From mobile phones to cooked frogs - inside London's biggest lost property office

Record ID: 2294825

  • Title: From mobile phones to cooked frogs - inside London's biggest lost property office
  • Date: 29th November 2025
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (NOVEMBER 24, 2025) (REUTERS) ROOM CONTAINING LOST PROPERTY VARIOUS OF STAFF SORTING LOST PROPERTY, CLEARING BAGS TFL LOST PROPERTY MANAGER, DIANE QUAYE, WALKING PAST STUFFED TOYS ON SHELF (SOUNDBITE) (English) TFL LOST PROPERTY MANAGER, DIANE QUAYE, SAYING (SOUNDBITES START ON QUAYE WALKING PAST SHELVES): "So this section is our famous umbr
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: LOST PROPERTY TFL TRAIN
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: UK
  • Topics: Europe,Human-Led Feature,Human-Led Stories,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001581628112025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Mobile phones, wallets, rucksacks, spectacles and keys top the list of the 6,000 items that arrive weekly at Transport for London's lost property warehouse, alongside some unexpected items, including a bag of cooked frogs and an urn of ashes. 
    "We didn't keep them," Transport for London manager Diana Quaye said of the frogs. 
    A sandwich left on London Underground's Victoria line or a chocolate bar on the top deck of the Number 37 bus get chucked away with the frogs and all other perishable items. But everything else is sorted, logged, labelled and filed away in Transport for London's east London warehouse. 
    Slightly smaller than a football pitch, the warehouse, packed full of rows of sliding shelves, is the biggest lost property office in Europe and has a staff of 45, said Transport for London. 
    Umbrella handles protrude from one shelf, books overflow from another, while hundreds of stuffed children's toys, including a huge St Bernard dog teddy and a Rudolph the red nose reindeer, sit forlornly, orphans awaiting collection.
    One area is dedicated to intriguing finds from over the decades. There's a wedding dress, an artificial limb and a taxidermy puffer fish, amongst other treasures which would delight flea-market enthusiasts. 
    Under a fifth of all items lost on London's tubes, overground trains, buses and black cabs are ever reclaimed. After typically holding items for three months, Transport for London decides whether to auction them or send them to charity. 
    They give sports equipment to a local school, while new toys are given to a children's charity at Christmas.
    The urn of ashes, which was kept by Transport for London for seven years, was eventually returned to its owner in Germany. 
    Commuters on buses are the biggest culprits when it comes to lost property, Quaye said. 
    "I don't know if people get a bit relaxed on the bus, but they tend to leave items on there," she said.
    (Production: Ethan Flynn-Johnson, Marissa Davidson, VitalIi Yalahuzian)
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