Churchill War Rooms and Westminster WWII Tour

The area of Westminster in London suffered particularly during the bombings of WWII, and with good reason. Westminster was home to the undercover and often underground base of an exciting world of governments in exile, overseas forces and espionage. 

One such base was the wartime bunker that sheltered Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his government during the WWII blitz of London. No other itinerary offers a visit inside the Churchill War Museum combined with an audio guide visit of the war rooms and the expertise of a local guide on a walking tour of the area.[readmore]Your guided walking tour begins in the streets of Westminster. We’ll take in classic London sites such as 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. 

The last stop on our walk is the Cenotaph, which was originally built as a memorial for the First World War and is now the UK’s primary national war memorial. We’ll come across the statue of Sir Winston Churchill and the monument to the women of WWII. Hear about the governments and royal monarchs who were forced into exile in London as Germany overtook the nations of Europe. 

Your guide will share enlightening insights as to how the people of London coped during the years of war. Learn about life in London during the Blitz, the evacuation of the children to the countryside, food rationing and living with bombing raids which devastated large parts of the city. Hear about how the government moved underground to be able to continue working, and how Winston Churchill would sometimes stand on the rooftops in Whitehall at night watching the bombs rain down on London.

Next, it’s time to head underground, down the steps to the wartime bunker of the Churchill War Rooms, where you’ll enjoy an audio-guided visit of the Churchill Museum. The bunker is a unique piece of living history, an underground maze of rooms that once buzzed with round-the-clock planning and plotting, strategies and secrets. 

At the Churchill Museum, you will discover fascinating details and stories about the incredible life and legacy of Sir Winston Churchill and you will be able to hear real audio of his inspiring wartime speeches. Using the Museum’s rich interactive exhibits, this museum elaborates on Churchill’s private and public life, from his love of his wife and of painting to his special relationship with U.S. President Roosevelt, with whom he shared decisions that would alter the course of history and therefore the world. 

Your experience concludes with the a visit to the rest of the war rooms, preserved exactly as they were left the day the lights were switched off in 1945! Here, the thick walls teem with history. This was the nerve center of Prime Minister Churchill’s war efforts, where he and the British cabinet planned and prepared the defeat of Hitler.