Churchill War Rooms

The Churchill War Rooms sit ten feet beneath the Treasury building in Whitehall, a location chosen because it was near the heart of government. When these rooms became operational on August twenty-seventh, nineteen thirty-nine, they were simply a basement complex, not the reinforced bunker many imagine. Engineers knew from the start that the ceiling slab could not withstand a direct hit from a heavy bomb, yet the command center remained here for the duration of the war. To offer some protection during the Blitz, builders added a massive steel-reinforced concrete layer over the rooms in late nineteen forty. Despite the constant danger, the site survived the war without ever taking a direct hit.