Exploring the Cabinet War Rooms

Hey everyone!

As a part of my underground research this past week I took an afternoon and headed over to Westminster and walked over to the Cabinet War Rooms/Churchill Museum and Imperial War Museum. I honestly did not know a lot about the Cabinet War Rooms before I decided to go there. I was really only aware that they were rooms used during World War II and that they were underground, so I made an effort to go learn more.

I must say, I found exploring these Cabinet War Rooms to be one of the most rewarding small cultural excursions I have done since being here. While I of course enjoy a good art museum, these rooms and the accompanying audioguide and information allowed me to brush up on my shaky history  as well as learn a lot of new information that I really would have not learned elsewhere without picking up a history book.

Location of the Cabinet War Rooms Underground

In short, these rooms were used by the Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the Second World War, fully equipped with a “dock” for the sleeping quarters of detectives, typists, and higher officers and nicer quarters for the Churchills, an entire map and reconaissance room, kitchens, bunkers, and even an entire room serving as a private telephone scrambler system on which Churchill and Roosevelt (and later Truman) could speak without a chance of interception.

Typists' Bedroom

Vintage Photograph of the "Docks"

These rooms are all underground and were reinforced by a three meter thick plank of concrete called the “slab” above for protection in the case of a bombing. Luckily, the area under which these room were situated was never directly hit by a bomb and therefore the slab was never truly needed.

Now these rooms are obviously not in use, but at the end of World War II the last people within these War Rooms finally turned out the light first the first time in six years and left never to return to the rooms. Now this underground building is shown as a historical museum.

Further Underground to the "Docks"Communications Center

Communcations Center

Corrugated Concrete Tunnel to the Map Room