Brooklands Museum - London buses and an aircraft factory near London

Brooklands Museum in Weybridge, near London, is one of the best places around London for a day out with kids: you can ride an old red bus, climb into real planes and "get a job" in an aircraft factory. In August 2019 we spent a day there with our four kids, and everyone loved it.

This was day four of our trip around Great Britain. Two days earlier we had arrived in Dover by ferry (Dunkirk to Dover ferry and the White Cliffs), and the plan of the whole trip is in our post UK road trip with kids.

Campsite in Chertsey near London

On Tuesday we drove from Kingsdown on the motorway to the edge of London: 184 km in 3 hours, then another 27 km in 35 minutes. We stopped at the Chertsey Camping and Caravanning Club site, our base for the next three nights.

At the gate I was surprised that the barrier button was on the passenger side. Of course, they drive on the left. The campsite had a wooden playground with a slide, and the kids did not want to leave it.

Planes over our heads

Planes flew over the campsite every few minutes, because Heathrow Airport is only about 10 km away in a straight line. For the kids it was a real attraction. In the evening one of them stood with a glow stick and "guided" the planes to the airport.

Brooklands Museum with kids

On Wednesday we drove 10 km to Brooklands Museum in Weybridge. It is a museum of cars and planes, on the site of the world's first purpose-built motor racing circuit, opened in 1907. Later there was also an aircraft factory here.

London Bus Museum and a ride on a red bus

We started with a ride on an old red London bus. We got seven tickets, and the kids held on to the rails as hard as they could.

Then we went to the London Bus Museum, which is part of Brooklands. The hall is full of old buses, red and green. We looked at a model of a London street and at a bus engine, and the kids took turns sitting at the wheel in the driver's cab.

Planes you can walk into

Outside there are real passenger planes, and you climb into them up the steps. In one, the seats looked like the ones on budget airlines. In another, the Sultan of Oman's VC10, we saw how very rich people used to fly: comfortable seats, bedrooms for the owner and his family, and even a bathroom.

In the cockpit an older gentleman from the museum staff let the kids sit in the pilots' seats and showed them what they could touch and what they could not. Three little pilots on one seat is not something you see there every day.

The aircraft factory: clock in and start work

Our favourite part was the Brooklands Aircraft Factory. At the entrance the kids got worker cards and clocked in at an old time clock. Our cards said 12:49. Then they went through the different departments of the factory:

• the design office, where you design a wing on a screen,
• a station with materials used to build planes, like Kevlar, ceramics and graphite,
• workshops where you had to pull, turn or measure something,
• a hall with old aircraft.

In each department they collected a stamp, and at the end they clocked out at the exit. Great fun, and a nice lesson about how many areas of science you need to build a plane.

The Stratosphere Chamber

We also looked into the Stratosphere Chamber, where after the war Barnes Wallis tested aircraft parts in conditions like those high in the sky: low pressure, strong wind, heat and frost. As we explained to the kids, if something was going to break, it broke on the ground and not in the air.

Fun fact: Brooklands and planes

Between 1907 and 1988, more than 18,600 aircraft were designed, built or put together at Brooklands. All 54 VC10 planes took off from here, and the one in the museum was a gift from the Sultan of Oman.

The next day: Windsor Castle

On Thursday we drove from the same campsite to Windsor to see the Changing of the Guard and the castle (Windsor Castle with kids).

Practical info

• Who is it for: the whole family. Our kids liked the bus ride, the cockpits and the factory with worker cards the most.
• How long: plan a whole day, or at least half a day, because the museum has several halls and a big outdoor area.
• What is included: the London Bus Museum, the planes, the Aircraft Factory and the Stratosphere Chamber are all part of Brooklands Museum. There is also a Concorde, which may need a separate ticket to go inside. Check current prices and opening times on the museum website before you go.
• Where to stay: the Chertsey Camping and Caravanning Club site is about 10 km from the museum. Planes from Heathrow fly low over the campsite.
• From Dover: about 210 km, mostly on the motorway.