Cabinet War Rooms & Churchill Museum (Imperial War Museum)

Address: | Clive Steps, King Charles Street, SW1A 2AQ |
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Phone: | 020-7930 6961 |
Website: | |
Opening times: | Daily 9:30-18:00 |
How to get there: | Tube: Westminster |
Entry fee: | Admission charge |
Additional information: | Café and shop |
The Cabinet War Rooms occupy the basement of the vast New Government Offices, built in 1899–1915, which span an area between Horse Guards Road to the west and Parliament Street to the east. An airless subterranean warren over two floors, the rooms are 10ft underground with reinforced concrete above. Constructed between June 1938 and August 1939 (completed a week before Britain’s declaration of war), they were the operations headquarters from which, secure from air raids, Britain’s Second World War effort was directed: here, Churchill, the War Cabinet, the Chiefs of Staff and their advisors planned British strategy. The rooms remain almost exactly as they were at the height of the war, with tin hats and gas masks still on their pegs. The books, maps and wall charts in the Map Room occupy the same positions as they did when the room was closed down on 16 August 1947. The Cabinet Room, used for War Cabinet meetings, remains uncannily intact, with Churchill’s chair, blotters and ‘utility’ pencils, as does Churchill’s bedroom and office, from where he made his stirring wartime radio broadcasts. The Transatlantic Telephone Room was where Churchill discussed crucial strategy with President Roosevelt. |
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MUSEUMS & GALLERIES OF LONDON
Details below are taken from our Blue Guide Museums and Galleries of London. This is a 2005 title, here generally updated for website address and opening times, with useful comments from some of the museums themselves. More recent information is given in Emily Barber's magisterial new Blue Guide London, "Exceptional update to a classic and useful guide to this amazing city" (Amazon reader review).
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