Churchill War Rooms
Museum of the month
A group of basement offices in Whitehall was the nerve centre of Britain’s war effort during World War Two, a steel and concrete bunker designed to offer key figures protection from the bombing and keep the allied war plans on track. Known as the Churchill War Rooms, they were opened to the public in 1984 by the Imperial War Museum. This attraction, in the heart of Westminster, is a labyrinth of industrial underground rooms containing masses of poignant photographs, artefacts and stories.
The War Rooms themselves tell the tale of the War Cabinet and the work that was undertaken by the staff who inhabited the space during those crucial years. An excellent, informative audio guide (child edition available) takes the visitor round the site, which is far bigger than expected.
The tour centres around the Map Room, with maps of the front and markers plotting the action exactly as it was left on the day the lights were switched off in 1945. It also offers insight into the domestic sleeping, cooking and washing set up plus the technology needed to keep the place going – including the transatlantic telephone room which at the time, was some feat of engineering.
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