Brooklands Museum, on Brooklands Drive in Weybridge (KT13 0SL), occupies part of the site where Hugh Locke King and his wife Ethel built a motor racing circuit on their estate. It suits anyone curious about motoring, aviation or industrial history, and it works well for families.
The 1907 track
The Locke Kings built Brooklands on 330 acres of farmland and woodland, with work beginning in late 1906. According to Exploring Surrey's Past, it took about nine months to lay a 2.75-mile banked concrete oval, 100ft wide, along with a finishing straight and a clubhouse. Guinness World Records credits the design to Col. H.C.L. Holden and records two 30-degree banked sections about 30ft high. The track opened in June 1907, with the first race meeting on 6 July. Hagerty puts the crowd at an estimated 13,500.
Racing ended in August 1939. Brooklands was also one of Britain's first airfields and, by 1918, Britain's largest aircraft manufacturing centre. It went on to produce the Wellington, Viscount and VC10. Part of the original banking has been lost, but the site remains hugely important, as The Art Newspaper has put it.
Concorde
The Concorde is G-BBDG, known as Delta Golf. Wikipedia describes it as a British development aircraft built for evaluation testing, which first flew on 13 February 1974 and made its last flight on 24 December 1981. Visit London calls it the only Concorde open to the public in South East England.
The Concorde Experience is a 35-minute guided tour, with an exterior walk-round, a rear-cabin exhibition and a virtual flight in the front cabin. It costs £7 for adults and £3.50 for children on top of admission (members pay £6 and £3.25). Places are limited, so add it at checkout when you book. In school holidays there is also a 15-minute children's tour at £3.50 a head.
For more detail, the Concorde Technical Tour includes the flight deck and the Concorde Simulator, which shows a take-off from Heathrow, a low pass over Brooklands and a landing back at Heathrow.
Aircraft and the Flight Shed
The centrepiece of the Flight Shed is a Hawker Hurricane built in 1940. Other complete aircraft include the Hawker Fury, Hawk, Hunter and Harrier, and a Sopwith Camel. You can sit in the cockpits of the Hunter and the Harrier. Visit London also highlights the Vickers Vimy and the Wellington known as Loch Ness.
London Bus Museum
The London Bus Museum is on site and has around 35 buses and coaches, which it describes as the largest collection of working historic London buses in the world. Rides on a traditional double-decker run each weekend and every day in Surrey school holidays, subject to crew and vehicle availability. Entry is included in the joint ticket.
Tickets and opening
The museum is open daily: 10am to 5pm in summer hours and 10am to 4pm in winter hours. Peak tickets apply to summer-hours visits until Sunday 1 November.
Adult: £25.70 online in advance, £27.10 on the day.
Child (4 to 17): £10.70 in advance, £11.25 on the day.
Under 4s, members and carers: free.
The museum lists October half term as 17 October to 1 November. Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable, and the museum advises booking ahead to guarantee entry. Annual membership starts from £63. Last entry times differ between listings, so check before you go. Admission covers the Aircraft Factory and Flight Shed, Motoring Village, Stratosphere Chamber, Racetrack, Aircraft Park and Clubhouse, and the London Bus Museum.
Getting there
Weybridge station is about 30 minutes from London Waterloo, then a 20-minute walk of a mile alongside the railway and the River Wey. Falcon Bus route 436 runs daily from the station: alight at Mercedes-Benz World and walk five to ten minutes. By car, the museum is a few minutes from M25 Junction 10 and the A3, and the main car park is free.
Allow a good half day. Visit London suggests five hours.
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