The Museum Depot is located in Acton, west London, and was opened in October 1999. The depot holds the majority of the Museum’s collections which are not on display in the main museum in Covent Garden. It is the base for the museum’s curators and conservators, and is used for the display of items too large to be accommodated in the main facility.
The depot provides 6,000 square metres of storage space in secure, environmentally controlled conditions and houses over 370,000 items of all types, including many original works of art used for the Museum’s collections of posters, signs, models, photographs, engineering drawings and uniforms. The building has both road access and a rail connection to the London Underground network, which allows the storage and display of significant numbers of buses, trams, trolleybuses, rail rolling stock and other vehicles.
The depot is not regularly open to the public, but is fully equipped to receive visitors, with ticket office, shop, a miniature railway, and other visitor facilities. It opens to the public for pre-booked guided tours on several dates each month, and also for special events, including themed open weekends – usually three times per year. It is within easy walking distance of Acton Town Underground station.
