Second World War London: 10 Must-Visit Places

Last Updated 28 October 2024

Second World War London: 10 Must-Visit Places
A German bomber over London
Some 20,000 bombs fell on London during the Blitz alone. Image: public domain

London was both an integral cog in the Allies' Second World War victory, and a prime target — battered by some 20,000 bombs during the Blitz alone. If you're looking to learn, remember — and experience — the Second World War in London, here are 10 places we'd suggest.

1. Churchill War Rooms, Whitehall

A white brick with with a framed image of Winston Churchill on it
It feels like Winston Churchill might shamble back in any moment, at the Churchill War Rooms. Image: David Bramhall via creative commons

On 16 August 1945, the day after Japan surrendered, Whitehall's subterranean war rooms — the kernel of operations for the British government during the Second World War — were vacated, the lights switched off. It wasn't until 1984 they were fully opened to the public, and 40 years on from that, this warren of map rooms, telephone exchanges, not to mention Winston Churchill's emergency bedroom (he barely used it) is anything but the 'top secret' location it once was. Indeed, it is one of central London's most remarkable attractions, pulling in well over half a million visitors a year. Frozen-in-time objects like Churchill's old broadcasting mic and a vast cigar ashtray suggest the former PM might shamble back in at any moment. Churchill War Rooms, Whitehall

See also: Hidden London tours of Down Street tube station.

2. Sites of the first bombs

A sign on a brick wall for a D2 shelter
You'll find this old ghost sign a few minutes' walk from London Bridge. Image: Londonist

Some million homes were destroyed in the capital, and 40,000 Londoners killed in the course of bombing raids on the city. Where did the first bomb of the lot fall? That's difficult to say exactly, although various memorials around the city — including in Barbican and Mile End — mark the locations where significantly early bombs fell.

See also: the occasional air raid shelter ghost sign hiding in plain sight, including in Deptford and on Porlock Street near London Bridge. 80 plus years ago, these would have pointed Londoners towards safety, and doubtless saved lives in the process.

3. Stairway to Heaven, Bethnal Green

The Stairway to Heaven memorial next to a tube roundel
This memorial in Bethnal Green remembers the worst civilian disaster of the Second World War. Image: Matt Brown/Londonist

A hollowed out set of upside-down steps hover above the entrance to Bethnal Green tube station. They mark a dark day in London's war, when an air raid siren sent hundreds of Londoners seeking shelter at the same time — some panicked by the unfamiliar sound of a new anti-aircraft battery firing nearby. A horrendous crush ensued in which 84 women, 62 children and 27 men died. The disaster — the worst civilian disaster of the Second World War — inspired Steve McQueen to make his 2024 film, Blitz. It wasn't the only tube-related tragedy of the war. On 14 October 1940, 68 were killed while sheltering at Balham Tube station. A well-known photo shows a number 88 bus toppled headfirst into the bomb crater. Stairway to Heaven, Bethnal Green

See also: Another memorial on the Tube can be found at Bounds Green where, on 13 October 1940, 16 Belgian refugees and three British citizens were killed by a bomb strike.

4. Battle of Britain Bunker, Uxbridge

An operations room with a mannequin in it
This bunker in a nondescript part of west London helped win the war for the Allies. Image: Jonathan Tweed via creative commons

76 steps below a leafily nondescript part of west London lies a bunker in which much of RAF Fighter Command’s side of the Battle of Britain was plotted and eventually won. Set up to recreate the three-and-a-half months in which the fate of the world hung in the balance in the skies above Britain, the Battle of Britain Bunker puts you in the shoes of the plotters and pilots scrabbling to defeat fascism. The adjoining interactive museum features two replica planes — a Hurricane and a Spitfire — hanging from the ceiling. Battle of Britain Bunker, Uxbridge

See also: The operations room wall features the names of various key airbases: some of these —including Hornchurch, North Weald and Kenley now have museums and/or WW2 events. Bentley Priory in Harrow was also instrumental during the Battle of Britain, and now houses a fascinating museum.

5. Second World War and Holocaust galleries, Imperial War Museum, Lambeth

A huge explosion
The USS Arizona is attacked at Pearl Harbor — you can see a piece of the wreckage at IMW. Image: public domain

While many of the things on this list focus on London's, and Britain's, experiences of war, the IMW's Second World War Galleries pan out to take in a wider perspective, with 1,500 items — from Nazi flags to the first piece of wreckage of the USS Arizona, sunk during the kamikaze raids on Pearl Harbor. IMW London's Holocaust Galleries, meanwhile, paint a vivid picture of the lives and deaths of the six million Jewish people murdered by the Nazis during the war. IMW London, Lambeth

6. Wiener Holocaust Library, Bloomsbury

A man in a library at his desk smoking a cigarette
Dr Alfred Wiener in his office at The Wiener Library in Manchester Square, London, c.1950, Wiener Holocaust Library Collections

Everyone should visit IMW's Holocaust Galleries (above), just as they should call in at the Wiener Holocaust Library in Russell Square. Here, in this relatively humble townhouse is an immense archive tracing the rise of the far right and its heinous crimes, from the time Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party assumed power in Germany in 1933. The library — named for its founder, Dr Alfred Wiener — was shipped to London and opened on 1 September 1939, the same day the Nazis invaded Poland. It's free to access, and hosts various temporary exhibitions. Wiener Holocaust Library, Bloomsbury

7. Battle of Britain Memorial, Westminster

A bronze relief showing St Paul's during the war
Paul Day's Battle of Britain sculpture on the Victoria Embankment is quite remarkable. Image: Londonist

There are, as you'd expect, scores of memorials across London marking moments in the Second World War, some of which we've already mentioned in this piece. But for drama, humanity, dynamism — and sheer artistic triumph — Paul Day's 2005 Battle of Britain sculpture is astonishing. The bronze reliefs of pilots readying their planes, anti-aircraft guns firing into the sky and bombers swooping over St Pauls feel like they could come to deafening life and spill out onto the Victoria Embankment. The fear and horrors of war are manifest in Day's vision, but so too are moments of levity; take the soldier puckering up for a kiss with a munitions worker. Battle of Britain Memorial, Victoria Embankment

See also: The nearby Women of World War II monument in Whitehall is an altogether more taciturn piece of work, but still incredibly effective.

8. The Forties Experience, Bushey

A mocked up bomb site with a bomb and 'danger unexploded bomb' sign
Learn what life what like on the home front, at the Forties Experience. Image: The Forties Experience

While the Churchill War Rooms and Battle of Britain Bunker give you a taste for those actively fighting, the Forties Experience, just outside Greater London, invites you to step into a more workaday life during the Second World War. Explore houses, classrooms, a Dig for Victory garden and a NAAFI canteen to get a domestic slant on the 1940s — kitchen and living room setups, vintage toys, gas masks, that sort of thing. That said, there is plenty of military apparel too (uniforms, weapons, jeeps), with some guides dressing the part. The museum venue also hosts tea dances, where you can get your swing on to Glenn Miller et al. The Forties Experience, Bushey

See also: A day trip to the Dad's Army Museum in Thetford.

9. The London Archives, Clerkenwell

Londoners sheltering from bombs inside a tube station
Assess the full extent of bomb damage to London during the war, at the London Archives. Image: public domain

A visit to the London Archives will help you grasp the sheer scale of bombing that inundated London during the war. It's home to the maps that were created (in the style of William Booth's earlier Poverty Maps) to mark damage across the then-County of London, colour-coding the severity of the damage. The maps are the most detailed and complete survey of destruction caused by the aerial bombardment. You can explore them online, or arrange to see them in the flesh at the archives. London Archives, Clerkenwell

10. Cahoots, Soho and Borough Market

A 1940s style tube train bar
Experience the 1940s as it never really was. Image: Cahoots

While it is patent that the Londoners of the 1940s were by and large NOT knocking back cocktails made with Marmite and scotch bonnet-infused vodka, Cahoots is a delightfully playful riff on the era — and an altogether different (if somewhat disingenuous) way to transport yourself back to that era. Two vertically-neighbouring Soho venues — one an ersatz tube station ticket hall, the one below it featuring replica tube carriages — create a boozy playground that is both tastefully and tastily done. As of winter 2024, a second branch — Cahoots Postal Office — has opened in Borough Market, offering you the chance to slurp cocktails sent to you via pneumatic tube. Bally good fun, what?

Cahoots, Soho and Borough Market