Churchill War Rooms

Beneath the streets of Westminster lies the most atmospheric historic site in London: the Churchill War Rooms, the cramped underground bunker from which Churchill and his War Cabinet ran Britain’s darkest hours. When the lights were switched off in 1945, the rooms were simply locked and left — and walking through them today, preserved exactly as they were, is as close to time travel as a museum gets.

Frozen in 1945

The Map Room is the heart of it — abandoned mid-war, its charts still pricked with thousands of pinholes tracking convoys across the Atlantic, its coloured phones (the “beauty chorus”) still on the desks. You’ll see the Cabinet Room where Churchill growled that “this is the room from which I’ll direct the war,” his spartan bedroom, and the cupboard-sized Transatlantic Telephone Room — disguised as the Prime Minister’s private lavatory — from which he spoke secretly to Roosevelt on a line so advanced its scrambler filled a basement across the ocean.

The Churchill Museum

Within the bunker, the award-winning Churchill Museum tackles the whole extraordinary, complicated life — soldier, painter, orator, election loser and winner — through his speeches, his siren suits, even the door of Number 10, with an interactive fifteen-metre “lifeline” table holding thousands of documents and photographs. It’s honest enough to show the failures alongside the finest hour, which is exactly why it works.

Visiting the War Rooms

The entrance is on King Charles Street at the Clive Steps, two minutes from St James’s Park and a short walk from Westminster Abbey and Big Ben — Westminster and St James’s Park are the nearest stations. This is one of London’s most popular paid attractions and entry is by timed ticket: book ahead, always, especially in school holidays. Allow a good two hours; the included audio guide is excellent.

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