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Churchill's Bunker: The Cabinet War Rooms and the Culture of Secrecy in Wartime London

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Still, there was opulence here, after a fashion. “Bunkers and shelters were off-rations during the war,” says Holloway. A much higher class of food was to be enjoyed here than by civilians above ground. The REC was the same company behind Britain’s many grand railway hotels, and the staff here were able to dine on crystal dining ware and wash at Royal Doulton sinks. a b Hansard 6 December 1978; 'War Room, Storey’s Gate HC Deb 6 December 1978 vol 959 cc681-2W' Hansard 1803-2005. Accessed 18 March 2009. The Churchill War Rooms is a museum in London and one of the five branches of the Imperial War Museum. The museum comprises the Cabinet War Rooms, a historic underground complex that housed a British government command centre throughout the Second World War, and the Churchill Museum, a biographical museum exploring the life of British statesman Winston Churchill. While the better known Churchill War Rooms, a British government command center throughout the war, is open to the public as part of the Imperial War Museum, tours of Down Street are a much more infrequent delight. This discovery gives us an insight into one of the most secretive units … operating during WWII,” FLS archaeologist Matt Ritchie tells the Scotsman ’s Alison Campsie. “It’s quite rare to find these bunkers as their locations were always kept secret—most were buried or lost.”

This is Ray’s recollection of that afternoon – as related in the letter by his wife Dorothy: “Churchill greeted Ray cordially, calling him by his first name… They talked about the similarity in their last names… about the United States… and particularly about old British coins and stamps. Ray mentioned he collected [them] and Churchill was very interested. Churchill offered Ray a cigar to smoke. Ray said he’d smoke it later, so Churchill gave him another one to smoke later. Ray was offered a drink of brandy, but refused because he was on duty. Churchill then continued to drink his brandy that was on a table beside his chair.But while anyone can tour the War Rooms for themselves today, what they can’t do is go behind the glass to see the artifacts in the detail that Asbury shares in his book. Ironically, while low-level staff worked there permanently, Churchill preferred meeting above ground. Even during the 1940–41 Blitz, leaders met in the bunker at night, when air raids were likely, but elsewhere during the day. Use by senior staff declined sharply in 1942 and 1943, peaking again in early 1944 during the “little Blitz” and later that year when V-1s and V-2s posed a risk. However, after seven years of disuse, explains Holloway, “All of the things that made it not viable as a station made it absolutely perfect for secret bunkers during the Second World War.” On 15 August 1945, Japan surrendered, bringing an end to the war. The following day, the lights in the Map Room were simply turned off and the staff vacated their offices. Several were cleared and used for other purposes, but the Cabinet Room, Map Room, Transatlantic Telephone Room and Churchill's bedroom were preserved for their historic value. [31] Within a month, crews had cleared, reinforced, soundproofed and installed communications in several of what became the Cabinet War Rooms. By the war’s outbreak, dozens of rooms were functional, fitted with air conditioning, independent water and lighting, medical facilities and sleeping quarters. The Office of Works considered the arrangements temporary, and the budget for expansion was tight. Inhabitants paid the price. The rooms were chilly, damp and poorly ventilated. In an era when almost everyone smoked, tobacco fumes mingled with cooking odors and smells from the primitive toilets.

Their maintenance became the responsibility of the Ministry of Works. [32] In March 1948 the question of public access to the War Rooms was raised in Parliament and the Minister responsible, Charles Key MP, considered that 'it would not be practicable to throw open for inspection by the general public accommodation which forms part of an office where confidential work is carried on'. [32] Even so, a tour was organised for journalists on 17 March, with members of the press being welcomed by Lord Ismay and shown around the Rooms by their custodian, Mr. George Rance. [33] Most of these bunkers’ specific locations are lost to history, as the men who built them signed the Official Secrets Act, which prohibited them from talking about their assignments for decades. New Churchill War Rooms entrance will reference military hardware, Jacob Epstein and Henry Moore". culture24.org.uk. 25 May 2012 . Retrieved 19 June 2012. We would never talk about what we were trained to do,” Trevor Miners, who was 16 years old when he volunteered with the Auxiliary Units in Oxfordshire, told BBC News in 2013. “One of my unit was even sent a white feather by someone who thought he was a coward for not going out to fight, but we knew different.” Hansard, 23 March 1989; 'Cabinet War Rooms: HC Deb 23 March 1989 vol 149 c780W' Hansard 1803-2005. Accessed 18 March 2009Staff lived and worked down here, working shifts of up to 12 hours, often overnight, perhaps only surfacing for air in the upper world every ten to 14 days. Grimy baths and toilets are what remains of the washroom facilities, while soot obscures the patterned wallpaper in the executive sleeping quarters. a b Hansard, 8 March 1948; 'War Cabinet Rooms HC Deb 8 March 1948 vol 448 c115W' Hansard 1803-2005. Accessed 20 January 2010. Paging through Secrets of Churchill’s War Rooms, what is striking about the underground bunker is the level of improvisation that went into its creation and evolution. The decision of which maps would go into the Map Room, for example, was just made by some government worker who was told that there was going to be a war room and that it would need maps. When he asked his commanding officer what maps he should acquire, “The guy just said, 'well, your guess is as good as mine,'” says Asbury.

Ralph Wedgwood, chairman of the Down Street facility and brother of the British member of parliament Josiah Wedgwood, convinced Churchill to come to Down Street “because it’s so close to the seat of power,” says Holloway. It’s very comfortable, It’s very private, it’s very well provisioned with brandy and cigars and things like that.” With Secrets of Churchill’s War Rooms, you can go behind the glass partitions that separate the War Rooms from the visiting public, closer than ever before to where Churchill not only ran the war—but won it. This magnificent volume offers up-close photography of details in every room and provides access to sights unavailable on a simple tour of Churchill War Rooms. Buy Researchers from Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) unearthed one of these long-overlooked bunkers while conducting tree felling operations last month, according to a press release. Winston Churchill broadcast these words from a secret underground command center in central London on September 11, 1940, just after Germany began bombing the city. Now known as Churchill’s War Rooms, the complex was situated beneath Whitehall and, for the next five years, would serve as the center of wartime operations. Construction of the Cabinet War Rooms, located beneath the Treasury building in the Whitehall area of Westminster, began in 1938. They became fully operational on 27 August 1939, a week before Britain declared war on Germany. The War Rooms remained in operation throughout the Second World War, before being abandoned in August 1945 after the surrender of Japan.Churchill's office-bedroom, open from 27 July 1940, [24] included BBC broadcasting equipment; Churchill made four wartime broadcasts from the Cabinet War Rooms, the first being on 11 September 1940. [25] Although the office room was also fitted out as a bedroom, Churchill rarely slept underground, [26] preferring to sleep at 10 Downing Street or the No.10 Annexe, a flat in the New Public Offices directly above the Cabinet War Rooms. [27] His daughter Mary Soames often slept in the bedroom allocated to Mrs Churchill. [28] Now, the opportunity has come round again to slip behind the door of the abandoned Down Street Tube station and descend by torchlight into the World War II hideaway from which campaigns such as the D-Day landings and the Dunkirk evacuation were coordinated.

Accommodation in the bunker was reserved for high-ranking officials and their secretaries, whilst the bunker staff and military personnel would be billeted in local schools or nearby flats. In June 2012 the museum's entrance was redesigned by Clash Architects with consulting engineers Price & Myers. [38] Intended to act as a 'beacon' for the museum, [39] the new external design included a faceted bronze entranceway, and the interior showed the cleaned and restored Portland stone walls of the Treasury building and Clive Steps. The design was described as 'appropriately martial and bulldog-like' and as 'a fusion of architecture and sculpture'. [40] [41] Churchill Museum [ edit ] The Rooms were opened to the public by Mrs Thatcher on 4 April 1984 in a ceremony attended by Churchill family members and former Cabinet War Rooms staff. At first the Rooms were administered by the museum on behalf of Department for the Environment; in 1989 responsibility was transferred to the Imperial War Museum. [35] [36] I don’t think you can say he was personally responsible for [the War Rooms] being created. Other people were thinking along the same lines, but he lead the pressure … to make sure it happened,” says Asbury.Rose, Steve (1 June 2012). "Constructive criticism: the week in architecture". The Guardian . Retrieved 19 June 2012. Down Street opened in 1907 and served the Piccadilly line but by 1932 it had already closed. In the heart of affluent Mayfair, a short walking distance from what are now Hyde Park Corner and Green Park tube stations, it was an underused station. In addition, it was particularly deep underground and there were long passageways taking it under the busy Piccadilly thoroughfare. According to Asbury, almost immediately after the war, a small stream of visitors were brought into the rooms for unofficial tours, even as government officials continued to toil away on secret Cold War projects in several of the rooms (with sensitive documents sometimes left out in the open). By the late 1940s, more official tours began to take place, and an effort to preserve the rooms (many of which had been significantly altered when they were put to new use after the war) began. Interest in the War Rooms steadily built until the Imperial War Museum was asked to take it over and open it up fully to the public in 1984. In the early 2000s, an expansion to the War Rooms opened up more of the original complex for view, in addition to adding a museum dedicated to Churchill. Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill sheltered here – in secret – in November and December 1940, when the German bombing campaign known as The Blitz was at its height, and a team of 40 staff worked here day and night on the war effort. The bunker consists of some forty rooms on two floors, with the most notable being the cabinet room with seating for up to 30 people, and a large map room. Image Credit : Markus Milligan

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