection that
keeps the objects alive and enhances LTM
displays. People even bring new objects to add
to our collections.
20
The gallery display about transport staff was
shaped by one such donation. In 1999 a box of
photographs appeared on a curator’s desk with
no indication as to where it had come from or
from whom. The only evidence to go on was that
they were all associated with Rye Lane bus garage
and dated from 1957–60. They were a wonderful
series of snapshots of garage social events,
many featuring the same smiling man.
Years later one of the images was selected for
a gallery in the new Museum, where it is now
proudly displayed, helping to tell the story of
London Transport workers.
In 2008, a visitor arrived at LTM, asking if we had
received the photographs he had donated almost
ten years earlier. We quickly recognised him as
the ‘mystery man’ in the Rye Lane photographs.
We took Joe Taylor, now in his late 80s, along
with his son and grandson, to see the wonderful
photograph in the gallery. Joe was delighted to
see the photo up on the wall and over the next
few weeks contributed many memories which
we recorded.
When we ask visitors today, all confirm that
they find something of themselves in the
transport story. Londoners remember childhood
journeys on bus and Tube. Many recall stories
their grandparents told them. The collection
holds amazing power as a source of memory
and imagination.
Kerry Foster is Assistant Director, Visitor Services.
John Bull is Assistant Director, Learning and
Public Programmes.
Obtaining user-generated
content (UGC) through tools
such as Flickr, YouTube and
MySpace is now common
practice within other websites.
The objectives were innovative, and to our
knowledge no other Museum has achieved
this same level of integration between physical
museum, website and the collation of UGC,
where public memories get automatically fed
back into the institution’s collections
management system.
So how do museums embrace this increasing
web 2.0 trend and what benefits can it bring?
The challenge isn’t so much technical, as finding
ways to integrate UGC with existing curatorial
research and present it to the public in meaningful
ways. Bringing it in is one thing; making sense of
it quite another.
But would people use it? A web-based survey
informed us that visitors were very interested in
the community of voices that UGC provided.
And people were keen not just to contribute
stories, but to read comments made by other
visitors. One year into the project, over 200
moderated contributions have gone live onto
our site. They have also been entered into our
catalogue and are now part of the Museum’s
historical object records. Users can access and
comment on 17,000 images and objects.
In March 2008, LTM launched its own UGC
platform as part of The Online Museum, a project
funded by the MLA’s Renaissance programme.
The new LTM website would present all the
newly opened Museum’s objects, together with
gallery text. But adding UGC would enable users
to participate in the Museum. They could engage
with the objects then and there, telling their own
stories about LTM objects, giving an extra, often
highly personal dimension to more traditional
forms of object explanation.
LTM’s plan was ambitious. We wanted to
link and store UGC in our internal collections
management system, so we could expand the
information available about any object we had.
Users would have access to the Museum’s
research resources, but they would also be part
of an exciting dialogue with the Museum.
To make the UGC worthwhile, we had to
create as fully integrated a system as possible.
Other institutions needed to be able to share
the platform, and LTM also wanted to associate
web-based submissions with other material, such
as memories collected and catalogued digitally by
community curators.
We have had some great submissions.
One contributor was an ex-bus conductor now
living in New Zealand. The tales he submitted
were so detailed and interesting that we
developed his stories into a ‘featured contributor’
section of the website, with zoomable images on
the records he commented on.
An additional benefit to our UGC platform is that
in collecting users’ memories of specific objects,
we have attracted several hundred cataloguing
queries that challenged or corrected existing
Museum information. These UGC submissions
are now forwarded to the curatorial department
for verification and possible inclusion in the
catalogue. The web has provided a truly global
resource for LTM, not just taking the collection
across the world, but making the world’s
knowledge a part of the Museum.
Rob Lansdown is Assistant Director, Support
Services. Bryan Wills is Head of Digital Resources.
LTM online resources can be accessed at
ltmuseum.co.uk
Access and museum operations 21
Heritage and
collections
22
Heritage and collections 23
Heritage and collections
The core of LTM historical collection comprises material collected by
London Transport since 1925. The collection now totals 350,000 objects
and its breadth has relevance well beyond transport history.
The objects are a central intellectual resource to study subjects that
range from industrial design to the social and economic history of
London. Last year, LTM added 3742 items to the permanent collection,
including a Saviem French motorbus from 1977 and a newly
commissioned artwork from Sir Peter Blake.
Ensuring that our heritage rolling stock is available not only for display, but for
operation is a key objective of our curatorial work. A fully restored four-car unit
of 1938 Tube stock made three successful trips onto the London Underground
network in 2008/09 and has undergone detailed examination to renew its
certification for operation in 2009/10. Four other vehicles from the road
collection received attention to enable them to operate outside of the Museum
premises and carried passengers at special running days. The high quality of the
Museum’s conservation programme was recognized by the Historic Commercial
Vehicle Society, which awarded our 1936 AEC Tower Wagon the first in class
award for its standard of restoration and presentation.
As the Museum has grown, the Collections department has implemented
innovative ways to develop, record and interpret the collection, in part to reflect
more fully the experience and interests of London’s diverse communities.
The Community Curator project works with a number of partners, including the
A1 Centre in Holborn, Soho Chinese Community Centre, Hackney Museum
and the Anglo-Caribbean Tea Club.
LTM special exhibitions attract visitors of all ages, backgrounds and abilities.
The exhibition programme is also an opportunity for the Museum to reinterpret
collections from non-traditional perspectives, incorporating community voices
and working in partnership with external experts, artists and other institutions.
A key aim in 2008/09 was to support such work with lively talks and events,
which drew on both our reserve collections and content acquired by working
with new partners.
24
Heritage and collections 25
The new LTM’s first major exhibition was The art of the poster: A century
of design, which celebrated 100 years of graphic design for the Underground
and London Transport. Sponsored by American Express, it featured over
60 original designs – many displayed publicly for the first time. A richly
illustrated book, London Transport posters: A century of art and design,
accompanied the exhibition. An award-winning marketing campaign, supported
by Clear Channel, attracted over 45,000 visitors to the exhibition during its
six-month run. The art of the poster is now on international tour.
26
Heritage and collections 27
Getting communities talking
The art of the poster
Jane Findlay and Martin Harrison-Putnam, LTM
David Bownes, LTM
Museums are changing
the way they interpret their
collections. Gone is the single
stern voice of the institution
or all-knowing keeper.
The Tube has been called the
longest art gallery in London,
thanks to the Underground’s
continuing policy of using
outstanding poster designers
to sell its services.
Curators today look to collect multiple voices,
examining the significance of objects from a wide
variety of viewpoints and bringing people formerly
overlooked into the museum conversation.
LTM has been at the forefront of these
new practices. Creative approaches to
community consultation, social networking,
contemporary collecting and exhibition
co-curation have encouraged both traditional
and non-traditional audiences to share in the
process of interpretation. The Museum works in
partnership with communities across London to
capture their experiences of travel and transport
in the Capital. We’ve developed a wide range of
methodologies, often using new technologies
to facilitate access for everyone and appeal to
younger participants.
One way we engage communities is to
incorporate their lives into our displays, not just
asking for their involvement, but putting their
efforts on public show. Painting Lives worked
with the Chinese Community Centre in Soho
to reinterpret Chinatown, a 1987 oil painting by
John Bellany. The project explored identity and
representation by asking: What did the work
mean to Chinese audiences today? Participants
responded by creating their own artworks, and
the portraits and masks they produced were
displayed alongside Bellany’s original painting in
The art of the poster exhibition.
For the Museum’s latest exhibition Suburbia
(opening October 2009), residents in Golders
Green, the first Tube suburb developed in 1907,
created a walking tour of their suburb. In addition,
local residents’ views about what makes their
suburb unique have been incorporated into
28
an audio-visual display that will be part of
the exhibition. Their involvement will, we hope,
encourage other visitors to explore what’s
interesting about their own localities.
Sound recordings are a particularly effective
means of personalising objects in the collection.
The Sound Bites audio trail uses voices to
illuminate objects currently on display at LTM.
But its methodology is doubly empowering,
for it is not LTM, but other groups who do the
oral history interviews. For Black History Month,
pupils from Acton High School drew on objects
to interview TfL staff about their experiences.
As well as building young people’s skills and
confidence, the recordings created a unique
archive, and their dialogues were refreshingly
outside the usual museum parameters. London’s
Chinese diaspora communities also worked with
the Museum to record their responses to objects
and experiences to offer a new perspective on
the collection.
Film, too, has become a key feature of
community collecting. Digital storytelling has
created a dynamic new platform for gathering
contemporary perspectives on travel and
transport in the Capital. Participants are taught
how to create a short film, and then use the
collection to relate what’s important to them.
Partners have included Tate Modern’s Community
Film Club and Thames Reach, a charity that
works with homeless and vulnerable adults.
The latter films highlighted the participants’
different talents from song-writing to animation,
and gave the makers not just access to the
Museum’s resources, but made them a part of its
success. The new films will become part of the
Museum’s collection for future generations to
experience and enjoy.
Jane Findlay is Community Curator and
Martin Harrison-Putnam is Senior Curator.
Begun in 1908, under the enlightened direction
of Frank Pick, Underground commissions have
left LTM with one of the world’s greatest poster
collections, designed by some of the world’s
leading artists.
The 2008 centenary of posters on the
Underground gave LTM the perfect opportunity
to celebrate this rich legacy of art and design. The
posters are a perennial favourite at the Museum,
popular with the public and a fascinating pictorial
history of life in London. LTM had a new bespoke
space in the redesigned building, and project
funding from the MLA’s Designation Challenge
Fund (DCF). But we hoped to do more than
just trot out a predictable display of elegantly
framed posters.
The Museum wanted to reach all prospective
viewers, so we divided the main public outcomes
into four, based on extensive audience research:
complete online access (via LTM website) which
would be free to anyone; improved physical
access to the reserve collection at Acton;
scholarly publication to showcase new research;
and the exhibition itself as an engaging public
forum for all our visitors, supported by talks,
films and other events.
Preparation began in 2006 with a massive
retrospective of the collection, including the
preparation of almost 5000 posters and the
digitisation and conservation of LTM’s unique
collection of 850 original artworks on which the
posters were based. These featured works by
some of the greatest names in 20th-century art
and graphic design, including Edward McKnight
Kauffer and Edward Wadsworth.
Research ranged widely. Photographs of posters
in situ over the past 100 years were unearthed.
Original letters and papers relating to individual
works were discovered. Over 1000 information
records were developed with photographs and
interpretive text, leading to a new history of TfL’s
poster heritage with contributions from the V&A,
Central Saint Martins, Whitworth Art Gallery and
others. London Transport posters: A century of
art and design garnered very favourable reviews.
The history of the posters was ‘beautifully and
intelligently documented in this book’, wrote the
New Statesman.
The final outcomes were an immense success.
In 2007 the entire collection was placed online
in a fully searchable database, and within a year,
over two million pages had been accessed across
the globe. Improved tours of the poster and
artwork collection have become a popular feature
of Acton open weekends, while the exhibition,
The art of the poster: A century of design
(October 2008–March 2009), drew over 45,000
visitors during its six-month run.
That the collection still inspires visitors more than
justifies Frank Pick’s original faith in the power of
the poster. With new works commissioned by TfL
every year, the collection continues to develop.
It is a mirror of the everyday lives of Londoners,
a living art of the city that millions experience
every day. It will surely inspire visitors for years
to come.
David Bownes is Interim Head Curator. He edited
London Transport posters: A century of art and
design (2008) and authored one of its articles:
‘Selling the Underground Suburbs 1908–33’.
Heritage and collections 29
Future plans
30
Future plans 31
Future plans
The importance of developing our audience and collections, and
making the best use of our recently renovated Museum and Acton
Depot remain at the forefront of LTM’s short- and long-term agenda.
Although we face a difficult economic climate, in 2009/10 the Museum
aims to host at least 275,000 visitors and attract at least 900,000 unique
visitors to the online museum, obtain at least £370k in funding from
corporate memberships and sponsorship, grow the retail contribution to
the charity by 5% and review all costs to seek efficiencies and increase
value for money.
Our key areas of programme delivery for 2009/10 are to:
• Launch the major exhibition Suburbia, which will examine the role
of transport in creating the myth and reality of the suburb in London
• Engage young people in engineering activities in order to provide skills
and learning
• Develop the Thought Leadership programme to establish the Museum
as a forum for debate about the future of London and its transport
• Create a strategic plan for developing Acton Depot to extend collections access and educational engagement
• Extend the website with two major pieces of work: our London Museums Hub-funded Online Film collection and the Virtual Assistant programme that will use web technology innovatively to answer enquiries online
32
Future plans 33
Future Generator: The results
Rob Lansdown, LTM
What will London be like
in 2055? Wracked by energy
shortages? Super-efficient from
new technologies? So green
we’ll be back to taking the horse
out for a ride?
Future Generator is a fascinating interactive
that asks visitors to reveal their lifestyle priorities.
It then generates a future urban scenario based
on widespread use of those choices. Visitors can
play the game in the Museum, and since April
2008, anyone online at LTM website can also sit
down and predict the future. So far over 6000
people have had a go.
How does Future Generator work? A series
of flash-card choices asks you to state some
preferences. Seasonal fruit, or all-year food
availability? Tradition or innovation? The answers
are weighed, and the programme then creates
and leads you through a 3D city environment
that represents the future your choices would
create. You also get the overall picture based
on every participant’s input. What’s emerging is
a compelling portrait of lifestyle demands and
social responsibility.
The scenarios show how the future of London
and its transport depends on decisions we
all make. The goal is to get as many people
as possible to reflect on the long-term
environmental implications of the transport and
other choices they make today. The game raises
public awareness of economic and environmental
issues, but also empowers individual involvement
by emphasizing the role each of us plays in
determining the future.
The player’s choices are measured against four
main scenarios. Each represents an extreme
possible future. ‘Always on’ is a society made
possible by intelligent technology. It is driven
constant information, consumption and
competition. Cleaner fuel technologies reduce
34
environmental damage, but the volume and speed
of traffic remains high.
In ‘Living local’, only green transport
is permitted. Car use is expensive and restricted.
We use efficient public transport, but travel
shorter distances.
‘Energy shock’ describes a world suddenly
without fuel. The global economic system is
severely damaged. Cities decline and there are
local conflicts over resources. Lawlessness and
mistrust are high.
‘Carbon controlled’ shows a future where
reducing carbon emissions constrains personal
mobility. A tough national surveillance system
deducts individuals’ carbon points each time
they travel or use electricity. The rich buy energy
credits from the poor.
Future Generator results tabulated so far are
consistent across rural, urban and non-UK
participants. Most people are willing to change
habits for the good of the future. Few wish to
head towards an energy crisis, although many are
troubled by a world run by intelligent technology.
If the current results of the Future Generator
come to fruition, by 2055 we will be living in
a London of villages, where most people live,
work, shop and play in the same neighbourhood
and commuting is a thing of the past. Life is
eco-friendly, buildings sustainable and power is
clean, green and generated locally. Scientists will
have engineered low-emission vehicles for public
transport, emergency services and recycling
schemes. Life will be local, but computers will
still be an important portal to wider communities.
Rob Lansdown is Assistant Director, Support
Services. Future Generator can be found at
http://future.ltmcollection.org
Future plans 35
Income and support
The wide range of charitable activities the Museum offers is supported
by income generated from retail and commercial activities, fundraising,
marketing and the generous donations of time and funds by Museum
volunteers and Friends.
Retail and eCommerce
A number of initiatives were successfully undertaken this year by London
Transport Museum (Trading) Limited, the Museum’s commercial trading arm.
Of note was the launch of a new range of stylish home furnishings incorporating
bus and Tube train moquette seat fabric. Off-cuts from the manufacture of
the furniture are used to make high-quality accessories including handbags,
wallets and doorstops that combine leather and moquette. This initiative was
recognised in January 2009 by the Association of Cultural Enterprises with an
award for best new product range of 2008 in the sector.
Venue hire
Our Grade II listed building in Covent Garden has two principal spaces
available for corporate and media events: the main Museum galleries (available
for evening hire) and the stylish 121-seat Cubic lecture theatre (available for
day or evening hire). Both spaces have been very well received by clients and
corporate sponsors, who appreciate the top-quality venue, fully specified
facilities and unrivalled central London location. Last year LTM hosted several
high-profile events, including unveiling the Lotus Elise car and launching the
Prince’s Trust/Bombardier partnership.
36
Income and support 37
Marketing
The marketing priority for the Museum in its first full opening year has been to
raise awareness of the new brand offer and reach new audiences. The challenge
has been to counter the public perception, highlighted by audience research,
that before refurbishment the Museum was `a place for lads and dads’.
Our strategy has been to launch a major campaign using radio, print and
outdoor media to highlight new and exciting LTM content. The print campaign
featured subjects ranging from the first female commuter, Mrs Beeton, to a
design comparison between Stalin’s Moscow Metro and London Underground
stations. It also included an award-winning radio advert read by the late Harry
Patch, a First World War Tommy, about the use of London buses to transport
troops to the Western Front. We invited people to see ‘their’ London in
2055 by using our interactive Future Generator exhibit. The overall campaign
emphasized the diversity of stories that can be told by transport. It appealed
to both traditional and new audience groups, including families, young urban
professionals and Londoners of all ages.
We particularly targeted art and design enthusiasts with a range of programmes.
Most important to this audience development strategy was our campaign to
promote The art of the poster exhibition. The effectiveness of this campaign
was recognised by winning ‘Best Marketing Campaign’ in the Museums and
Heritage Awards for Excellence 2009.
Fundraising
American Express Foundation donated $175,000 and worked with the Museum
team to promote The art of the poster exhibition. The potential audience
for the exhibition was extended thanks to the contribution of Clear Channel,
which donated outdoor advertising space worth over £350,000. We also
received grants from John Lyon’s Charity and Osborne Clarke to develop an
accompanying educational programme.
New learning resources to promote skills and careers in the transport
industry to school-age children were made possible by a Luke Rees-Pulley
Charitable Trust grant of £30,000. In addition, public access to the Museum’s
library and collections housed at the Depot will now be significantly improved
thanks to a grant from DCMS/Wolfson Foundation Museums and Galleries
Improvement Fund of £44,000.
The Museum also raised funds through its annual fundraising dinner, which was
attended by nearly 400 transport industry guests and included Boris Johnson,
Mayor of London, and Peter Hendy, Commissioner of TfL, as guest speakers.
38
Income and support 39
Volunteers
The Museum relies heavily on the many volunteers who provide their time,
skills and expertise to a variety of departments. In 2008/09, 160 individuals
gave their time to support Museum activities. Areas of involvement included
the library, guided tours, working with the collections, oral history projects,
photo library and the Acton Miniature Railway. During the period, a phenomenal
6900 hours were contributed by the volunteers. We aim to build on this
achievement and develop our volunteer base even further in future.
In addition, significant support was given to the Safety & Citizenship programme
by Volunteer School Liaison Officers drawn from across TfL and allied transport
companies. The VSLOs provide invaluable real-life experience of the transport
network and are a major part of the programme’s success.
London Transport Museum Friends
Many of our volunteers are members of the London Transport Museum Friends,
a charitable organisation established ‘for the advancement of public education
in the history of transport’, in particular by assisting and encouraging the
work and activities of the Museum. The Friends provide valuable expertise,
knowledge and enthusiasm, as well as financial support to the Museum.
Thanks to the Friends’ generosity, the Museum was able to purchase a number
of significant items for the collection between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009,
as well as fund ongoing restoration projects.
Corporate supporters
The Museum believes in establishing relationships that work hard to achieve the
business needs of both the Museum and our partners. Corporate membership
offers networking opportunities such as our annual Covent Garden dinner,
members’ receptions and our series of Thought Leadership debates. It also
includes free or discounted use of the Museum’s unique galleries, state-of-theart Cubic Theatre and stylish board room, as well as free entry to the Museum
for company employees.
40
Income and support 41
Corporate members
LTM is grateful to the following companies for their support and generosity to
the Museum in 2008/09
Sponsors and donors
The Museum would like to thank the following organizations for their
generous support
Leader
Member
Honorary
Major funders
ALSTOM Transport*
Angel Trains
Arriva London
Bombardier Transportation UK
East London Bus Group
FirstGroup UK Bus*
Halcrow Group
Herbert Smith*
Atkins
Capgemini
Citylink Telecommunications*
Continental Automotive
Cubic Transportation Systems*
Deloitte*
EDF Energy Powerlink
FP Herting & Son
Freshfields*
Mott MacDonald
SGS UK
Telent Technology Services
Wates Construction
4-Rail
Transport for London
Heritage Lottery Fund
Driver
Capital & Counties CG Ltd
Covent Garden London*
EnterpriseMouchel*
Eversheds*
The Go-Ahead Group
Ringway Jacobs*
Sacker & Partners
Westinghouse Rail Systems
Clear Channel*
Major supporters
DCMS /Wolfson Foundation
Museums and Galleries
Improvement Fund
London Transport
Museum Friends
Luke Rees-Pulley
Charitable Trust
Principal sponsor
Tube Lines*
Associate
Sponsors
Ashurst*
Bircham Dyson Bell*
Birse Metro
Canary Wharf Group*
Freight Transport Association
Heathrow Express
Hyder Consulting UK*
KPMG
Lounsdale Electric
Mane Contract Services
Metroline*
YJL Infrastructure*
Alexander Dennis
ALSTOM Transport*
Arriva London
Axon Solutions
Capita
CBS Outdoor
Compak Ramps
Conran Design Group
Corus
Cubic Transportation
Systems*
Docklands Light Railway
East London Bus Group
EDS
Eversheds*
FirstGroup UK Bus*
Hammonds
Hyder Consulting UK*
The Go-Ahead Group
Macquarie Group*
Mercedes-Benz buses and
coaches
Metroline*
National Express UK
Network Rail*
NSL Services Group
Optare UK
Orange
Parsons Brinckerhoff
Peek Traffic*
Renaissance London
Ringway Jacobs*
SAP (UK)
Skanska McNicholas
Stagecoach London
Thales*
Toyota (GB)
Transdev
Volvo Bus
Wrightbus
Donors
Biffaward – a Landfill
Communities Fund
Energy Saving Trust
Foresight, Government Office
for Science
Garfield Weston Foundation
John Lyon’s Charity
Small donors
Coutts
The Fishmongers’ Company
The Goldsmiths’ Company
Osborne Clarke
Exhibition sponsor
American Express
Advertising support
Clear Channel*
*Thank you to companies who purchased tables at our 2008 Covent Garden dinner and auction.
Thanks also to Amey, Balfour Beatty, CSC, London Overground Rail Operations, McKinsey & Company, Serco Integrated Transport and Siemens Traffic Solutions who also bought tables.
42
Income and support 43
Performance review
Charitable activities
LTM’s performance since reopening has been strong in all three areas of
charitable activity. Despite the economic downturn, the Museum welcomed
over 300,000 visitors to its Covent Garden and Acton Depot locations during
2008/09 and there were 900,000 unique visitors to our new online museum.
Our education and engagement work saw 24,000 school-age children at the
Museum galleries. A further 137,000 pupils experienced the Safety & Citizenship
programme at their schools. The high quality of the Museum’s heritage and
collections work led to the award of full accreditation by the Museums, Libraries
and Archives Council on 25 September 2008. Furthermore, the curatorial team’s
first major exhibition since reopening, The art of the poster, attracted 45,525
visitors during its six-month run. The exhibition generated additional revenue
from book sales, talks and events amounting to over £20,000 and had a media
reach of over 50 million which helped boost the Museum’s profile and attract
new audiences.
Education visits to the Museum
Museum and Depot visitors
23,619
302,122
22,500
300,000
0k 50k 100k 150k 200k 250k
300k 350k
Pupils seen by the Safety & Citizenship programme
0k 5k 10k 15k 918,214
800,000
100,000
30k Actual
44
60k 90k 25k
Unique visits to the Museum website
136,912
0k 20k 120k 150k
0k 200k 400k 600k 800k Finance
In 2008, London Transport Museum changed its status from a Transport
for London department to a registered charity incorporated as a subsidiary
TfL company limited by shares. Under a Transfer Scheme agreement with
Transport for London, the operation of the Museum, £28.7m of fixed assets
and £0.6m of retail stock passed to London Transport Museum Limited at
nil consideration. The fixed assets have been set aside in a designated fund
and the sale of the stock allowed the Museum’s retail operation to generate
profits that have been placed in a fund for future repairs and development.
As a charity, the Museum’s core operations are supported by an annual grant
from Transport for London and supplemented with income generated through
admissions, retail and trading activities, and grants and donations. During the
2008/09 period, the Museum supplemented its TfL grant of £5.47m with
income from admissions, retail and trading amounting to £3.9m. In addition,
the Museum received £2.1m in other grants and donations to support its
charitable activities. The Museum spent £12.8m in the year, of which £1.8m
was in support of the commercial trading operation. The majority of the
expenditure, over £10m, related to the Museum’s charitable activities.
As a newly established charity without ready access to capital funds,
the Trustees have set a target range for reserves of between £1m–£2m.
Given the current economic climate, the Trustees intend to build up the
reserves to the target level slowly and progressively, in stages consistent
with the Museum’s overall financial position and its need to maintain and
develop its charitable activities. At 31 March 2009, the Trustees designated
an initial £500,000, drawn from the profits of commercial trading, in a
Museum Development Fund.
1000k
Target
Performance review 45
Statement of accounts
Consolidated statement of financial activities
Including income and expenditure account
Balance sheet
As at 31 March 2009
As at 31 March 2009
Unrestricted
Funds
£000s
Incoming resources
Incoming resources from generated funds
Voluntary income:
Transfer of assets from TfL
Core grant
Other donations
Activities for generating funds
Investment income (bank interest)
Incoming resources from charitable activities
Education and engagement
Access and museum operations
Heritage and collections
Restricted
Funds
£000s
Total
Funds
£000s
Tangible Fixed Assets
28,834
5,471
820
35,125
2,851
65
3
-
28,834
5,471
820
35,125
2,854
65
346
161
213
720
1,692
1,179
217
3,088
40,409
723
41,132
597
1,775
2,372
3
3
600
1,775
2,375
3,498
3,953
2,262
9,713
301
161
213
675
3,799
4,114
2,475
10,388
65
-
65
Total resources expended
12,150
678
12,828
Net incoming resources before transfers
Gross transfers between funds
Net movement of funds in year
28,259
28,259
45
45
28,304
28,304
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds carried forward
28,259
45
28,304
Resources expended
Cost of generating funds
Cost of generating voluntary income
Commercial trading operations
Cost of charitable activities
Education and engagement
Access and museum operations
Heritage and collections
Governance costs
Current Assets
Stock
Debtors
Cash
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
Net Current Assets
1,346
1,018
4
2,368
Total incoming resources
£000s
Net Assets
Represented by
Restricted funds
Called up share capital
Designated funds:
Fixed assets and buildings
Pre-charitable liabilities
Museum development
General fund
27,609
682
886
1,529
3,097
(2,402)
695
28,304
45
27,609
135
500
15
28,259
28,304
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the period. All incoming resources
and resources expended derive from continuing activities.
46
Statement of accounts 47
Public programme
The Museum offers a wide range of exhibitions and programmes that cater to
London’s diverse community. Below is a selection of the events and activities
that our visitors took part in during 2008/09:
Activities and events
LTM Presents: Friday Lates
Brief Encounter screening
Vivienne Westwood, Manifesto
BBC Arena Cab Driver screening
Halloween: Mind the Ghost
Exhibitionists Art Night
Drive, Ride, Walk
The Routemaster Rocks
Ealing Library
Exhibitions
Last Stop
Promotion in Motion: Advertising on the
Underground Past Present and Future
The art of the poster: A century of design
Every Object Tells a Story
New Bus for London
Survive or Thrive? Urban Choices for the 2050s
object-handling session
computer skills activity
Bizarre Buses
craft activity
Our Stories
debate
storytelling
Social Surfers
1a Children’s Centre
Talks, debates and lectures
Friday evening events
storytelling
touring community exhibition
Underground Style on the Piccadilly line
tour
Pop goes the Routemaster with Travis Elborough
talk
Routemaster Tour with Joe Kerr
tour
A Pioneering Eco-City
talk
Cab Driver (dir. Zimena Percival)
film
Knowledge Quiz with Derek O’Reilly
quiz
Building for the Future with Wayne Hemingway
lecture
The Roundel and the London Transport Poster Collection
talk
A1 Centre
Fantasy Piccadilly line with Nils Norman
talk
Black History Month
Frank Pick Legacy
talk
Sense of Place
walking trail
Pictorial Posters at the Turn of the 20th Century
talk
Sense of Place
contemporary collecting project
My Father and Graphic Design
talk
National Year of Reading
Fashioning the Tube Posters and the New Consumers
talk
The Big Draw
Artist Simon Patterson
talk
We are the Champions
Pictures with a Sting: Interwar Modernist Posters
talk
We Built this City
Richard Wentworth in Conversation with Emily King
talk
Our Stories
The Intelligent City: The New Publicity and Design Reform
talk
Powerful Posters
Selling the Underground Suburbs
talk
Be Safe Week
Art for All? The Public Response to Underground Posters
talk
Team Read with Westminster Libraries
New Bus for London Designer Showcase
talk
Cultural Olympiad
digital story-making project
community events
storytelling
drawing activities
storytelling
craft session
touring community exhibition
drawing activities
storytelling
reading event
open weekend
continued…
48
Public programme 49
Trustees and advisors
Activities and events (continued)
Kipper’s Birthday Party
Biggest Brightest London
Bus Bonanza
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
Be Safe Week
family event
children’s activities
craft activities
theatre show
Safety & Citizenship activities
Acton Carnival
family event
Amersham Heritage Day
heritage day
Shoreditch Festival
family event
Textiles Project in Ealing Central Library
In the Studio
Reversing the Process
TfL LGBT Staff Network
National Science and Engineering Week
in collaboration with Brunel Museum
1a Children’s Centre at Acton Depot
Community Forum
Platform in Focus
Secrets of the Depot
Camden Debating Challenge
TfL 500 Engineering Career Days
Lambeth Academy Engineering Diploma project
community activity
film
craft project
museum visit
science and engineering activities
filming day
networking evening
youth photography project
Board of Trustees
Audit Committee
Sir David Bell
Chair
Robert Ian Arthurton
Roger Cooke
Leon Daniels
Jeremy Fraser
from 03/09/08
Judith Garfield
Glenn Lyons
Timothy O’Toole*
to 30/04/09
Valerie Todd*
to 11/01/09
Janet Vitmayer
David Wetzel*
to 02/06/08
David Worthington
from 11/03/09
Samuel Mullins
Chief Executive
Roger Cooke
Chair
Sir David Bell
Leon Daniels
Company Secretary
Howard Carter
Ellen Howard
Directors of London
Transport Museum
(Trading) Limited
Christopher Gilbert
Samuel Mullins
Randeep Sidhu
Michael Walton
David Worthington
Principal Bankers
HSBC
8 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0NJ
Auditors
KPMG LLP
1 Forest Gate
Brighton Road
Crawley
West Sussex RH11 9PT
Principal Legal Advisers
TfL In-House Legal Department
6th Floor Windsor House
42–50 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0TL
Farrer & Co.
66 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London WC2A 3LH
design project
debate
engineering career days
engineering diploma project
Heritage vehicle outings
1938 Tube Train outing
Bow Garage Centenary
Northern line 70th
Potters Bar Garage
Gravesend public running day
Worcester public running day
Dorking and Guilford running day
Amersham public running day
Southend running day
* Nominee of Transport for London
50
Trustees and advisors 51
The art of the poster
exhibition was praised by
Spectator magazine as a ‘real
oasis among the alarms and
excursions of London today’.
All images © London Transport Museum
and Transport for London, 2009
03
Supported by
London Transport Museum Ltd
Charity number 1123122
Company number 6495761
Registered address:
Windsor House
42–50 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0TL
London Transport Museum (Trading) Ltd
Company number 6527755
Registered address:
Windsor House
42–50 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0TL
London’s journey – past, present and future
Yearbook 2008/09
ltmuseum.co.uk
London Transport Museum Yearbook 2008/09
London Transport Museum
Covent Garden Piazza
London SW1H 0TL
Tel. +44 (20) 7379 6344