If you have ever wondered what kind of a treasure trove the TfL lost and found property stash is, look no further.
Millions of people use the Tube, London Buses and the Overground around the clock. When travelling in a hurry or just bleary-eyed after a bad night of sleep, it is too easy to leave something behind.
This is where the TfL lost and found department steps in to look after forgotten possessions until their owners come to collect them – if they do.
Eventually, unclaimed belongings are donated to charity, sold to help cover the costs of the lost property office or disposed of.
Here is a breakdown of what people leave behind on the Transport for London network.
When items are spotted or handed to staff, they are taken to the lost property office named Not Lost located in West Ham, east London.
The lost property office recovers more than 200,000 items each year and around 6,000 items weekly.
But last year saw a record-high number of items found on the network as 298,682 items were found in the year to March 2024. A total of 52,731 – or 17.7%- were claimed by customers.
Last year’s lost and found haul was worth £199,136 compared to £96,615 in 2022/23 after they were sold at auction.
Most belongings are misplaced on London Buses where 176,006 items were lost, followed by the London Underground with 104,747 items.
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Elizabeth line was third on the list as 9,024 were left behind across its trains and platforms.
TfL said the historic umbrella and bowler hat discoveries have now been replaced by the latest phones, e-cigarettes and designer handbags left behind by passengers.
While the most common misplaced valuables were wallets, purses and cash (30,562 items), keys and mobile phones are often found on the TfL network and most of them were never claimed back.
The most commonly lost item overall was travel documents and cards – 35,336 were misplaced and only 173 were reclaimed.
A total of 12,167 sets of keys were left behind and only 211 were collected.
Passengers lost 17,273 mobile phones of which just 1,259 (7.3%) found their way back to their owners.
Recently, a young girl was reunited with her lost teddy bear while travelling on the Jubilee line. The lost and found staff had tracked down the teddy using a photo to St John’s Wood.
Diana Quaye, a manager at TfL’s lost property office, explained how the operation works: ‘Our Lost Property Office receives hundreds of thousands of lost items every year, which are individually catalogued and stored safely, with the details used to match against customer enquiries.
‘Where the item has some form of identification, we try to contact the owner to let them know that their property has been found. When an item is reunited with its owner, we charge a small fee to cover the administrative costs of running the Lost Property Office.
‘If, after three months, items such as books and clothing are not collected, they are given to charity or sent to auction to further help cover the costs of running the office. We always try our best to return items to their owners and remind all customers to take extra care of their belongings when travelling on our network.’
With so many items handed in and never reclaimed, TfL encouraged customers who have lost belongings to get in touch.
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