Some 73 feet below the traffic and bustle of London's Piccadilly lies a silent warren of corridors and pitch-black rooms, rarely seen, rarely visited, but which played a vital role in the course of 20th-century history.
While the better known Churchill War Rooms, a British government command center throughout the war, is open to the public as part of theCNN Travel got a preview of the experience, ahead of a new batch of London Transport Museum's Hidden London tours going on sale on December 3.Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
However, after seven years of disuse, explains Holloway,"All of the things that made it not viable as a station made it absolutely perfect for secret bunkers during the Second World War." Still, there was opulence here, after a fashion."Bunkers and shelters were off-rations during the war," says Holloway. A much higher class of food was to be enjoyed here than by civilians above ground. The REC was the same company behind Britain's many grand railway hotels, and the staff here were able to dine on crystal dining ware and wash at Royal Doulton sinks.
Churchill stayed overnight down here at least five times in the winter of 1940, having been sneaked in at ground level and then, again, his presence hidden from most of the Down Street staff. While he slept on a modest camp bed, in the executive mess room, at least, he was able to live life well. The civil servant John Colville recalled in his diaries that at Down Street they were treated to caviar, Perrier-Jouet Champagne and 1865 brandy.
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