History of the Cabinet War Rooms

• The new public offices

  The new public offices

  In 1938 the Cabinet approved a plan for a basement in the 'New Public Offices' in Whitehall to be used as a Central War Rooms. The Central War Room opened on 27 August 1939, one week before war began.

• Churchill's Defence Committee

  Churchill's Defence Committee

  The Central War Rooms provided the secret underground headquarters for the core of the British government throughout the Second World War. The War Cabinet and Chiefs of Staff would meet regularly here over the course of the next five years.

• Prime Minister Churchill

  Prime Minister Churchill

  Winston Churchill came to the Cabinet War Room soon after he became Prime Minister on 10 May 1940. On visiting the Cabinet War Room he declared, ‘This is the room from which I’ll direct the war’.

• Map Room Officers at work in the Cabinet War Rooms

  Map Room Officers at work in the Cabinet War Rooms

  The Map Room was the informational hub of the site. Everything was left exactly where it was when the lights were finally switched off on 16 August 1945 - including sugar cubes found in an envelope left by Wing Commander John Heagarty (pictured here).

• Sleeping quarters and emergency kitchen at the Cabinet War Rooms

  Sleeping quarters and emergency kitchen at the Cabinet War Rooms

  On 16 August 1945, following the surrender of the Japanese Forces, the doors to the Cabinet War Rooms were locked. Knowledge of the site and access to it remained highly restricted until the late 1970s when IWM began the task of preserving the site.

• Churchill War Rooms today

  Churchill War Rooms today

  In 1984 the main war rooms opened to the public. In 2003 further work opened the Courtyard Rooms, the areas where staff would eat, sleep and work. In 2005 we added the Churchill Museum, the only major museum in the world dedicated to Sir Winston Churchill