Churchill War Rooms
The entrance to the Churchill War Rooms
The Churchill War Rooms are part of the Imperial War Museums group. Built beneath Whitehall is a warren of bunkers where Churchill and his main advisors would shelter during bombing and this is the location from where the British military efforts of World War II were coordinated. After entering through the understated entrance and descending beneath London’s streets the visitor experience is split into three main sections. There are the rooms themselves set up as they would have been during the war, the Churchill Museum and an exhibition entitled Undercover: Life in Churchill’s Bunker.
Undercover: Life in Churchill’s Bunker exhibition
The first room you come to is a room set up for meetings of all the major players involved in the coordination of the war. The labels and descriptions of what it was like to be in one of these meetings is very evocative and they make you think it must have been very comfortable to have been stuck in the windowless room with clouds of smoke and lots of sweaty people. A small corridor passes some steps down to what was known as ‘The Dock’ where the staff were supposed to catch some sleep when not on shift and when the bombing went on for a long time they were meant to shelter here. You could not stand up in the space and it must have been incredibly uncomfortable and difficult to sleep in such a strange environment and apparently the air circulation system was quite noisy as well.
The exhibition area ‘Undercover: Life in Churchill Bunker’ goes into a lot of detail about the different staff who worked in the War Rooms, what their jobs were and what life was like for them carrying out such important work under such difficult conditions. Some of the best descriptions are about the challenges of working with Winston Churchill. The personal stories are touching and there are some really interesting objects and documents on display. One is a typed letter with a spelling mistake that the typist had kept which was from Winston Churchill to the Channel Islanders saying that they are not going to be rescued from German occupation any time soon. I also discovered that, during the first few years of the war, woman were not allowed on navy vessels so when Churchill went abroad for important meetings he was unable to take many of his personal staff. Hundreds of staff worked in the bunker through the war years and the exhibition really brings them to life and makes it easier to imagine people walking the corridors and actually sitting in the reconstructed rooms.
The Churchill Museum
About half of the museum is taken up by the Churchill Museum which goes into great depth and detail about this iconic figure. The space is divided into 5 colour coded areas with the first and largest one carrying on from the war rooms and exploring Churchill the ‘War Leader’, followed by ‘Cold War Statesman’. The other sections deal with Churchill as a child, as a ‘Maverick Politician’ and a section entitled the ‘Wilderness Years’. The central part of the exhibition contains a massive interactive screen with loads of additional information on Churchill. The museum was really in-depth and had lots of interesting information and images. It was brilliant but in a way there was too much information and I sort of run out of steam three-quarters of the way around and had to go for a cup of tea in the Switch Room Café!
The map room
After the café there are more of the war rooms set up as if people have just left. The kitchen was particularly interesting as well as the various offices and broadcasting room. The map room right at the end of the visitor route is particularly interesting and it makes you think about how things had to be done without computers in the past! The maps covering the walls with loads of pin holes dotted all over them signifying units and battles are fascinating and the banks of different coloured telephones actually make you feel quite sombre thinking about the news which would be received and the orders which would be given from this room.
The audio guides are really good for explaining what went on in each room and pointing out interesting features and there was often an extra option to hear extra information from people who had worked in the rooms. The audio guide is included in the ticket price and is provided in a number of different languages,
This is a very in-depth museum that needs quite a few hours to explore fully and is great value for money. The shop is also very good but a word of warning that the only loos are located at the beginning and the end of the visitor route.
More Info
http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/churchill-war-rooms
Interesting article about how to make cocktails out of a museum…
very interesting comments on this museum which I visited along time ago, it seems to have had makeover since my visit, so I will definitely put aside a couple of hours when I am next in London