TfL: Inside the lost property office that takes hundreds of thousands of items each year - and has a new home

Transport for London’s (TfL) lost property store, which recovers over 200,000 items each year, is moving to a new home in east London.

The lost property office is moving from its temporary location in South Kensington to a new site next to West Ham Bus Garage.

The move coincides with the 90th anniversary of the creation of the lost property office later this month.

The creation of London Transport (LT) in 1933 brought together different modes of public transport, often run by private companies, into one organisation.

As part of this, a centralised lost property office was created on October 30 1933, based at 200 Baker Street.

As London’s transport network grew, so did the number of lost items, with more than 200,000 objects found by staff each year.

In 2019 the office was temporarily relocated to Pelham Street in South Kensington while a more suitable permanent location was identified.

Over the last 90 years the items lost on the transport network have changed as fashions and technology have evolved. Where once umbrellas and bowler hats filled shelves, now the latest phones, e-cigarettes and designer handbags can be found.

Wallets and bags are now among the most common products returned to customers, with the TfL returning more than 4,400 wallets and 3,500 bags between 2020 and 2021.

Mobile phones are another popular lost item with more than 1,300 returned to customers during the last financial year.

Passengers have been reunited with "treasured possessions", including a young girl who recently lost her teddy bear while on the Jubilee line.

Staff used a photograph and description from the girl to track down the teddy.

Items are kept for three months before they are cleared of any personal data and donated to charity, recycled or auctioned.

Diana Quaye, performance manager at TfL’s lost property office, said: “We are delighted to be commemorating the 90th anniversary of the famed lost property office, which provides such an important service for customers who have misplaced their belongings while using London’s transport network. The smile on customers' faces when they are reunited with something they thought was gone forever will never get old, and I am constantly reminded of how honest Londoners are when they hand in items they find.”

“Following three years of reuniting customers with their items at our South Kensington office, we are pleased to have moved to a new home – a building that can accommodate the complexities of operating the largest lost property office in Europe and this ensure we can reunite owners with their lost belongings as quickly as possible,” she said.

“As the capital recovers from the pandemic, we’ve seen a rise in customers using our network, meaning that we have also seen a return in the volume of lost property that comes to us.

“So now, more than ever, it is paramount that we move to a facility that enables us to sort and return lost items to our customers in the best way possible. Rather than give up hope and think your property is gone forever, I always advise people to report their lost items on our website because you never know, we just may have it.”