Ten Hidden Details At The Churchill War Rooms

One of London’s most fascinating museums for those interested in history but particularly World War Two, is the Churchill War Rooms. 

I was lucky enough recently to be invited to go on one of their ‘Behind The Glass’ tours and saw lots of amazing little details.

A quick history of the Churchill War Rooms

In the late 1930s, the threat of war loomed and devastating air raids were predicted. It was decided that a safer, underground headquarters was required for the Prime Minister and his team to direct the war from. 

A series of basements underneath what was then the New Public Offices building, now largely occupied by the Treasury, were selected. 

The rooms were converted and they officially opened in August 1939. In 1940 a concrete slab, up to three metres thick in places, was added between the rooms and ground level.

At its height around 500 people would have been working down there, it would have been a hive of activity. After the war however the lights were turned off, the rooms locked up and largely forgotten about. They were reopened for public visits in 1984, many of the spaces almost exactly how they had been left forty years earlier.

In 2010 the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum were rebranded simply as the Churchill War Rooms. 

Below are ten of my favourite little details I saw on my tour around.

1. Churchill’s Scratch Marks

This is the Cabinet Room. Churchill walked into this room in May 1940 and said ‘This is the room from which I will direct the war’. 

115 cabinet meetings were held here over the course of the war. It is where Churchill would meet with his advisors and heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force and there could be up to 20 people at one time in the room.

Meetings could get understandably pretty tense and, incredibly, still today you can see the marks on the arms of the chair left by Churchill himself.

On the left are the marks left by his nails and wedding ring and the right by his signet ring. 

2. Selling Churchill’s Cigars

It must have been rather stifling in the room, not least because pretty much everyone would have been smoking. 

Churchill would have no doubt been smoking one of his iconic Cuban cigars.

Behind his chair is his cigar bucket that he would toss them into after finishing them.

It is said that the marines in charge of emptying it would sell the stubs on the side. 

3. An Oversized Great Britain

The map behind Churchill’s chair is also worth a closer look.

You will notice that Great Britain is presented as a lot larger on the map than it is in reality.

Was this for practical reasons or possibly a representation of how Britain saw itself in the world? 

4. The ‘Beauty Chorus’ and Pinholes

Now into the Map Room.

This was the nerve centre, where all information and updates on the war would come in. Churchill therefore spent the whole of D-Day in this room. I have written previously about other places in London related to D-Day here.

The line of phones on the desk were known as the ‘beauty chorus’ because they would light up and flash when ringing. They made no sound as Churchill did not like any excess noise. So much so that the typewriters they used across the offices were also noiseless. 

At the far end is a huge map, used mostly to record the movements of convoys across the oceans. Each pinhole on the map today represents one of these movements. 

There were so many pinholes around the Strait of Gibraltar that a little triangle had to be replaced.

5. The Enigma Code Cracked

Next to the map is this graph showing the British and Allied losses during the Battle for the Atlantic over time.

The convoy ships bringing crucial supplies to Britain were harried and hounded by the German U-Boats. 

1942 saw an upgrade of the German enigma machines, so they could communicate with each other without the British being able to decipher the messages. Shipping losses were correspondingly very high. 

The two big drops indicate when the code-breakers at Bletchley Park managed to crack the Enigma code and help British convoys avoid being sunk. 

6. Forgotten Sugar Cubes

On one desk are these three sugar cubes.

They were specifically the sugar cubes once owned by John Heagarty.

He is represented by this wax work today but this a photo of him sitting in the same spot.

Wing Commander Hegarty was a veteran of the First World War and worked in the map room for five years receiving and coordinating information on the movements of air divisions. 

His sugar was found wrapped up in paper in a drawer where he must have accidentally left them when the war finished. This represents a week’s ration of sugar. You can still see today where he has shaved bits off one of the cubes presumably to go in a cup of tea. 

It is lovely reminder of the human beings that were working down there, tirelessly, in aid of the war effort. 

7. Results From Battle Of Britain Day

Behind John Heagarty’s chair you will see this board. 

It displays the information written up on the 15th September 1940, during the Battle of Britain. In fact, this day became known as the ‘Battle of Britain Day’ because the Luftwaffe launched a huge assault against Britain, aiming to drop bombs over London during the day. The RAF however fought back heroically and managed to take down many German planes.

It was just two weeks after this on the 30th September that the Germans changed tactics, abandoned the day-time bombing of London and switched exclusively to nighttime. 

The numbers on here are actually those reported by BBC radio rather than the actual figures, so they are higher here than they were in reality. It is interesting that this board specifically was kept and displayed in the room. It was perhaps kept as a motivational tool, i.e. if we could win on the night of the 15th September, we can survive anything.

8. A Map Theft

This is the book used to sign out specific maps from the map room. 

You can see the initials ‘PM’ entered many times for the Prime Minister Winston Churchill. 

I also loved that a map had clearly gone missing and you can see where someone has written ‘’GONE FROM DRAWER’, ‘can anyone explain the theft?’. Again, a very human detail.

9. Churchill’s Bedroom

We also had a look inside what was once Churchill’s private bedroom. It is noticeably the only room that is fully carpeted.

We know he slept overnight here from 16th-18th September 1940 but otherwise there are no other records of overnight stays. He preferred to sleep in Downing Street or in the apartments set up in the building directly above the Cabinet War Rooms.

He did however often use the bed for his afternoon naps and frequently lay in the bed to dictate to his secretary. 

Churchill also made four live broadcasts from the desk in the room and his wife Clementine, or ‘Clemmie’, also made 17 live radio broadcasts from here. 

On the desk are buttons that could be used by Churchill to call either his secretary, bodyguard or butler.

His chamber pot also still sits underneath the bed.

There is also a genuine Churchillian cigar by the bed. It is so fragile today it cannot be touched or moved by anyone.

10. Churchill’s Secret Telephone Room

Finally, a detail that it is worth looking out for on a visit to the Churchill War Rooms is the fake toilet. 

On the outside is an engaged sign and staff were told this was Churchill’s private toilet.

It was in fact a small room where Churchill had a secret Transatlantic telephone line to speak directly to the US President. 

The line used a special top-secret telephone scrambler system called SIGSALY. 

Churchill had multiple conversations with Franklin D Roosevelt from this room after the US joined the war, he also used it in April 1945 to call Harry Truman to offer his condolences when Roosevelt died. 

A couple of months later he used it to discuss with Truman plans for Europe after the end of war. 

Visiting The Churchill War Rooms

The Churchill War Rooms are open 9.30am-6pm everyday. You can buy tickets here.

I went on one of their ‘Behind The Glass’ tours, to see lots of the above little details. They are operated on a private basis and you can see more details here.

For further reading, I have also previously written blog posts on the Old War Office and the Foreign Office building.

Thank you for reading! More of London’s amazing history below…