Two dozen London attractions that were open in 1986 but aren't now
I own a 1986 copy of The New Penguin Guide to London, then in its ninth edition, a fact-packed paperback written to inform visitors to the capital. It includes a comprehensive list entitled 'Admission to Places of Interest', most of which are well known but a few had me scratching my head because they no longer exist. Here are two dozen that were open to the public then but aren't now, indeed they may no longer exist. The list is clickable for additional background information (where I've managed to find it). It doesn't include attractions that have been swallowed up or renamed. Some sound like fabulous places to visit, others less so, and some you may have been to yourself.
Bear Gardens Museum: The precursor of Bankside's Globe Theatre, a Georgian warehouse with displays and scale models illustrating the history of 16th and 17th-century playhouses. Broadcasting Gallery: A permanent exhibition covering all aspects of the history and techniques of television (and TV advertising), at the HQ of the Independent Broadcasting Authority on Brompton Road (opposite Harrods). Free guided tours were offered. Central Criminal Court: That's the Old Bailey to you, squire. These days you only get in to observe a trial, but in 1986 the building was open to visitors on Saturday mornings at 11. CeylonTea Centre: Promoting tea manufacture and leafy imports at 22 Lower Regent Street. Subsequently became the Sri Lanka Trade Centre. Most recently inhabited by Jigsaw womenswear.
CommonwealthInstitute: Iconic copper-roofed building on Kensington High Street, opening the eyes of 60s, 70s and 80s schoolkids to overseas ways. Reopened in 2016 as the new site of the Design Museum. Crosby Hall: Medieval merchant's house on Cheyne Walk, or at least the Great Hall thereof, sold into private hands in 1986 when the GLC was disbanded. CumingMuseum: Eclectic collection of global ephemera displayed above Newington library from in 1906 to 2006. Then moved to Walworth Town Hall but was gutted by fire in 2013. What's left is due to be displayed at a new Southwark Heritage Centre under construction in Elephant Park. Design Centre: Opened in Haymarket in 1956 to officially promote Britain's design expertise. Fell prey to economic cuts at the Design Council and closed in 1994. GipsyMothIV: Berthed on the Greenwich waterfront, Sir Francis Chichester's yacht in which he made the fastest single-handed voyage round the world in 1966/7. Moved to Hampshire in 2004 (and has just been sold on to Guernsey). Guinness World of Records: Part of the Trocadero complex, opened when Roy Castle and Norris McWhirter were still doing Record Breakers. Proved an underperforming tourist draw until it closed in the mid 1990s. Also on the upper floor was the London Experience, a 40 minute audio-visual presentation. Home House: Georgian townhouse on Portman Square where Samuel Courtauld housed his art collection in 1931, supposedly temporarily, but it stayed until 1989 when the Courtauld Gallery opened at Somerset House. Imperial Collection: At the back of Westminster Central Hall (opposite the Abbey), "a glittering display of copies of the crown jewels and regalia, past and present... as well as copies of famous diamonds." Kodak Gallery: The story of photography, if focused on one particular brand. Originally on High Holborn but it's now in Bradford. Lancaster House: Glittering mansion in St James's, home to the London Museum between the wars. By the 80s it was open to the public at weekends, now very private and managed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Livesey Museum: Children's museum on the Old Kent Road with a fresh exhibition annually, opened 1974 (hurrah), closed by Southwark council in 2008 (boo).
London Planetarium: Most target-audience of all the closed museums, indeed you probably remember going more than once. The audience reclined and looked at the stars inside the dome until Madame Tussauds bastardised it into a shallow celeb-fest. Opened 1958, criminally commercialised 2006. London Taxi Museum: At 1-3 Brixton Road, formerly the London General Cab Company Museum, with exhibits showing the history and development of the London taxi cab. London Toy and Model Museum: Near Paddington, a fine collection of model locomotives, planes, cars and boats, plus dolls' houses, plus a miniature railway in the garden. Opened 1982, contents auctioned off 1999.
Museum of Mankind: Housed the exhibitions, offices and Anthropology Library of the British Museum's Department of Ethnography from 1970 to 1997, located at Burlington Gardens in Mayfair. National Museum of Labour History: A small collection in a single room at Limehouse Town Hall, including Thomas Paine's writing table. Opened 1975, closed 1986, transferred to Manchester in the 1990s. Prince Henry's Room: On Fleet Street a rare (for London) pre-1666 building with highly decorated Jacobean plaster ceiling. Opened as a small museum from 1975, no longer visitable. Rotunda Museum: Large wooden rotunda on Woolwich Common, designed by John Nash, opened in 1820 as a Royal Artillery museum. Survived almost two centuries before relocating to Firepower at the Royal Arsenal, which limped to an unfortunate close in 2016. Stock Exchange: Between 1972 and 2004 this was located in the Stock Exchange Tower on Old Broad Street. Its 142ft-long public gallery was open until 1992 when it was closed for security reasons following the detonation of a powerful IRA bomb here in 1990. TelecomTechnologyShowcase: British Telecom's museum at Baynard House, Blackfriars, was open between 1982 (Information Technology Year) and 1997 (by which time it was losing £½m a year). From pioneering experiments to phonecards, it was all here.
TheatreMuseum: Between 1974 and 2007 the national museum of the performing arts, based in Covent Garden, with a particular focus on luvvies and the West End. Since subsumed into the V&A. Woodlands ArtGallery: Georgian villa in Westcombe Park which served as a library and art museum from 1972 to 2003. Woodlands House was the former home of John Julius Angerstein whose collection formed the basis of the early National Gallery, but in its modern incarnation was used for displays of contemporary art.
