Churchill's War Room

So it's been ages since I've written, and I feel guilty about that of course, but I have a decent excuse. My father came to visit me from the US last week and I had a great time taking him around London and showing all of the places I've been raving about this semester, and I think he had a great time being taken.

He's an American History Professor, so while he very considerately allowed me to drag him to all of the art museums that I've grown to know and love here, he had two main interests when it came to London sight seeing. The first was to stop off in every book store we passed and look in the history section to see how many books cited his work, and the second was to visit sights that had to do with World War Two. Still, he put up with my anlgophilic itinerary and dutifully followed me to the shows and galleries that I wanted to visit. We saw two amazing West End plays while he was here-a Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Crucible, which was impeccable, and the John Doyle production of Mack and Mabel, a tale of silent era Hollywood. The Crucible was probably a better night in the theatre, and not in the least because the Arthur Miller script was ten times better than the Jerry Herman score, but Mack and Mabel was an interesting production. It was directed by the same person who did the new production of Sweeny Todd on Broadway (which is well worth seeing,) and he used the same conceit in this production--the actor/singers doubled as the pit orchestra. Believe me, you haven't lived until you've seen an actress dressed as a flapper tap dancing to a feel good number about talkies with a saxophone around her neck.

In deference to my father, however, we did make a stop at Winston Churchill's war rooms, which are located in the basement of a large building near parliament. The rooms had to be underground because of the air raids, and Sir Winston along with his advisors and staff had to live there for much of the war. After touring the offices and living area I can safely say that they were not to be envied. They had to live without natural light, ventilation or flushing toilets for weeks on end while they drew up strategy and talked policy.

One of my favourite parts of the exhibit was the private phone line that ran directly to the white house. It was apparently kept super secret, and only a handful of people, even the people admitted to the bunker knew of its existence. To camouflage the room it was disguised as a toilet with an occupied‚ sign outside the door. Many thought that it was the only flushing toilet in the complex, and the prime minister was the only person allowed to use it-a circumstance which I'm sure couldn't have fostered much love between Churchill and his staff.            

The museum also contained a modern section devoted entirely to Churchill and his life and legacy. I enjoyed listening to his speeches, and seeing his paintings (he was apparently an avid amateur painter, as well as a prolific writer.) There's something about viewing an ex prime minister's cigar stubs, or watching a clip from his favourite movie (a bio-pic about Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton,) that really humanizes him. But I also found that the more I read about Churchill and his policies the more disturbing I found him. Churchill was a war hawk in the strongest sense, and while when I was younger I used to admire his unshakable resolve and conviction, in a post Iraq world those no longer seem to be such desirable qualities. There's no such thing as a British cowboy, but Churchill comes pretty close in his go it alone resolve. Yes he drank wine and scotch instead moonshine, and rode thourough breads instead of mustangs, but there's the same individualistic determination, and a willingness to use guns before words that frightens me. Of course, there is no comparison between World War Two and the current Iraq debacle, but I'm pretty sure that if Churchill were alive today he would have done the same thing Blair did and sent the troupes to Iraq. As somebody who went to a Quaker school, that frightens me.

I really enjoyed the war rooms as a whole, though, and would recommend them for anybody visiting the city. It's an era of history that I find completely uninteresting, but after that visit I will definitely have to do some more reading, I clearly don't do it justice.