Tom and I waited until our last day in London to go to the Churchill War Rooms. Lots of people told us we had to go there and we wanted to, but our last day was the only day we could get tickets.
We started the day with a visit to Foyles Bookstore, the largest bookstore in London. When Tom read that they had four miles of books, he wanted to check it out. I buy books, but I get them on Kindle so I don’t have to haul them or store them. Tom likes paper versions best and he was looking for something to read on the ship. He found two books to buy and a game for us to try.
After Foyles we stopped at Ole and Steen, the Danish Bakery. We weren’t really hungry – breakfast had been recent – but the Scandinavians definitely have better sweets than the British. We couldn’t pass it up. The cinnamon rolls looked delicious. Turns out they were. We both had a large serving and justified it by saying it would be late when we got done with Churchill. Plus, we had miles to walk.
We started down Charing Cross and headed toward Leister Square and Trafalgar Square. One of our frustrations on this trip has been things we wanted to see that were closed. Tom made a list and it is sizable. The Museum of London closed until 2026. John Wesley’s house closed on Monday. Trafalgar Square was another place that was closed. How do you close a square? Why do you close a square?
It looked like they were setting up from a big event and there were barriers all around the square. We could see the 169 foot-tall Nelson’s Column at the center of the square and were able to get close to two of the lions guarding the column. There are four statues in the four corners of the square and the National Gallery faces Trafalgar Square. It was impressive, even if it was closed.
We saw a lot of other statues as we wandered toward the Churchill War Rooms. One thing that isn’t a statue, but was pretending it was, was the mounted guard. Two guards were seated on their horses, totally ignoring all the tourists gathered around. Lots of us snapped pictures and some people even stood next to the horses. A couple of them were touching the horses. Rude. I took a picture and moved along.
We walked past 10 Downing Street, home to the Prime Minister, and then around the other side of St. James Park from the previous day. Finally, we came to the entrance for Churchill War Rooms. There was a line, but I heard several people commenting that the line was unusual. Lines have been par for the course for our visit to London. This one was relatively short. We joined in, even though we were a little early for our ticket time. Soon enough we were walking into the basement and getting our tickets scanned.
The Churchill War Rooms housed the underground nerve center where the British government directed the Second World War. Churchill, his war cabinet, and their staff lived and worked underground because of the Nazi bombings of London. Even Mrs. Churchill had a room. When the war was over, they left the Churchill War Rooms and locked the door.
Today the Churchill War Rooms is a popular attraction, run by the Imperial War Museums. Using the free audio guide we learned more about the different rooms as we walked along the maze of rooms. The largest area is now the Churchill Museum, telling about the life of Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill was the British Prime Minister during World War II.
I enjoyed touring the Churchill War Rooms but there were a lot of people and it was hard to get into some of the rooms. People held their audio guides to their ears and blocked the doorways until the recording was over, instead of looking at the rooms and moving to the side. The museum was interesting but it started with the war years, went on to the 1960’s, then back to Churchill’s early life and early career. A little confusing.
After working our way through the Churchill War Rooms, Tom and I emerged into the sunshine once again. We continued our walk by going along Victoria Street. I wanted a pizza, so Tom had looked up the highest-rated one along our way. We ate a late lunch at Pizza Pilgrims. Not part of the Plymouth Pilgrims. in 2012, Thom and James, founders of Pizza Pilgrims, took at 4,500 mile trip from the toe of Italy back to London to learn how to make the best pizzas. Today they have 23 restaurants, mostly in London. The dough is made fresh every day and all the ingredients are fresh as well.
Tom and I ordered a Margherita Extra (buffalo mozzarella instead of hard mozzarella) with pepperoni and mushrooms. It was served hot, fresh out of the wood-fired oven. The pizza was very good, with a thin crust just dripping with cheese and toppings. It was a good choice on Tom’s part.
We were full from lunch, so it was time to walk again. This time we were headed back to our hotel. We stopped at Sainsbury’s to pick up a light supper and a few things we can only buy at an English grocery store. When we reached the hotel, we pulled off our shoes and relaxed to enjoy our last evening in London.
Four or five days is about the right amount of time to spend in London, at least for us. We could have done more – Kew Gardens or seen a show – but we felt like we had plenty to do every day and enough time to relax as well.