Brooklands and the Motoring Museums

Published 28 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

Brooklands, near Weybridge in Surrey, was the world's first purpose-built motor racing circuit, and large parts of it are still there: two banked concrete curves, the Test Hill, the 1907 clubhouse and the concrete straight where John Cobb lapped at an average of 143.44mph in 1935. It is now Brooklands Museum, open daily, £25.70 for an adult booked online in the summer season, and the same ticket covers the London Bus Museum in the same grounds. Trains from Waterloo reach Weybridge in 29 minutes, and then it is a 20 to 30 minute walk or a bus.

Two things make this an unusual day out. The first is that the site is a scheduled monument, so the concrete you are standing on is protected in the same way as a Roman fort. The second is that a Concorde sits in the middle of it and you can walk through the cabin. Our guide to Routemasters and heritage buses in London covers the bus collection's running days; this page is about getting to Brooklands and what is worth your three hours once you are there.

Getting there from London, and the walk nobody warns you about

Weybridge is on South Western Railway's line out of Waterloo. When we asked National Rail Enquiries for Thursday 8 October 2026 the fast trains did it in 29 minutes and the slower ones in 38, with an Off-Peak Day Return at £13.90 and an Anytime single at £10.70. The museum's own figure is 30 to 35 minutes, which is the average rather than the best case.

The last mile is the part that catches people. Brooklands is not next to the station: the museum describes the walk as 20 to 30 minutes, along the B374 past a retail park. The alternative is route 436, run by Falcon Buses from Weybridge station and the town centre up to every 30 minutes, seven days a week. Get off at the Mercedes-Benz World stop and walk 5 to 10 minutes round the back of the building. Allow an hour and a quarter door to door from central London, and read our guide to buying British train tickets first.

What the scheduled monument actually protects

The circuit's statutory description is the best short history of Brooklands in print, and it is public. Historic England schedules the site as monument 1020137, first scheduled on 17 January 1975 and amended on 7 January 2002, covering ten separate areas: the surviving track, part of the Aerodrome Road, a bridge to the airfield, a wartime Bofors anti-aircraft tower, a set of air-raid shelters and the Brooklands memorial.

The numbers in it are worth having before you arrive. The circuit was built in 1907 on the private estate of the Hon. Hugh Locke King, who financed the whole thing himself. It enclosed 300 acres, took nine months and 1,500 men, and cost £150,000. The track was 100 feet wide, poured concrete on a bed of sand, and the outer circuit measured 2 miles 1,350 yards. The Members' Banking on the north-eastern side rises to 32 feet; the Byfleet Banking is lower at 21 feet but longer, at 1,220 yards, and development has since cut it into three pieces. Between them runs the Railway Straight, 880 yards long.

Two features are easy to miss on the ground. The Test Hill, added in 1909 on the western side of Members' Hill, is a concrete ramp 352 feet long at an average gradient of 1 in 5, built so engineers could measure what an engine, a gearbox and a set of brakes could do. And the main way in was never a gate but two tunnels under the Members' Banking, the eastern one with three lanes.

The records, and why they still matter

Racing lasted 32 years, from 1907 to 1939, and the list entry records the milestones. S. F. Edge broke the 24-hour endurance record there in 1907 by covering 1,581 miles. Percy Lambert became the first person to drive 100 miles inside an hour, in 1913. Britain's first Grand Prix was held on the circuit in 1926, which makes 2026 its centenary and explains the museum's programme this year.

The lap record is the one to stand and think about. In October 1935 John Cobb went round the outer circuit in 1 minute 9.44 seconds, an average of 143.44mph, in the 24-litre Napier-Railton, and on the same day reached 151.97mph on the Railway Straight. That was on banked concrete, in a car with no seat belt, aiming for a line near the top of a 32-foot wall.

The aviation half, which most visitors do not expect

Inside the circuit was an airfield, and it mattered as much as the track. On 8 June 1908 A. V. Roe flew there and became the first Briton to fly an aeroplane of British design. Lane's Flying School opened in 1910 and the Vickers Flying School in 1911. In the same year the first ticket for a passenger flight in Britain was sold at Brooklands, by Keith Prowse and Co, and Hilda Hewlett became the first British woman to hold a pilot's licence.

Racing stopped in 1939 and Vickers took the site over, putting hangars on the Members' Banking and the Railway Straight and turning the clubhouse into a design office. The Luftwaffe bombed the Vickers workshops on 4 September 1940 with heavy casualties; the guns on the site went into action 33 times between then and May 1941, and the concrete Bofors tower on Members' Hill went up between early 1941 and the start of 1942.

Concorde, and the one thing that will stop you boarding

The aircraft at Brooklands is G-BBDG, known as Delta Golf. The Concorde Experience is a 35-minute guided tour under the wings and through the cabin, with a maximum of 16 people at a time; it needs museum admission plus a separate Concorde ticket, added at checkout, and a boarding pass for everyone including children under five. The museum's site does not publish the Concorde Experience price, so check it when you book rather than budgeting from anything you read elsewhere. In the school holidays there is a shorter 15-minute Supersonic Family Tour at £3.50 a head on top of admission, with under-fours free but still needing a ticket, five children per adult.

The buildings you can go inside

Four buildings on the site are listed in their own right, and the clubhouse is the important one. It began in 1907 as the Weighing Block, holding the equipment for weighing competitors' cars, the Clerk of the Course's office, changing rooms and a press stand, and was remodelled and enlarged in 1930 once it had become the clubhouse of the socially grand Brooklands Automobile Racing Club. Historic England lists it Grade II*. The Restaurant on Members' Hill, the former Flight Booking Office and the Bellman Hangar are each Grade II.

The clubhouse is also the accessible heart of the site: a level wide entrance at the front, a short low ramp to the café at the back, flat public rooms and a lift to the first floor, with the accessible toilets here too. Elsewhere the museum is honest about what an open-air site on 1907 concrete is like, describing bumpy and uneven surfaces. Three wheelchairs and mobility scooters can be borrowed if you ring ahead.

The London Bus Museum, on the same ticket

Sharing the site is the London Bus Museum, run by the London Bus Preservation Trust, and entry is included in the Brooklands admission. Its collection runs from two 1890s horse-buses through the 1939 prototype RT1 and the 1957 Routemaster prototype RML3 to a 2013 BYD electric bus: a fairly complete account of how London moved people for 140 years.

Its own attraction is a ride. A red or green double-decker runs a 20-minute circular tour from the main entrance every weekend and every day in the Surrey school holidays, subject to a vehicle and crew being available, leaving at 11.30am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 3pm, with more if demand requires. Seats are booked first at the Shillibeer Place shop on site, and the fare is £3 for an adult and £1 for a child on top of admission. For the Underground's side of the same story, the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden holds the trains.

Mercedes-Benz World next door, which is free

You walk past Mercedes-Benz World to reach the museum car park, and it is worth twenty minutes because entry and parking cost nothing: three floors of cars and displays, open 10am to 6pm seven days a week including bank holidays, with step-free access to every floor, and a guided tour at £4 a head with under-8s free. It is a manufacturer's showroom as much as a museum, so treat it as a free extra. If free is what you are after, our list of London's free museums stays inside the city.

Is it worth the day, and for whom?

Yes, for anyone interested in engineering, and it is a full day rather than a half: the museum's own estimate of three to four hours plus two hours of travelling and walking fills the time. A family of two adults and two children aged 4 to 17 pays £72.80 online in the summer season, plus about £28 in rail fares for the adults and £8 for the bus rides, so budget around £115 before food. Our ranking of the cheapest day trips from London shows where that sits, and day trips that work with children covers the alternatives at that price.

Go on a weekday in term time if you can: the museum says that is when it is quietest, though large school parties are the exception. Go at a weekend or in the school holidays if the bus ride matters. Avoid the big event days unless the event is the point, since premium pricing applied to Italian Day on 2 May and Motorsport Day on 11 October 2026.

For more of Surrey on the same line, Guildford and the River Wey is further out and the Wey passes under the Byfleet Banking here, and Box Hill and the Surrey Hills is the walking version of the same day. For vintage transport without leaving the Tube map, the Epping Ongar Railway runs old buses from Epping station. The full list is under day trips from London, and our Waterloo station guide covers the London end.

Frequently asked questions

How do you get to Brooklands Museum by train from London?

Take a South Western Railway train from Waterloo to Weybridge, 29 minutes on the fast service, with an Off-Peak Day Return at £13.90 in September 2026. From the station it is a 20 to 30 minute walk along the B374, or route 436 to the Mercedes-Benz World stop and 5 to 10 minutes on foot.

How much does Brooklands Museum cost?

An adult ticket booked online in advance was £25.70 for the summer season to 1 November 2026, or £27.10 on the day, with children aged 4 to 17 at £10.70 and £11.25. Winter prices from 2 November are £24.35 and £25.70. Under-fours are free and one carer per paying visitor is free.

Can you go inside Concorde at Brooklands?

Yes, on the Concorde Experience, a 35-minute guided tour of the cabin limited to 16 people, which needs a separate ticket on top of museum admission. Boarding is by steep steps with no step-free alternative. Concorde closed for annual maintenance from 3 to 5 November 2026.

Is the London Bus Museum included in Brooklands admission?

Yes. One ticket covers both museums on the same site. The bus museum's own 20-minute vintage bus ride is extra, at £3 for an adult and £1 for a child, and runs at weekends and in the Surrey school holidays from 11.30am.

Sources

• Brooklands Museum - Tickets and admission prices, peak and off-peak (checked September 2026)
• Brooklands Museum - Getting here: rail, the 436 bus and the two entrances (checked September 2026)
• Brooklands Museum - Accessibility, including aircraft boarding and clubhouse access (checked September 2026)
• Brooklands Museum - Concorde: the Experience, family tours and the November maintenance closure (checked September 2026)
• Historic England - Brooklands motor racing circuit, scheduled monument 1020137 (Internet Archive copy of 1 March 2026; the live site blocks us) (checked September 2026)
• London Bus Museum - Bus rides: times and fares (checked September 2026)
• Mercedes-Benz World - free entry, opening hours and tour price (checked September 2026)
• National Rail Enquiries - London Waterloo to Weybridge, times and fares for Thursday 8 October 2026 (checked September 2026)