To wrap up our short trip to the UK in October, Nik and I spent one night in London before flying back to Nice. We’ve been to London once before, and really enjoyed it, covering a lot of ground. This time, we wanted to see another theater show and visit the Churchill War Rooms museum. My cousin Sarah and her husband Steve, who we saw in Manchester, were also making a stop in London, so we saw them again too.
Manchester to London by Train
Nik reserved us tickets ahead of time for a train from Manchester to London. It took just over two hours and was pretty easy and smooth.
The most challenging part was figuring out the London Underground to get us to our hotel. We’ve navigated public transit systems in French, Spanish, German and several other languages. The Underground signs and maps were all in English, obviously, and yet we still couldn’t figure it out. I think we went the wrong way, then had to backtrack. Anyway, we finally made it to our hotel, the Inhabit Southwick. Unfortunately our room wasn’t ready, so we did a freshening up in the lobby bathroom and then made our way to Chipotle for lunch.
Chipotle in European cities has become a thing for us. This was our second London Chipotle experience, in addition to eating at locations in Paris and Lyon, France.
Related: Our roadtrip stop in Lyon!
Wrapping up the hotel experience… it was a tight space around the bed and the bathroom was long and narrow as you can see in the short video.
Related: Highlighting Our London Pub Experience
Churchill War Rooms
On our last visit to London, Nik and I went to the British Museum, as we like to joke, to see a lot of stolen stuff. For this trip, Nik wanted to check out the Churchill War Rooms, an underground headquarters that Winston Churchill and the British government used during World War II.
We bought entry tickets ahead of time, which is highly recommended because it was such a busy scene when we arrived.
From the moment you enter, you start walking through the labyrinth of corridors and historic rooms that Churchill and many other men and women lived and worked in until the end of the war. After the war, the lights of the space were turned off and this area was largely left alone until the 1980s. Most of what you see is how things were left in the 1940s.
Right away you see the main cabinet war room. Churchill walked into this room and said ‘This is the room from which I will direct the war’.
As you continue through the halls, you pass different communication rooms, personal spaces and the map room. Churchill’s office and bedroom is to the left of this private secretary office (pictured below) and could only be accessed via the Principal Private Secretary.
Behind a door labeled as a toilet was Churchill’s Secret Telephone Room where he had a direct telephone line to the United States President.
The map room is where some of the most strategic decisions of the war were planned. The staff plotted changes in Allied operations all over the world on these maps.
Visitors can also peek into Churchill’s private bedroom. He only slept there once or twice, preferring to stay overnight at Downing Street, but he reportedly used the room for afternoon naps and sometimes dictated to his secretary while lying in bed.
In addition to the historic rooms, the overall space also houses the Churchill Museum. The museum explores all aspects of Churchill’s life including his role as a wartime leader through personal items and artifacts of the time. Some of the items that stood out most to be are his iconic hat and the original door to 10 Downing Street.
Overall, our visit to the Churchill War Rooms was ok. The tight hallways and crowds didn’t make it easy to spend much time reading and looking around. Even with timed ticket entry, the space felt overly busy and a little too packed for my comfort level. Seeing the old rooms was cool, but the museum almost had too much material for us to stay interested. Next time we visit London, I think we’d like to check out the National Portrait Gallery instead.
Just down the way from the Churchill War Rooms stands the Guards Memorial at the edge of St. James’s Park. Like many war memorials built after World War I, it later received an inscription commemorating those who died in World War II.
Related: Couple Days in Manchester
The Weir at the Harold Pinter Theatre
Before the trip, Nik found a website listing shows that would be performing on the West End stage. We decided on seeing The Weir and luckily we found tickets for a date that worked for us, and my cousin Sarah and her husband Steve bought tickets as well.
Brendan Gleeson, the Oscar-, BAFTA-, and Golden Globe–nominated and Emmy-winning actor, made his West End stage debut in a leading role in The Weir. Conor McPherson wrote the play in 1997. It originally premiered in London before opening on Broadway and several other locations around the world. For this run in London at the Harold Pinter Theatre, McPherson returned to direct it himself.
The play is set in a pub with four local men telling stories and having bar banter with Valerie, a woman new to the area. It was a really great show with incredible acting and storytelling.
After getting post-show drinks, Nik and I called it a night and headed back to our hotel. The next morning we took an express train from Paddington Station to Heathrow Airport for our flight back to Nice.
