Over the years, London Transport Museum has had a number of homes; as part of the Museum of British Transport, then housed in an old bus garage in Clapham during the 1960s, and at Syon Park in West London in 1973, when it was known as the London Transport Collection.
In 1980, the collection moved again, this time to the current Covent Garden location, when it became known as the London Transport Museum. It moved into the restored Flower Market building in Covent Garden – a cast-iron and glass architecture building reminiscent of a Victorian railway station.
The building was originally designed as the dedicated Flower Market by William Rogers in 1871. For the next one hundred years it was the heart of London’s wholesale flower business, famously trading every day except Christmas. As the market expanded, additional buildings for specialist trading grew up around the piazza. In 1974, all the market businesses moved out to modern warehouses at Nine Elms in South London.
The old market buildings in Covent Garden were restored and the Flower Market was reopened on 28 March 1980 by Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, as the home of London Transport Museum. It was over three times the size of the old Syon Park site and was envisaged to transform the collection into a proper museum, one that actively cared for its collection, promoted public transport as a theme, and actively encouraged schools to visit.
Vehicles were painstakingly moved on temporary rails for display in the new Museum, which was seen as a place builder for Covent Garden. It opened four months before the rest of the piazza opened as a shopping centre.