Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms

The Cabinet War Rooms, now known as the Churchill Museum, were constructed in 1938 and were heavily used by Winston Churchill during World War II. Engineered as a bunker, the facility was equipped with a steel-reinforced "roof". However, the Cabinet War Rooms were vulnerable to a direct hit and were abandoned not long after the war. They were opened to the public in 1984 and are now maintained by the Imperial War Museum.

The section of the War Rooms open to the public is only a portion of a much larger facility. They originally covered three acres (12,000 m²) and housed a staff of up to 528 people, with facilities including a canteen, hospital, shooting range and dormitories. The centrepiece of the War Rooms is the Cabinet Room itself, where Churchill's War Cabinet met. The Map Room is located nearby, from where the course of the war was directed. It is still in much the same condition as when it was abandoned, with the original maps still on the walls and telephones lining the desks. Churchill slept in a small nearby bedroom although, according to the audio presentation in the museum, he only slept in the war rooms for three nights over the course of the war. One feature of the bunker was a telephone scrambler system that allowed Churchill to securely speak with President Roosevelt in the White House. The unit was concealed as the Prime Minister's lavatory.

The Cabinet War Rooms have recently undergone a major expansion and been rebranded as the "Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms". In 2003, nine rooms used by Churchill and his closest associates, including his wife, which had been stripped out after the war and used for storage, were added to the museum. These rooms are known as "The Churchill Suite". The Churchill Museum itself opened in February 2005. It is a chronological exhibition telling the story of Churchill's public and private life, using original and facsimile objects and documents and interactive display techniques.

Entry to both the Churchill Museum and the Cabinet War Rooms is by one combined ticket. [ [http://churchillmuseum.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00i006 Churchill Museum Fact Sheet] accessed 01/01/08]

On Sunday 31st August 2008, Living's popular paranormal show Most Haunted Live conducted an investigation into paranormal occurences in the cabinet war rooms. Yvette Fielding, Karl Beattie, Stuart Torvell, Ciaran O'Keffe and other members of the team conducted a live investigation as part of their Most Haunted Live: Total Darkness show. The staff in the cabinet war rooms gave the team unprecedented access to rooms which are not opened to the general public. They were also given the chance to use the red phone, the actual phone used by Winston Churchill and his staff during the war. The investigation in the cabinet war rooms was a climax to three full nights the investigation team spent underground in total darkness. The team said it was a real honour to be allowed to investigate such a historic place. The live programme was backed up in the studio by host Paul Ross, historian Lesley Smith and interactive presenter Julian Clegg.

References

External links

* [http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/ Official website of The Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms]