Winston Churchill museum, London
England's exhibition about Britain's wartime leader
The Churchill Museum in the Cabinet War Rooms, London, England is a fine exploration of the man who led Britain during the World War II.
The Churchill Museum, which is part of the Cabinet War Rooms in London is an impressive exploration of the man often regarded as the greatest ever Briton. In creating it there must have been the temptation to make it into a shrine, as monuments to war heroes often are. Any museum in France that has a section of Charles De Gaulle, for example, would have you believe that he won the war single-handedly and did a lot of good work for charity.
Churchill is painted warts and all. He was a near slave-driver who expected people to put in the same ridiculous hours that he did, yet still commanded respect; he had some very old-fashioned – some would say racist - beliefs about the Empire; he had overseen high profile military failures before the Second World War. A lot of this is not exactly flattering.
It is modern though. Being a relatively recent addition, a dusty old collection of books, photographs and artefacts would just not have been good enough. The relics are still there, but there is also an all-singing, all-dancing, all-flashing timeline of Churchill’s life stretching across the gallery, all manner of buttons to press and plenty of mystery drawers to open and close.
Most impressive, though, are motion-detecting speeches. Stand in a certain spot, and that famous voice launches into one of his famous rallying calls. He may have stolen a lot of his renowned quotes from others (something which is also detailed here), but there is no doubting their effects. The wartime Prime Minister was a master speaker, his measured, paced tones copied by many since. The flawed, slurred quality of his speech somehow adds extra power to it, in the same way that the imperfections in Bob Dylan’s singing voice make his message carry extra weight and resonance. During the notorious “fight them on the beaches” call to arms, Churchill sounds like he’s two bottles of champagne to the good – something that wouldn’t be altogether surprising given his ‘entertainment’ expenses – but the hairs on your back shoot up and shiver.
His eccentricities are also explored, and there are plenty of them to go round. He’s pictured in his ridiculous oversized romper suits that he wore for ease of getting them on. Elsewhere, you hear about how he worked in bed, dictating notes whilst dressed as a Mandarin, and learn that he used cuddly toys to separate books on his shelves.
One thing is for certain though, despite his distasteful and slightly disturbed sides, Churchill became a national treasure. The footage from his state funeral is almost as moving as his speeches. 300,000 people filed past the coffin, whilst the whole country came to a standstill. At the end of the clip, Big Ben tolls through the silence of hundreds of thousands standing wordlessly in respect. It takes someone very special indeed to command that.
The Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum are run by the Imperial War Museum, and can be found on King Charles Street, London, next to the Foreign Office. They’re opposite St James’ Park, and the nearest tube stations are Westminster and St James’ Park.
Opening hours are 9:30am - 6.00pm every day (except December 24th, 25th and 26th) and admission costs £11 for adults or £8.50 for senior citizens and students. Children under the age of 16 get in free. The entrance fee includes an entertaining and informative audio guide.
For more details, go to www.cwr.iwm.org.uk or call 020 7930 6961.
