The Cabinet War Rooms and The Churchill Museum

I would not usually venture into London during half term week, but Alison's sister Anne and her daughter Emily were staying with us and wanted to visit the capital for the day. They (and Alison) plumped for St Pauls Cathedral, but as the two of us went there two years ago, I went with them on the train and made a detour to Westminster to visit The Cabinet War Rooms which were on my list of places in London that I wanted to see.

Just down Horse Guards Road, the entrance is tucked away from the street. But once inside, there is lots to see, and down the first corridor is the War Cabinet Room. All the rooms, and there are lots of them, have been restored to exactly how they were during wartime, and mighty impressive they are. From telephone and broadcasting rooms, to private rooms for senior officials and officers, kitchens, conference rooms, Churchill's own bedroom and my particular favourite, the Map Room as the photo below. The audio tour was very good, narrated by Geoffrey Whitehead, instantly recognisable from his playing the father in law to Martin Clunes' Reggie Perrin.

The fairly new Churchill Museum is situated in one huge area half way round. The displays are very modern looking and include exhibits from Winston's childhood up to when he died. His time as Prime Minister during the war is obviously a large part of the museum. I loved the map which showed all his numerous journeys abroad during wartime.

The only disappointment was that the cafe was too small and the queue too long. But as I still has some time before meeting the others, I found a kiosk on my walk around St James' Park (that is over the road from the Cabinet War Rooms) and grabbed a welcome hot chocolate. I avoided anything to eat, as we were all going for afternoon tea, Anne had two for one vouchers.

I met everyone back at St Pauls and we made our way to the Bloomsbury Raddison Hotel just off Tottenham Court Road. We sat in the very nice lounge for sandwiches and cakes, which ended up being quite filling. It was soon time to make our way home and the quick train from Marylebone. The forecast had been for rain, but I was the only one to get wet, and that was from the car park to the station in the morning. A cloudy, chilly day, but a very enjoyable one.