The Map Room

The Map Room, Cabinet War Rooms

The Map Room came into use on the very first day that the Cabinet War Rooms were ready for occupation and never ceased to be the hub of the whole site until VJ Day. 
Quietly closed down the next day, 16 August 1945, it was left almost exactly as we see it today, every book, map, chart, pin and notice occupying the same position now that they occupied then.

The walls are pasted with large scale maps of the Atlantic, the seas around the United Kingdom and Far Eastern theatres of war including maps showing the island-hopping operations by the American sea-borne forces in the Pacific.

The Cabinet Room

The Cabinet Room, Cabinet War Rooms

This was the inner sanctum of British Government, the room used for meetings of the Prime Minister, a select few ministers and advisers of his War Cabinet and his Chiefs of Staff. Churchill occupied the large wooden seat at the far side of the room and presided over a coalition of ministers drawn from all sides of Parliament.

The room was also used frequently by the Defence Committee, which initially served as Churchill's principal instrument for conducting the war, bringing together specific ministers and Chiefs of Staff of the armed forces. Cabinet meetings could start and finish at any time of the day or night. Churchill, who was famed for retiring late, occasionally called meetings here during the evening bombing raids of 1940 and 1941 and sometimes brought them to a close long after midnight.

Churchill's Room

Bed in Churchill's room, Cabinet War Rooms

Although his room in the Cabinet War Rooms boasted comforts of a higher standard than anywhere else in the complex, he preferred not to sleep there. However, he was occasionally obliged to spend the night when his military advisers and his personal detectives managed to persuade him that it was too dangerous to return to his official residence at No. 10 Downing Street.

The Prime Minister appreciated the value of the War Rooms. He insisted on having as close access as possible to the Map Room and his office was sited right next door to it, with a communicating door. On four occasions during the dark days of the second half of 1940, after the majority of central Europe had fallen to Hitler's armies, it was from this office that Churchill broadcast to the nations of the world. It was here he met the Heads of State, the politicians and military figures who visited the Map Room.

The daily routine

Churchill's desk in his office-bedroom, with the BBC microphones for his world broadcasts.

Churchill would regularly wake at about 8.30am, have a cigar in bed and then hold court sitting propped up in bed. He would read all the major daily newspapers, study the papers in his Prime Ministerial box, give dictation to his secretaries and hold discussions with senior military advisors such as Sir Hastings Ismay and General Alan Brooke.

Meal times were seldom changed and both lunch and dinner would routinely be accompanied by champagne. A mid-afternoon nap, followed by a bath were part of his daily regime, and undoubtedly gave Churchill his legendary ability to work until 3 or 4am, totally oblivious to the hunger or fatigue of those around him. He would often hold meetings at midnight and was in the habit of venturing up on to the roof of what is now the Treasury building to watch the enemy bombers attacking London.

The Transatlantic Telephone Room

TheTransatlantic Telephone Room, Cabinet War Rooms

The Transatlantic Telephone Room, to which the computer sized scrambler 'Sigsaly' was connected, created the original hot-line allowing Churchill and the American president to conduct their vital strategic discussions in complete security. Like all the rooms in the complex, this originally had a more humble purpose - it was once a store for brooms and domestic equipment. It was adapted in mid-1943 to house a particularly secret installation.

'Sigsaly' was the code name assigned to the equipment which was developed by the American Bell Telephone Laboratories. 'Sigsaly' was a new version of the relatively easily tapped telephone scrambler.

'X-Ray', codename for the London terminal, was so large it had to be installed in an annexe basement of Selfridges department store in Oxford Street.

Partially enciphered telephone conversations were transmitted by cable from the 'hot-line' to the Selfridges site where it was finally enciphered and sent by radio waves to the President in Washington.