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In April 2003 newly restored historic areas of the Cabinet War Rooms were revealed to the public for the first time. Now known as 'The Churchill Suite', these nine historic rooms had lain neglected and unseen since the war.
Working from wartime photographs and using original furniture and fittings, the Cabinet War Rooms has faithfully restored these subterranean rooms. |
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Mrs Churchill's bedroom. | |
| Adapted in 1941, the rooms were originally known as the 'Courtyard Rooms' and were intended to provide a sheltered space where the people Churchill valued most could eat, sleep and work in safety, while the bombs rained down outside. |
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Kitchen, Cabinet War Rooms. | |
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This sequence of rooms provided private chambers for Winston Churchill's private office staff and his wife, Clementine, as well as a dining facility for himself and 'Clemmie' and a meeting room for his Chiefs of Staff.
All of these rooms were stripped out at the end of the war and were subsequently used as low-grade storage and even as a gymnasium, until their restoration in 2003. The work of restoration was greatly assisted by a series of detailed photographs taken of the rooms at the end of the war. Using these, every effort was made to make the rooms resemble their original wartime format. |
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Dining Room, Churchill Suite. | |
Although most of the furnishings had to be found from government office basements, second-hand shops and the attics and garages of private individuals, some of the original room contents were kept and have been restored to their original position.
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Brendan Bracken's Room. | |
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