Tag: London History

The Churchill War Rooms has a lot to recommend it. You’ll love it if you lack the bottle to visit the Imperial War Museum.  There is no blood, guts or shocking sights for the squeamish.

How the Churchill War Rooms Came Into Being

The Churchill War Rooms were created after, Winston Churchill, our most esteemed second world war prime minister, had a close brush with death when the rear of Downing Street was bombed in an air raid. This rendered his kitchen to rubble and nearly killed his cook who a few minutes earlier was lovingly tending to a pudding.

Feelers were put out for a suitable bomb proof location for the cabinet to plan the war effort and the chosen bunker was the basement of the nearby Treasury Building.

Following VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) on 8 May 1945, the lights of the Churchill War Rooms were turned out and everything in this secret underground headquarters was left in situ; picked in aspic as it were:

• maps
• documents
• equipment
• furniture
• kitchen appliances and condiments
• chamber pots
• even somebody’s war rationed sugar cubes

In the 1980’s another famous prime minister, the Iron Lady (“this lady is not for turning”), Margaret Thatcher championed the initiative to get the war rooms opened to the public.

And this is the treat that is in store for you…

Lap in the air, as you take a breezy walk through St James’s Park replete with its cheeky sandwich hunting squirrels, gliding ducks and towering trees.  It’s a rude awakening to arrive at the steps on King Charles Street and go down the hatch to the cellar where you will spend the next few hours.

With its narrow corridors and low lighting you think that this is going to be an expensive, murky, boring, damp squib of a place. Then step by step you become thrilled by the immensity of it.

Inside this warren of narrow passages and rooms lies a whole underground community of what would have been 500 people who all needed to work, eat, sleep, pee and plot the war. I saw no bathrooms and as many of them smoked (and at least one smoked a cigar) you can only imagine how fetid and obnoxious the air would have been in this windowless space.

The cabinet meeting rooms, the map room and the radio telephony rooms will thrill war buffs especially when we contrast it to the sophisticated technology that is at play today in the Russian Ukrainian conflict. The success of the second world war was dependent on low tech, crackly radio systems, coded messages and a paper map room with pins denoting enemy positions.

Churchill as a Bon Viveur

Almost more enticing than the war planning effort is the museum’s homage to the life of Winston Churchill. We see a man with a high degree of confidence in his importance and abilities.

Churchill was a gourmand who liked the finer things in life.

“I am easily satisfied, I like the best”

Winston Churchill

The best comprised hats from the Royal Warrant holder’s Lock & Co, suits from Turnbull and Asser,  Cuban cigars from Romeo y Julieta and copious amounts of Pol Roger champagne.

War Time Rationing

These were the days of war time rationing which spared no one from the lowliest, hungry and ragged urban dweller to the monarch and the prime minister. Churchill ensured he was spared the worst privations by obtaining dairy produce, vegetables and meat from his country estates. This allowed him to not only maintain his portly physique but to entertain lavishly.

Churchill’s Private Kitchen

The private kitchen in the Churchill War Rooms is nothing more than a bleak cupboard. The kitchen utensils, relics of a bygone era and fit for nothing but a junk shop were state of the art back then – enamelled double boilers and dangerous gas grills.

The Cabinet’s Private Quarters

In an age, when we reject houses and hotels that lack ensuites and duck down duvets we see row upon row of bedrooms which housed everyone from his detectives in bunk beds to senior politicians – the size of the room denoting the status of the incumbent. All were kitted out with similar beds, dowdy wool blankets and chamber pots. His wife, Clementine Churchill’s room had the sole touch of femininity, a comfy chair with a floral linen loose cover.

Churchill’s Decoy Toilet

The volunteer guide was keen to show me “Churchill’s toilet”. A wooden door with its familiar Vacant/Engaged sign which was typical of any public toilet of the time…and when you turn the corner you see that it is a decoy front to a sound proofed room where Churchill could conduct conversations with America on the progress of the war.

The Churchill Exhibition Space

It is important to pace yourself as you move through the museum as just when your energies start to wane and you think that you have seen it all – you find yourself in a massive museum exhibition space choc-full of fascinating ephemera, war posters, photographs and exhibits that include Churchills favourite lounging outfit which was a red velvet jump suit and film footage of his funeral cortege at St Paul’s.

Churchill in the Popular Imagination

It is interesting to note that had Churchill died a few months prior to VE Day in 1945 he would have been regarded as a cantankerous man who had failed the country (we were at the time losing the war effort) and who made more enemies than friends.  And here he is now in the popular imagination as our greatest stateman and the object of emulation by countless prime ministers from Margaret Thatcher to Boris Johnson.

The Churchill War Rooms Museum Shop

In days gone by, London museum shops used to contain a lot of plastic tat made in Hong Kong alongside a pitiful selection of faded, dog-eared postcards.

So the Churchill War Rooms Museum Shop must be commended on a delightful selection of upmarket mementos that include aged scotch whiskey, wrist watches, leather aviator jackets and homburg hats, alongside the to-be-expected war posters, fridge magnets and book marks.

My Personal Favourites From the Churchill War Rooms Museum Shop

If I had to pick a couple of things to buy it would be the leather ladies’ gloves with their blue, red and white circular air-force insignia at £50 and Churchill’s Cookbook by his personal cook Georgina Landemare at £12.99.

I was shocked when thumbing through the cookbook to find a recipe for Potage Argenteuil. What could this delectable soup (named after a Paris suburb) be? I was horrified that a soup destined to feed six people was made from nothing more than the water used to cook asparagus, a handful of rice, a few sorrel leaves (an largely unknown lemony herb) and a solitary egg yolk. You can see how Churchill’s cook, Georgina Landemare, with her skills in stretching food, was pivotal in ensuring that the cabinet won the war.

Best Time to Visit the Churchill War Room

If you are an early bird, try and get there as soon as it opens at 9.30 am (check the current opening times here). It gets busy at lunch time and then the crowds tail off by 3pm. Bear in mind that the weekends and the summer season are always going to be busier than the winter season and weekdays.

How Long to Visit

Most people spend at least a couple of hours in the museum. There is a very good audio guide that comes with the ticket (with a special audio guide for children).  If you listen to the information on each of the numbered exhibits this could take 1.5-2 hours plus you will need time for a coffee break and examining the artefacts in the Churchill exhibition. A serious war and Churchill buff could be here for 4 hours and then want to return!

Churchill War Rooms Cafe

The café specialises in British food…think tarts, cakes and sandwiches. It’s more of a place for a pit stop than a gourmet meal. The coffee comes very highly recommended and this may be just what you need to keep going.

The café is located in a room that was used by the switchboard operators during the second world war and is open from 10am – 5pm.  As it is inside the museum it is only accessible to paying visitors.

As an alternative, I would head to the Regency Café in Pimlico which is short walk to the museum. Have the old fashioned English fry up (English Breakfast) to get in the mood. Nothing like eggs, bacon, baked beans and rubbery white bread slathered with butter and marmalade to fortify yourself for this uniquely British experience of the Churchill War Rooms.

And at the end of your trip walk through the park to St James’ and experience the splendour of The Wolseley with its enormous windows and view of Piccadilly. This maybe a nice counterbalance to the museum and they serve and excellent afternoon tea.

Ticket Prices

Most of our museums are free but the Churchill War Rooms costs a whopping (to us) £27 per person so it could work out at just shy of £100 for a family of 2 adults and 2 children, if you include the voluntary donation.

It is possible to buy tickets in advance. Try a search for a promo code (Google Churchill War Rooms promo code/code/2for1.

Alternatively, the museum is included with the London Pass.

You could also reduce the cost by buying an IWM membership. This would give you free entry to other charging IWM sites including IWM Duxford  and HMS Belfast.  IWM Membership allows visitors to return free of charge throughout the year so this is ideal if you live in the city or holiday here frequently.

Closest Tube Station to the Churchill War Rooms

The closest tube station to Churchill War Rooms is Westminster station (Circle, Jubilee, District Line).

To Find Out More about Churchill and the Churchill War Rooms

To find out more about Churchill and the Churchill War Rooms watch The Darkest Hour .

If you enjoyed this piece about the Churchill War Rooms, be sure to check out our blog post on the Charles Dickens Museum.

Look around you, London is ablaze with red icons and they are not just any shade of red. They are Pantone 485C…the colour of our London buses, Royal Mail, London Underground, the Union Jack, the Coldstream Guards and the Beefeaters at the Tower of London. What is the cause of this rash of redness?

Why Are Our Cultural Icons Red?

Perhaps the fault lies with our long line of monarchs? Our flag designers? Or our military garment manufacturers?

In fact, we probably need to thank the management of the London General Omnibus Company.

A Bus Company Randomly Chooses Red

In the 18th century, there were several different bus companies who ploughed up and down the streets of London with green, yellow, brown and maroon liveries. Then in 1907, the London and General Omnibus company merged with the Vanguard Motor Bus Company and became the leading bus operator in the capital.

The Vanguard Motor Bus Company took a momentous decision that would shape our lives and photography forever, they decided to paint all their buses a cardinal red.

And we don’t know why!

There were no meeting minutes. It could be because red is a symbolic colour for England but the most likely explanation is that it made the buses easy to spot. Imagine an elderly English gent with failing eye sight (and without recourse to the NHS which was a later 1940s initiative), he needed to be able to spot the bus amongst the dense London smog, get his pennies ready and prepare to board.

“Prior to 1907, it was common to see buses in green, brown, yellow and maroon.

Red Pillar Boxes Were a Red Icon Forerunner

The red of course wasn’t entirely plucked from nowhere, our streets were already littered with Royal Mail pillar boxes which had been in use since 1852.

Then Came Our Emblematic Red Icon – The K2 Red Phone Booth

And after the red buses came the red telephone boxes. In 1924 Sir Giles Gilbert Scott won a competition for the redesign of the red phone kiosk (known as K2). This was famously made of cast iron and smelled of urine – an indelible feature of my teen years spent ringing boyfriends out of earshot of nosy parents.

London Underground Creates Yet Another Red Icon

Things must have snowballed from there, as London Underground adopted red for its logo and red for the Central line on the tube map – symbolically, this line goes through the heart of London.

London Underground Adopted the same Colour Red as Buses and Pillar Boxes for its Logo

Then It Was the Turn of One of our Famous Chocolate Brands

And then Nestle used red on the packaging of Kit Kat one of our most famous bars of chocolate

Margaret Thatcher Launches “Buy British” with the Union Jack

In the 1980s, we had Margaret Thatcher as prime minister, who berated us to buy British to revive the failing economy. Companies up and down the country used the Union Jack on their labels to signify British made goods. The Union Jack thereby became a symbol for quality against an influx of supposedly cheaper fruits and vegetables from South Africa and inferior goods from Hong Kong.

Then we had Cool Britannia and punk rock…

Cool Brittania and the Skin Head Movement Used Red British Motifs

…and the England Football Team and some rather nasty right wingers (not to mention the Labour Party with their Red Rose insignia and Red Flag anthem) and before we knew it our streets, our homes, our shops were emblazoned with red, white and blue, billowing in every direction in a dystopian nightmare.

Fast Food Gets on the Red Icons Bandwagon

And just as we were coming up for air, it was the turn of fast food…Wimpy Bars, Coca Cola and then Macdonald’s cheekily turned to patriotism and used our primary red colour for their logos.

Macdonalds Used the same Pantone Red at the Base of its Yellow Arches Logo

The cultural elite thought they were safe from this onslaught until the artists of the modern age started to adopt our red cultural icons for their own purposes…Pop Art was on the bandwagon and our galleries were no longer safe from red.

And as with anything, London tourists got a taste for red; they wanted some of the action, our flags, our buses, our underground symbols, our beefeaters, our phone boxes. Things at this point started getting seriously out of hand as we began to disseminate cheap plastic souvenirs in Pantone Red 485C to all nations of the world.

Even Las Vegas, with enough kitsch of its own, was given the Gordon Ramsay restaurant with its iconic K2 phone booth doors.

Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chip Restaurant in Las Vegas has K2 Phone Booth Doors

And before we knew it the whole world was drowning, not waving or basking, in LONDON RED. And all (in my view) because an unknown person, in an undocumented meeting, decided to paint their London bus fleet red.

If you would like to spot some of our famous red icons, why not try some of these free and cheap sightseeing ideas.