CHURCHILL MUSEUM AND CABINET WAR ROOMS
London’s Secret Underground Command Center
“We
will fight them on the land, we will fight them on the beaches, we
will fight them from our secret basement underneath the treasury building…” Okay,
Sir Winston Churchill didn’t exactly mention that last part. That
would have been giving away too much probably, but it is indeed true
that much of Churchill’s war effort during World War II was carried
on from a collection of storage rooms and hallways underneath the Her
Majesty’s Treasury Ministry building between Whitehall and Horse
Guards Road. The Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms now make for
a must see visit to London. The claustrophic spaces where Churchill and
his ministers strategized while the bombs fell outside in the blitz evoke
those dangerous and world changing days. The Churchill
Museum is the world’s first major exhibit dedicated to life of
Winston Churchill presenting
his Churchill’s personal story from his adventurous young days
in South Africa through five periods of his remarkable life, as maverick
politician, war leader
and
cold war
statesman.
The war rooms demonstrate what
is was like to work and survive underground, consisting of the War
Cabinet
Room, Churchill’s bedroom, map room,
kitchen, and Churchill’s Chiefs of Staff room, where the connection
to the outside world was a the indespensible telephone. The BBC also
has a small room where they broadcast carefully crafted war reports.
A free audio guide is available in 8 languages and the war rooms are
wheelchair accessable. There are lectures and events with schedules on
the website, and private tours with staff can be arranged (but quite
expensive). Admission to the Museum and War Rooms is £11 for adults,
£9 for seniors and students, free for kids under 15.
The entrance to the Churchill
Museum and Cabinet War Rooms is at the Clive Steps on King Charles
Street. The easiest way
to find it is to go along Whitehall to the horse guard on duty, stop
to take a picture, of course, and then follow the sign through the
passage. The venue is open daily from 9:30 to 6 pm, but the last admission
is
at 5 pm. © Bargain
Travel Europe
For more Winston Churchill you
can visit his cherished home of Chartwell, south of London in Kent
or Blenheim
Palace in Oxfordshire.
Web Info
Cabinet War Rooms
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