Transport for London Corporate Archives

Welcome to our official blog featuring culture and heritage content from our corporate archives

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D-Day: Much of the planning for the big rail build-up to the Allied landings at Normandy on 6 June 1944 was done at Down Street Station...

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Just one of many First World War accounts in our collections

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Delighted that the collaborative work TfL Corporate Archives, TfL Records Management, and Crossrail IT are doing to capture and preserve Crossrail's digital records has been shortlisted for a Digital Preservation Award. We have been shortlisted in the 'Most Outstanding Digital Preservation Initiative in Commerce, Industry and the Third sector' category. You can read more about the project using the link, winners will be announced on World Digital Preservation Day 29th November 2018.

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Get smart! How a 90s bus pass trial transformed London travel

The trial of smartcards on Harrow’s buses in the early 1990s proposed what was then a radical way of getting around the city

Really interesting article on early smartcards, written using information contained within the TfL Corporate Archives colllecitons!

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Who are the TfL Corporate Archives? What do we do? Are our digital records of 'historical' importance? Watch the webinar to find out..... (It's c.30mins long but you can download it and stop and start - you might learn some interesting things!)

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From a 1987 report about the development of the South Kensington subway: the ‘Gaslight Arcade’, a Victorian arcade themed retail attraction located in the subway.

‘The theme chosen is that of a Victorian Arcade, to be in sympathy with the origins of the Subway and the surrounding museum buildings…Traders will be, for the most part, individuals and small companies, selling craft objects and merchandise not otherwise available on the high street. The ‘anchor’ tenants will be museum related shops, supported by refreshment areas. The nearest equivalent, in trading mix, would be Covent Garden market.’

The name “Gaslight Arcade” was intended to conjure up images of turn-of century shopping arcades; softly-lit, with a variety of unusual merchandise on offer.

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Unbuilt London: The "figure of eight" tube line

There should be a major junction under Oxford Circus acting as the centre point of a large double-loop tube line, had plans shown off in 1988 gone ahead.

Archives reveal some great things!

#londonunderground #tube

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New online course people might find interesting

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Lovely photo from our collections of the first licensed for service oil fuel steam omnibus owned by the LGOC

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We just found this great letter in our collections from H G Wells. Anyone know what rescuates means??

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Check out this great blog about our staff records...then have a browse through the records themselves!

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Photos from South London's forgotten tube tunnel experiment

An experimental tube tunnel dug in the 1970s, then sealed up and never seen again, until recently. A recent structural inspection has taken photos of this little known part of London Underground's history.

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From a 1923 staff magazine

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Really interesting website. TfL comes out quite highly....of course!

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Great footage from 1910 of a ride on the Met Railway from Pinner to Chorleywood. Footage is taken from the BFI Creative Archive and the full journey from Baker Street to Uxbridge is available to view online!

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Did Noah’s Ark implement a queuing system? The big claim from 1937!