This week the popular Covent Garden attraction welcomes children and their parents to a show called ‘Signs and Symbols’ where young transport enthusiasts are handed a piece of card to collect 13 stamps by passing through the many exhibits including vehicles, posters and interactive displays.

On Monday morning there were over 40 pushchairs lined up neatly inside the entrance, resembling cars queuing on the approach to a city centre. Inside, the museum seemed busier than Piccadilly Circus at rush hour.

Most people appeared to be having a great time – from the kids trying out a Tube driving simulator inside a section of the museum given over to ‘Future Engineers’, to those using colouring pens to draw their own transport symbols. It’s great to see such enthusiasm among young children towards transportation, which could signal a positive future for the sector in meeting its skills challenges.

But those looking for a quieter and calmer visitor experience, do not despair: in one corner of the museum is a fantastic ‘Hidden London’ exhibition, featuring a celebration of abandoned Underground stations.

Doors slide open to reveal a dark walkway taking visitors past archive photographs and once secret diagrams telling the story of how some Tube tunnels were used during the Second World War to shelter people during the Blitz and house staff working in an underground factory for the Plessey defence electronics company.

Posters illustrating films shot underground at stations including ‘Gert & Daisy’s Weekend’ (1941), ‘Sliding Doors’ (1998) and ‘V for Vendetta’ (2005) line the walls; and there are postcards showing several stations before and after their closure. These included Osterley & Spring Grove station, opened in 1883, closed in 1934 and run as a bookshop for over 50 years.

Visitors then walk down a staircase into a mock up of Down Street station, where a bomb proof headquarters was created for the Railway Executive Committee during the war.

One of the more recently created – but no less fascinating – aspects of the exhibition was a new video of woodkeeper Cindy Blaney, talking about how hibernating bats use former rail tunnels at Highgate. But I had to watch the start of the video several times, as a few young children wandering in from the main Half Term exhibition downstairs helpfully pressed a button beneath the television screen which started the playback again.

‘Signs & Symbols’ runs until Friday. Adult tickets start at £16.50 when booked in advance but children go free. ‘Hidden London’ is on until January. For details visit ltmuseum.co.uk

(Image: TfL)