Discovering London's WWII Legacy: Essential Sites and Tours

In episode 135 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast, join host Tracy and Doug as they delve into the fascinating world of World War II sites in London and its surroundings. With numerous inquiries from travellers, they share their insights into the most notable locations to include in your itinerary if you're a history enthusiast.

The episode starts with a discussion on London's three major World War II sites: the Imperial War Museum, the Churchill War Rooms, and HMS Belfast. With his keen interest in World War II, Doug provides detailed insights into each site, highlighting their historical significance and visitor experiences. The Imperial War Museum, located in Lambeth, offers a comprehensive look at themed exhibitions. At the same time, the Churchill War Rooms provide a glimpse into the wartime operations and the life of Winston Churchill. HMS Belfast, a Town Class light cruiser, offers an engaging experience with its rich naval history.

Tracy and Doug also share their private tour experience with LivTours, where they gained in-depth knowledge from an expert guide. The episode further explores sites outside of London, including Chartwell, Winston Churchill's former home, and Bletchley Park, home of the codebreakers, both accessible from London and offer unique insights into the war efforts.

Doug highlights additional World War II sites across the UK for those willing to venture further, such as the Battle of Britain Bunker in Uxbridge, the Imperial War Museum Duxford in Cambridgeshire, and the Western Approaches Museum in Liverpool. Each site offers a distinct perspective on the war, making them worthwhile visits for history buffs.

Whether you're a history aficionado or simply curious about the past, this episode offers a wealth of information and tips for exploring the UK's World War II heritage.

📝  Show Notes - Episode  135

🎧 Listen to next

• Episode #126 - London Pass Itinerary Challenge
• Episode #47 - Practical tips for visiting the UK: top 10 FAQs
• Episode #86 - London like a local with Discover Real London Black Cab Tours

Chapters

• 0:00 Exploring WWII Sites in London
• 12:35 Exploring WWII Sites Outside London

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Are you a history enthusiast planning a trip to the UK? This week we're diving into the fascinating world of World War II sites in London and beyond, From iconic landmarks like the Churchill War Rooms, Bletchley Park and Chartwell to other must-visit locations such as the Imperial War Museum and HMS Belfast. We share our insights into planning the perfect itinerary for history buffs. Join us on episode 135 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast, as we explore the stories, significance and visitor experiences at these remarkable sites.

Speaker 2: 0:30

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, tracey Collins. In this podcast, tracey shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

Speaker 1: 1:11

Hi and welcome to episode 135 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:16

So this week Doug and I Hello are here to chat about the best World War II sites in London and surrounds.

Speaker 1: 1:24

We are often asked about this during our consults. We actually have an article on the London Travel Planning website so you can check out that, which covers 21 plus different destinations to go and visit if you have an interest in World War II. We can't cover all of those in this episode of the podcast because the episode would probably be about 20 hours long. So we're going to kind of mention the most popular ones in central London and we're also going to mention some of the more popular ones slightly further out of London, and then Doug's going to mention a few other ones which are in other parts of the country which may pique your interest and you may want to include in an itinerary if you're visiting the UK. But that's the way that we thought we would do it, and Doug is more of an expert on World War II and has more of an interest in World War II than I do, so he will do a lot more of the talking this episode, won't you?

Speaker 3: 2:22

I will. Yes, it's a big subject. I more of the talk in this episode, won't you? I will. Yes, it's a big subject. I mean there's so many people want to visit it for various different interests, but there's a bit of something for everybody. It's not stuffy boring. Old history is that they've actually made them very interesting sites yeah, that's absolutely true.

Speaker 1: 2:37

I'll totally agree with you on that. So there are three major sites in london which you may wish to incorporate into your London UK itinerary if you're visiting. I'll quickly just talk about each through each of those three, or just tell you which three they are. One is the Imperial War Museum, second is the Churchill War Rooms and the third is the HMS Belfast. Now, those are the three most popular and the three that are often included in itineraries. Particular, actually, the church of war rooms comes up very, very, very often.

Speaker 1: 3:09

That's very popular yeah so let's start off, I think, with the imperial war museum doug. So chat to us a little bit about that.

Speaker 3: 3:17

Okay, so it's located in lambeth in london and it's part of the Imperial War Museum group, which covers five locations the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth or in London, hms Belfast and Churchill War Rooms are the three sites. There's two others which we'll mention later, but it's free to visit and there's just such a lot. They do have themed topics, so things on display that do move around At the moment there's World War I trenches there and the Blitz of London in 3940. So that's worth visiting as well. It's not scary If you've got to take small children. There's lots to see, lots to learn. So you read into how much detail for your own personal interest, because you don't have a huge interest in it, do you really? But you enjoyed the day that we had there last time.

Speaker 1: 4:10

Yeah, I did. And again, it's a free museum. The Imperial War Museum is free. It's open from 10 to 6 pm every day. You get there via the Lambeth North Tube Station or you can get a bus down to that area. Yeah, it's an interesting museum to visit. I'm not going to argue. Absolutely it was good. We did a really good tour which we'll talk about a little bit later with an expert which really really helped, and I used to be a history teacher so I know quite a lot about World War I and World War II but I actually learned a lot. But yes, it's really good and I think that's a good start and off point actually to visit the Imperial War Museum.

Speaker 3: 4:49

That's right. People know a lot about it, until you get there and you realise actually there's a lot that I don't know. So it's not just literally about war machines, war equipment. There's a lot about people, the people of London and how they dealt with the uh, with the blitz. So it's a very. It's on different levels. There's lots of different levels to the museum. I think you see, you can be quite superficial, you can go in quite deep yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 5:17

And um second, uh major kind of place to visit. If you have an interest in world war ii history in london it's got to be the churchill war rooms.

Speaker 3: 5:25

That's right yes, all the cabinet war rooms that was. It is incredibly interesting. I I do like the the war rooms, because it's not just about, uh, winston churchill's war years, it's a lot. It's about his childhood as well and his jobs before knows a reporter and it's about churchill as a person and his relationship with America. It's very important. Again, you can read into a lot of detail or you can be quite superficial, depending on your interest. We'll mention about the certain times. It can be very busy and it can get quite hot down there as well, which you found. I've spent quite a few hours visiting the war rooms. There's an audio tour as well, which you found. I've spent quite a few hours visiting the the war rooms. There's there's an audio um tour as well and, if you can get, if it gets busy, you can be waiting a little while so you can actually view the rooms in less part of the audio tour itself they do get very busy and they do get, as you say, very hot and quite packed.

Speaker 1: 6:24

I I've been twice now. The first time I wasn't so keen because it was in summer and it was hot and it was packed and it was busy and I think I went through the war rooms in about 20 minutes was probably the quickest that anybody's ever done them.

Speaker 1: 6:36

But on a recent trip it was much quieter yeah, because it was an afternoon, later afternoon in, uh, end of september, so no school, no school groups and kind of more lower season, more shoulder season in London, so not as busy. So give us a chance. So I could really kind of explore it without feeling that there was lots of people down there and you know it was much better I felt and I enjoyed it and was I found it really fascinating actually just to see the living conditions when they had to live down there and you don't see all of it because I think some of them are kind of even further underground where a lot of the secretaries and people lived.

Speaker 3: 7:15

That's right. Yeah, you can just see the trapdoor entry down to the sleeping quarters.

Speaker 1: 7:21

But it's really interesting as well because you see that the map, what they were using sleeping quarters. But it's really interesting as well because you see that the map that we're using and you know, in some ways it's hard. We live in a world where information is at our fingertips. We've got smartphones, we've got wi-fi, we've got the internet. You know we can talk to people on the other side of the world in a blink of an eye. And it's hard to imagine during World War II, when they were trying to plan everything, that they had to wait for coded messages to come in which we'll kind of talk about in a bit when we talk about one of our other destinations. But just actually the organization of being able to plot everything out, figure out where everybody was, what they were doing, and plan was just so much harder in a world where communication was just so much more challenging.

Speaker 3: 8:03

It's on many, many different funds at exactly the same time, so the amount of information flow was just absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1: 8:12

So it's very interesting. It's very interesting to see how the kind of war rooms were set up during World War Two. It's also very interesting to find out more about Churchill. So if you are particularly keen to learn more about his career, his childhood, how it developed, how he became prime minister and kind of you know, during the war, the war years, what he did, his role and then after the war as well, then the war rooms are definitely the place to visit for sure.

Speaker 3: 8:43

Yeah, it really is.

Speaker 1: 8:45

And I will just mention at this point. So we were invited very kindly by Live Tours to do a private tour with them at the end of September, which involved the Imperial War Museums and then going over to the Cabinet War Rooms or Churchill War Rooms, and it was absolutely fantastic. As I say, I used to be a history teacher, secondary school history teacher but I knew absolutely nothing. My knowledge was minuscule compared to Andy, who was the guide, who took us around, who specialises in World War history history he's got a phd in it.

Speaker 3: 9:20

He was fascinating to talk to he really was on so many different levels.

Speaker 1: 9:26

I mean, I thought I knew a little bit, but I know virtually nothing um, I think the first fascinating thing about andy was as well that he could answer the questions that we asked and at our kind of level of interest, and if you wanted to go deeper he could. If you wanted kind of like a bit more of a simple explanation of what was happening, he could give you that.

Speaker 3: 9:47

That's right, and I asked him to sort of reinforce or correct me when I sort of shared the bits of information that I know I was right on some occasions but you're right, he went a lot more, a lot deeper than the information I have in my head, particularly things like strategy and tactics.

Speaker 1: 10:07

He's an unbelievable authority I was very, very impressed with him and I just loved the way that he was able to. You know he asked us what we wanted to know and kind of what specific focus we had and what interest we had. What particularly did we want to know more about. So you know he was able to kind of give us that information both at the Imperial War Museum and when we went to the Churchill War Museum as well, like an amount of information he knew about Churchill I know we had. There was somebody else that was visiting and was asking him questions as well. It was fascinating.

Speaker 3: 10:42

I was going to say that when we were at the Imperial War Museum he was answering questions to us and I did notice quite a few other people standing around sort of listening to what he was having to say as well. Obviously Andy was aware of of that and obviously very happy to sort of share his knowledge.

Speaker 1: 10:59

yeah, he was brilliant. So I mean, if, if a private tour is what you're after with an expert, that I I highly highly recommend booking with live tours. And there is a link in the show notes for this episode, um on the. So please use our link if you're going to book with Live Tours. But we highly recommend, you know, if you want a private tour, if you have an interest in World War II, then this is a tour that you really need to go on to really get in-depth and detailed information about it and take it to another level.

Speaker 1: 11:33

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. So the third site that I'm going to talk about is HMS Belfast, which I haven't been to, but you have.

Speaker 3: 11:40

I've been a couple of times. Yeah, HMS Belfast is a town class-like cruiser and it's actually birthed opposite the Tower of London permanently and every time I've been around that I've been learning something different each time. I always tell a happy story there about some American sailors with unbelievable knowledge and they had captive audience when I was visiting with a friend of mine and they knew everything about the ship. They really did their knowledge. Even the young sailors there, uh, were listening. I think they were building their knowledge.

Speaker 1: 12:19

Listening to the american sailors oh wow, and you've been a couple of times and you've enjoyed that, haven't you?

Speaker 3: 12:26

I have, and particularly during school holidays, to pull other events on as well. Uh, it's all. It's all very engaging for people of all ages yeah, excellent.

Speaker 1: 12:35

So so those are the three major sites in london. There are far, far more. There are monuments you can visit. There are, um, you know, ghost signs you can see. There are tube stations which are now closed, such as aldwych, which you can, which were used in the blitz that's where you know went down there for safety. So you can actually do a tour of Aldrich tube station. Again, I'll put a link on. We've got a 10% discount for that tour as well. I'll put a link on if you want to do a tour down to some of the disused tube stations.

Speaker 1: 13:09

There's evidence even at the V&A Museum. You can see on the wall where there's been shrapnel damage onto the building itself. So you can see on the wall where there's been shrapnel damage onto the building itself. So there's lots and lots of different places. St Dunstan's in the east another one I'll throw out there. So do check out our article for more information and more details and pictures of alternative places or additional places you can add into your itinerary. We're going to mention two places just outside of London now. Now the first one I'm going to mention um, neither doug and I have been, even though we really, really do want to go to, and that is chartwell, which is where um the farm former home of winston churchill. So that is, yeah, somewhere we'd both like to go to.

Speaker 3: 13:50

Yeah yeah, that's it, and it's uh. By train you can go from london bridge train station down to eden bridge and it's about half an hour, I think. Yeah, so that's something that we'll hopefully we'll get. It's by train. You can go from London Bridge train station to Eden Bridge, and it's about half an hour, I think.

Speaker 1: 13:59

Yeah, so that's something that hopefully we'll get to soon and we can add a bit more information in about that at a future time. But we did want to just mention that because I know Chartwell is a very, very popular destination. But the other one that I do want to spend a bit more time talking about because we've both been to and also comes up quite often during itinerary consults is bletchley park yeah, that's right, the home of the co-breakers.

Speaker 3: 14:24

We thoroughly enjoyed it. We planned on being there a few hours, but we're there a bit longer than that even, weren't? We spent best part of a day there. Really, you were pleasantly surprised. I know that you were sort of going along to sort of keep me company originally, but you did enjoy it, didn't you?

Speaker 1: 14:40

oh, I did. I thought it was absolutely fascinating to find out about, you know, how they had, you know, basically broken those codes in the war and figured out and just how clever it was and how the people had been recruited to work for them.

Speaker 3: 14:54

And, yeah, it was amazing mathematicians know the men and ladies there. They were incredibly clever people from all walks of life and they was all kept secret, obviously for 50 years. But it's just the story. I mean, it's been made into films and there's a lot about Alan Turing, but the way it brings it home the actual value work that was done at Bletchley Park is not to be underestimated. But there's more to it than just that. There as well, there's the human element of the people that was there as well. It's not just the war service, it's actually about the people themselves.

Speaker 1: 15:33

And it's quite easy to get to Bletchley Park as well from London central London.

Speaker 3: 15:39

Yeah, just over half an hour from London Euston. Just remember, it's not covered by an Oyster card.

Speaker 1: 15:45

You would need a train ticket yeah, and I would recommend that you give yourself about four hours really to get there, and it's a very short walk from the train station to actually bletchley park itself that's right, and if you go there and you're there for longer than you think, there is a very good little tea room there as well and shop yes, there is.

Speaker 1: 16:04

Yes, we did so, we spent, we spent most best part of a day there, actually, and it was yeah, so we do highly recommend it. So if you know that, if you've got an interest in world war ii history, you know there's there are lots of places to visit and things to do in and around central london and a little bit out as well. But I know, dougie, there's some other places that you want to mention yeah, that's right.

Speaker 3: 16:26

The um talks bridge, the battle of britain uh bunker. I've not actually been to this one as well. It's a little bit outside the Piccadilly line, I think, definitely worth going to. It's not part of the Imperial War Museum group but it obviously plays a valuable part in the Second World War, so that's one definitely worth going. Then, a little bit further out in Cambridgeshire, again part of the Imperial War Museum is the Aviation Museum at Duxford which you can get to. There's three stations you could choose to go to there's Whittlesford Parkway, royston or Cambridge. You can get a taxi from Royston and Cambridge but from Whittlesford you have to take a bus. But it doesn't run on a Sunday, so the details are on the website article.

Speaker 3: 17:16

So a little bit further out than that again is some other sites around the UK I have been to see. There's the Imperial War Museum North. That's in Manchester, most definitely worth a visit. It's not as big as the one at lambeth but it's incredibly interesting. And then one of my personal favorites outside london is the western approaches museum in liverpool which details all the information as regards the atlantic convoys uh, incredibly interested. I went with trace's brother, uh, who is a real authority on anything military. That's incredibly useful to know. The Imperial War Museum Duxon have already mentioned and the Leeds Armory Museum, which details just what it says, basically Military uniforms, weaponry. That's just outside Leeds train station in Yorkshire Well worth a visit. And then all the way down to the south coast is the Bovington Tank Museum Most definitely worth a visit. If you're into your tanks and armoured cars, it is incredibly good. If you get the right day, you can see the tanks in operation as well. So there's a few there. I've been to all those ones.

Speaker 1: 18:30

I can definitely say they're worth a visit honestly we could, we could do an entire podcast, an entire article about actually other world war ii sites and places to visit across the uk because there are so many oh I've just scratched the surface, just literally scratched. There's a few, there's so many more absolutely, and those ones I mean a bovington tank Museum comes up quite often as well in consults. We've talked about that with quite a few people, yeah, so I think the Bovington is not so easy to get to by trains.

Speaker 3: 19:01

It's at Wall on the south coast, but all the others are more straightforward to get to by train.

Speaker 1: 19:08

Okay, well, I think that's given a fairly good introduction and coverage of some of the major sites in London and just outside. As I say, we do have an article on the London travel planning website which you can check out. We will link to the article in the show notes at uktravelplanetcom, forward slash, episode 135. We would also please encourage you to check out the show notes, but also to look at our articles on both websites, uktravelplanningcom and londontravelplanningcom. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to get our articles out there and seen because of changes in different search engines and with the event of AI these days, so we really would appreciate your support If you would please check out our websites, whether that's the show notes, or actually take a look at the articles, where you will find more information.

Speaker 1: 20:05

Also, I'd like to say as well, if you're enjoying our podcast, why not become a supporter of the show and sponsor us? You can do this from as little as three US dollars a month. That's not very much. If you think about it, it's far less than a cup of coffee. And if you are getting value and you're enjoying the podcast episodes, we would ask that you could please show your support to us in that way. It really helps us to continue week on week, put out this content for you to help you plan the best trip that you possibly can have to the UK. But I think that was a great summary. Great episode, doug.

Speaker 3: 20:42

I know you got me talking more on this one.

Speaker 1: 20:45

That's good. I think people like to hear your voice. But anyway, until next week's episode, though, from myself and Doug, all we have to say is happy UK travel planning. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the UK travel planning podcast. As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanningcom. If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favourite podcast app? We love to hear from you, and you never know. You may receive a shout out in a future episode. But, as always, that just leaves me to say until next week, happy UK travel planning.