The Churchill Museum is the first museum dedicated to the life and achievements of Sir Winston Church
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Listen to Fun Kids' Bex visit Churchill War Rooms in a new episode of Activity Quest, exploring the historic underground bunker that allowed Britain’s leaders to plot the allied route to victory during the Second World War.
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Discover the story of Peggy Cochrane, who worked at the War Rooms during the Second World War, in this clip from The One Show, first aired on BBC One, 16 May 2023.
A series of letters, written from Peggy to her then boyfriend Ron, were donated to IWM in 2022. They provide a compelling insight into Peggy’s life as a modern woman in wartime Britain.
Watch now: https://bbc.in/3NeEO8x
How one woman's letters during Britain’s War efforts provided key insight into history.
A series of maps in Churchill's bedroom show Britain's main coastal and air defence installations, as well as possible landing sites for a German invasion - the Prime Minister's chief concern in the dark days of 1940.
Curtains were provided so that the maps could be discreetly covered while Churchill was entertaining visitors in his room.
Winston Churchill, in his famous 'siren suit', stands with his hand on a British officer's shoulder while smoking a cigar at the British Embassy in Cairo in August 1942.
© IWM ME(RAF) 7830
The white metal ventilation duct which snakes around the ceiling of the Cabinet Room was installed in the autumn of 1939. It was the last improvement required to make the room fit for purpose.
Small electric fans like this one were also mounted on the walls to improve the atmosphere, but they could do little more than keep circulating the clouds of cigarette and cigar smoke billowing up from the table.
This evening, hear the story of Peggy Cochrane (pictured left), who worked at the Cabinet War Rooms, on The One Show, 7pm on BBC One.
In May 1945, Germany surrendered and crowds of people took to the streets of London to mark VE Day.
Peggy wrote to her boyfriend Ron: 'It was all one seething mass of people, very colourful, with the women all wearing their brightest frocks...lots of red and bright blue.’
Despite enjoying the celebrations, Peggy admits that her mind was elsewhere: 'I couldn't help wondering... how you and all the other men who made it possible were spending the day.'
She also remarks how thankful she was to be in the capital: 'I felt that of all places to be on that day, London was the only one... I wouldn't have been anywhere else for anything in the world!'
Learn more about Peggy and the women of the War Rooms here: https://bit.ly/42bblkp
Winston Churchill, wearing his famous 'John Bull' hat, studies reports of the day's action with Vice Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Flag Officer Commanding Dover, 28 August 1940.
© IWM H 3508
On 24 May, join best-selling author Damien Lewis for a talk about his latest book, 'SAS Great Escapes 2', and experience Churchill War Rooms in an exclusive after-hours setting.
Inspired by the incredible true story of how his 2021 book, 'SAS Great Escapes', saved one man's life, Damien was moved to write a sequel.
In that spirit, 'SAS Great Escapes 2' reveals how SAS men overcame insurmountable odds to pull off epic escapes during the Second World War.
Tickets on sale now: https://bit.ly/3HnGd98
Room 61 Right was the emergency office and bedroom of General Hastings Ismay. On the other side of a partition, Room 61 Left was set aside for his two Private Secretaries.
Both partitions in Room 61 were fitted out in basic fashion but, as a senior officer, Ismay enjoyed the relative luxury afforded by the addition of some carpet.
IWM would like to extend congratulations and best wishes to Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla on the occasion of the Coronation.
Here a young Prince Charles looks through a periscope onboard the submarine HMS Churchill, February 1972.
Please note that Churchill War Rooms will be closed today, Saturday 6 May due to the Coronation.
©IWM A 35382
Winston Churchill, wearing a steel helmet and mackintosh, waits for a flying bomb to arrive whilst inspecting anti-flying bomb defences in southern England, 30 June 1944.
Join our expert guides for a fascinating early-bird tour exploring highlights from the War Rooms.
Starting before we open to the public, this tour covers what it was like to live and work beneath the streets of London during the Second World War, navigates you through the secret corridors, and explores more about the character and actions of Churchill himself.
Book now: https://bit.ly/40HVtVb
Churchill salutes allied troops in the amphitheatre at Carthage, near Tunis, during a visit to North Africa in June 1943.
© IWM NA 3252
During the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940, Map Room staff would chalk up on this blackboard the number of enemy aircraft destroyed each day.
Later, one of the staff painted in these figures from 15 September to create a permanent record of the day the battle decisively turned in Britain's favour.
This photograph shows Churchill at the controls of a Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat in 1942.
If 1940 was about Britain's fight for survival and 1941 about its need for allies, 1942 could be said to be about Churchill's survival as prime minister, and his desperate need for any kind of military success.
© IWM H 16645
When more copies of a document were needed, a stencil was prepared for use in a Gestetner copier like this one. The stencil was put in place, the ink readied and paper was wound through the machine using a hand-operated crank. It was a laborious but essential process.
During the latter part of the Second World War, Room 62B was assigned to the 'Camp Commandant', the man responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the War Rooms.
This key rack, containing keys to every room in the Cabinet War Rooms' complex, dates back to that part of the room's occupation. Prior to this, the room had acted as emergency accommodation to Commander-in-Chief of the Home Forces, General Sir Alan Brooke.
Winston Churchill addresses American Naval and Army Cadets at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 6 September 1943 - the same day as he was presented with an honourary degree by the university.
© IWM H 32728
Churchill, dressed in his characteristic siren suit, strides purposefully across the lawn at the White House, Washington DC, 3 January 1942.
© IWM A 6920
Churchill's Personal Secretary used this headset to listen in and make notes on conversations between the Prime Minister and US President Roosevelt made from the Transatlantic Telephone Room.
The presence of two people in the narrow confines of the room must have added to its claustrophobic atmosphere.
Despite being a top secret underground nerve centre, the Cabinet War Rooms had a visitors book. Compiled between October 1939 and April 1945, it contains the signatures of many VIPs.
Signatories include King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, Dwight Eisenhower, Clement Attlee, Field Marshal Smuts, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding and of course, Churchill himself.
Churchill, using a Thompson 'Tommy' submachine gun, and General Dwight D Eisenhower take aim as American soldiers look on, March 1944.
© IWM H 36960
Churchill insisted that all documents were punched and tagged rather than stapled or paper clipped. In front of Churchill's chair in the Cabinet Room sits his preferred type of hole punch, which he referred to as his 'klop'.
One member of staff remembers stapling a document and sending it to the Prime Minster, who promptly cut his finger on it.
Fortunately, the War Rooms staff never had to act on the advice given on this sign. The closest the site came to a direct hit was in September 1940 when a bomb left a crater near the Clive Steps, where the entrance to Churchill War Rooms now stands.
Throughout the darkest days of the Blitz, shifts of switchboard operators would work, two at a time, in Room 60 Right (pictured) at all hours of the day and night. It was their job to connect the War Rooms to the outside world.
'(Churchill's) command of English is magnificent; but strangely enough, although he makes me laugh, he leaves me unmoved. There is always the quite inescapable suspicion that he loves war, war which broke (former Prime Minister) Neville Chamberlain's heart.'
- Diary entry by Conservative MP Sir Henry Channon, 20 June 1940
© IWM NYP 045063
In spring 1940, a General HQ for Britain's Home Forces was set up in Hammersmith, a couple of miles away from the War Rooms. Its staff would be responsible for coordinating the defence of the country in the unlikely event - or so it seemed at the time - of a German invasion.
After the fall of France, the threat of invasion became all too real, and arrangements were made to establish an Advanced HQ for the Home Forces in the War Rooms. Hasty preparations were made to free up Rooms 62, 62A and 62B for this purpose.
This propaganda poster, published in 1941, uses Churchill's powerful oratory in urging those working in war industries to increase their output.
© Art.IWM PST 14228
The Cabinet Room has been preserved to look the way it would have done moments before a meeting of the War Cabinet held there at 5pm on 15 October 1940.
Bombs had caused severe damage to 10 Downing Street the previous evening and this had finally persuaded Churchill to meet in the War Rooms on a regular basis.
Secrecy was extremely important for those working in the Cabinet War Rooms, as the warning message on this telephone shows.
This hand-drawn caricature of Adolf Hi**er can be found on a large map in the Chiefs of Staff Conference Room, along a line due west from the far north-west tip of Scotland.
Gaining access to the War Rooms meant going through a strict set of security checks. Staff were issued with passes like this one, which they were expected to show without fail to the guards as they passed.
© IWM Documents.2995
On 24 January 1965, Winston Churchill died at his home in Kensington, London. Six days later, a state funeral was held at St Paul's Cathedral.
This photograph shows Churchill's coffin, borne on a gun carriage, being pulled along Whitehall by a detachment from the Royal Navy, escorted by members of the RAF.
The Union Flag that was draped over Churchill's coffin during the funeral is on display in the Churchill Museum at Churchill War Rooms.
© IWM RAF-T 5119
Brendan Bracken was one of Churchill's closest confidants. He acted as his Parliamentary Private Secretary until 1941, when he was appointed Minister of Information.
Like Churchill's intelligence adviser Desmond Morton, and scientific adviser Frederick Lindemann, Bracken was unmarried and had plenty of time to devote to the Prime Minister.
In Bracken's case, this does not seem to have endeared him to Mrs Churchill, who is said to have mistrusted his influence on her husband.
This set of pyjamas is on display in Bracken's room in the Churchill Suite.
Feeling the January chill? A photograph of the Chiefs of Staff Conference Room taken in 1945 features a small one bar heater like this one. In such a large room, its task must have been rather a forlorn one.
On 15 January 1944, Churchill made a surprise return to Parliament after a bout of illness. Conservative MP Sir Henry Channon recorded in his diary:
'The House cheered and rose, a courteous, spontaneous welcome... but curiously cold. Churchill is not loved in the House.'
Here, Churchill is shown on the way to the House of Commons later that year to make a statement on the progress of the war.
© IWM HU 65536
Trying hard to stick to those New Year's health regimes? Even Winston was known to don his swimming trunks once in a while!
This amateur film, probably shot by his friend Professor Frederick Lindemann, shows Churchill going down a water slide head first at the Château de l'Horizon at Golfe Juan in the South of France during his pre-war 'wilderness years' in the 1930s.
© IWM MGH 4936
The decision to install broadcasting equipment was taken very early on in the planning of the War Rooms.
The machinery in Room 60 made it possible for Churchill to make four speeches from his bedroom study during the course of the war.
The first was on 11 September 1940, exhorting the British people to prepare for a German invasion. The second was a broadcast to the French Empire on 21 October 1940, and the third to the people of Italy two months later.
The last came on 8 December 1941 in response to the Japanese attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor.
On 1 January 1945, in a New Year message to resistance groups in Denmark, Churchill declared, 'The N**i beast is cornered and... its destruction is inevitable.'
As it turned out, Churchill was right. On 8 May later that year, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, marking the end of war in Europe, otherwise known as VE Day.
After 6 years of war, people were understandably eager to finally let loose and enjoy themselves. Colourful bunting and flags lined the streets of villages, towns and cities across Britain.
This photograph shows a truckload of revellers passing through the Strand in Central London, 8 May 1945.
© IWM HU 41808
Clive Steps, King Charles Street
London
SW1A2
| Monday | 9:30am - 6pm |
| Tuesday | 9:30am - 6pm |
| Wednesday | 9:30am - 6pm |
| Thursday | 9:30am - 6pm |
| Friday | 9:30am - 6pm |
| Saturday | 9:30am - 6pm |
| Sunday | 9:30am - 7pm |
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Travel back in time to the Second World War in the drama-filled immersive experience - Operation Black Door. Solve mysteries, sort fact from fiction and become part of stories inspired by real people and events that really happened. Can you unlock the secrets? 22, 23 and 24 September. Tickets are on sale now: https://bit.ly/3Nx1Api
There's only two weeks to go before the immersive theatre event experience Operation Black Door takes over Churchill War Rooms! It's the 1940s. Underneath the streets of Westminster, there's a team working tirelessly on top secret plans of national security. Eavesdrop on crucial decisions and undertake secret missions inspired by real events. Your presence may change the course of history. 7,8 and 9 July 2022. Tickets on sale now: https://bit.ly/3zWRGKf
On 7 September 1940, Germany launched the ‘Blitz’ – a sustained bombing campaign attacking British towns and cities, with London the chief target. It was in preparation for such an attack that the Cabinet War Rooms had been conceived and constructed. But how close did the Blitz bring Britain to surrender? Find out in this episode of IWM Stories: https://bit.ly/39qLvPO
How did the ordinary people of London celebrate VE Day? For six more weeks, journey through 'Wartime London: Art of the Blitz' at Churchill War Rooms, and discover Leila Faithfull's painting, 'VE Day Celebrations Outside Buckingham Palace'. Find out what details to look for in the painting with IWM's Head of Research, Suzanne Bardgett:
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