2025.10 UK & More – Brooklands Museum

2025.10 UK & More – Brooklands Museum

Relatively fresh and ready for our first full day in the UK, after leaving the London Heathrow area hotel we headed to the birthplace of motorsport in England, Brooklands.  Although our GPS initially pointed us to the public park, we followed the signs to the proper entrance and explored this large museum that was a mix of open-air items, and many, many buildings.

Location & History

This museum is south of London Heathrow.  I think it took about 25-30 minutes to drive to it.  The location is obvious once you realize the history of the site.  Brooklands race track was a purpose built track that included a steep banked turn.  Although not used, the remains of that portion of the track are easy to recognize.  The site is currently home to a Mercedes-Benz driving experience and the museum.

Racing cars & Motorcycles

After entering there are many buildings that contain curated or themed items.  One of the first buildings we went into was a collection of motorcycles, including historically significant ones that set high speed records at the time.

On the car side there were many vehicles as well to take in, but to me the highlight was the F1 cars.  Showing the growth in size over the decades is obvious when cars from different eras were displayed beside each other.

This is just a sample of the many vehicles that were on display at Brooklands.  There was an entire building filled with McLaren vehicles:

The museum also had many car related items and memorabilia (click on the picture to enlarge)

Now the track.  You can walk right up to the banked section of the track.  Being made from concrete, it’s going to be around for a while yet.

Planes

Outside is a collection of aircraft, but the jewel out of them was Concorde.  This was the test aircraft used to to obtain certification for commercial flight.  It’s an extra fee to go for a tour of the plane, and not visiting the one at the Intrepid Museum, I wanted to visit this one.  The timing worked as it was a quiet Friday in October.  Once on board, there was a history of the aircraft, mock-ups of what the seating was like during British Airways use from the 1970s until the early 2000s.  After the short video we proceeded up to the front for a view of the flight deck before leaving the aircraft.  It is a spectacular piece of engineering.

London Bus Museum

Honestly, I don’t think you can enter the bus museum without being on the Brooklands Museum grounds.  Regardless, this museum is dedicated to the many different vehicles that have been patrolling the streets of London for over a century.  Excluding the current version, I didn’t realize that there were several versions over the decades.  I was really impressed with the canteen bus.  It was required because feeding the staff was part of the union agreement, and not everybody was operating buses on busy routes where there could be a permanent place for the staff to be fed.

As we walked around one design stuck out to me — it was the same model that was used in James Bond, where the second level of the bus was sheered off due to a low bridge.

Aerospace Engineering

The site to manufacture aircraft parts was not decided without reason.  With a large space, the location could accommodate aircraft, so there were buildings used for the design and construction.  Included was the “Stratosphere Chamber” that could reproduce the air pressure at higher altitudes.  As well, this site was used during World War II for aircraft and weapon development.  This included the infamous “bunker buster” bombs.  Below is the back of the testing chamber:

Food

We did stop during our tour to get some energy by having some cake and tea. 

It was quite tasty and after our visit of the museum we stopped at a nearby Marks & Spencer for a scone and toasty before the drive out to Canterbury.

With some much needed food in us, we began the Friday afternoon rush hour drive east towards Canterbury.  It was a busy drive with many slow downs, and filled with congestion.  Little Miss took this time to have a nap, while I got used to the rental car’s radar cruise control — something that is very useful in stop/go traffic.

Explore other parts of this trip:

Part 1 – Air Canada Flight Toronto to Halifax, to London

Part 2 – Hilton Garden Inn, Heathrow

Part 3 – Brooklands Museum (this post!)

Part 4 – Best Western Abbots Barton Hotel, Canterbury

Part 5 – Dover Castle

Part 6 – Canterbury Cathedral & Abbey

Part 7 – Hilton Garden Inn, Silverstone

Part 8 – Hardwick Hall

Part 9 – Newcastle Upon Tyne Doubletree Hotel

Part 10 – Alnwick Gardens & Corbridge Roman Town

Part 11 – Premier Inn Penrith

Part 12 – Castlerigg Stone Circle & Lake District

Part 13 – Hilton Garden Inn Manchester

Part 14 – Isle of Wight

Part 15 – Carisbrooke Castle

Part 16 – Osborne

Part 17 – Heathrow Terminal 4 Hilton

Part 18 – Flight to Amsterdam, Hilton Dusseldorf

Part 19 – Doubletree NDSW Amsterdam

Part 20 – Mauritshuis, The Hague 

Part 21 – Hilton AMS

Part 22 – Flight home via Newark