Following the release of “Churchill” in June 2017 (with Brian Cox in the lead role), “Darkest Hour” is set to hit US screens on November 22, this time with an unrecognizable Gary Oldman stepping into Churchill’s bowler hat.
Surprisingly, the rooms aren’t too deep below ground. It was thought that the steel structure of the building above would provide additional protection, but in actuality a direct bomb strike would have been disastrous.
Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour.”
Jack English
Inside the bunker
Below the surface, you’ll find a warren of rooms, from the Transatlantic Telephone Room to the Map Room, which remains exactly as it looked the moment the lights were switched off in 1945, the day after Japan surrendered. There’s also a bedroom for Churchill, though he rarely slept there.
It’s the smaller details that are perhaps the most fascinating. Check out the arms of Churchill’s chair in the Cabinet Room, marked with gouges from his nervous scratching. The rooms hold little secrets, too, like the rationed sugar cubes stashed away in a drawer by Wing Commander John Heagerty.
One of the jazziest elements is a long interactive table within the Churchill Museum (itself part of the Churchill War Rooms). Dubbed ‘Churchill’s Lifeline’, the 50-foot-long table chronicles major world events that took place throughout his life, bringing thousands of pictures and documents to life whenever you select a date.
The Map Room in the Churchill War Rooms bunker.
Oli Scarff/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images
What to know
The Imperial War Museum is also free to enter, which is a contrast to the Churchill War Rooms, where on-the-day tickets will rise to £21 ($28) in 2018. There’s a 10% discount on tickets bought online from January and these tickets also grant fast-track access, which might come in handy in the notoriously busy summer months. Get there early, if possible — it’s open from 9.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day (with a new “after-hours” experience set to launch in 2018).
The nearest tube station is Westminster, a 10-minute walk away, which is served by the Jubilee, District and Circle Lines (incidentally, it’s also one of the sleekest stations in the city, filled with huge intertwining steel tubes).
From the Churchill War Rooms, it’s a 20-minute taxi journey or 35 minutes by tube and bus to this subterranean bar in upscale Chelsea styled to resemble Britain’s wartime code-breaking headquarters.
Has wartime-inspired London venue The Bletchley cracked the code for the next generation of cocktail bars?
Nicola Brady is a travel writer based in Dublin. She has written for the Irish Independent, the Guardian, Condé Nast Traveler, Tatler and more.
