Battle of Britain Bunker
What Visitors Say
We booked a superb tour of this bunker this morning. I booked first thing for the 11.30 tour but I think we would have been accommodated had we just turned up as including our family of 4 there were 11 in total. If you are interested in WW2 then this is a great visit. The interactivity make it much more interesting than just looking at exhibits. Note that the tour visits the main room in the bunker where the plotting took place. A deeper tour is available on the last Saturday of each month at 10am for those wanting to see the other areas. Booking on this one is recommended. Andy, our guide, was an engaging and knowledgeable guide, our early teens loved it as much as we did. There is a cafe and small gift shop on site. Prices are very reasonable (£7ish for a jacket potato or panini, £8ish for a pizza).
We went on a weekday and join the 1200 noon guided tour to the bunker. The museum itself is not huge but a lot of very interesting and informative exhibits. The bunker tour was the highlight of the day, both the physical space and the very informative, lively and sometimes witty commentary by Chris. The tour took around an hour while the museum itself can easily spare you 2 hours or so. All staff are very friendly! The cafe serves some hot food like panini and jacket potato, coffees, smoothies, and cakes that look tasty (we didn’t try). The car park is free for visitors and has ample place. The Hillingdon House which was the headquarters of No.19 RAF in charge of that bunker is right in front of the entrance driveway and although it’s not open to public it’s worth a stop for photos.
Hidden gem of Uxbridge, must go for all interested in military history. There are group tours at specific hours, althought online you can buy only tickets for 2:30 pm, but there are earlier tours available. To visit the bunker you need to be fit to manage a few flights of stairs, but people with disabilities can just visit the museum (with lifts and accessible toilets) and watch the film about the bunker (request the show at the ticket office). There are different discounts available for Hillingdon Pass holders, students, kids, disabled, museum only tickets, etc. There is a nice cafe on the site, with hot and cold food and drinks. Parking is free, with sufficient number of spaces.
The guided tour is very informative and engaging.The bunker itself is a real time capsule transporting you back to the 1940s. The visitor centre has some very interesting exhibits and some more child friendly areas. I happily spent over two hours there and could easily have spent more. Really worth a visit.
Lovely little museum focussed on its subject and very methodically set out. The tour was excellent and I learned a lot about how sector control worked. Tea shop very nice and reasonable prices - highly recommend
Highlights
Operations Room
The war’s nerve centre for southeast EnglandPlotters with rakes slid blocks across a giant map as controllers ‘scrambled’ squadrons by telephone and radio.
Bunker level, guided tour only
Dowding System Explained
World-leading network warfare—1940 editionChain Home radar + Observer Corps + sector control = minutes of advantage turned into survival.
Surface museum, timeline wall
Voices in the Headset
Stress you can hearReal transcripts of clipped commands and acknowledgements from controllers and pilots.
Audio stations
Churchill’s Visit
15 September 1940, the turning point observedChurchill watched from the balcony as raids peaked; he left to declare the day decisive.
Ops room gallery notes
Opening Hours
Fun Facts
Those coloured sectors on the big clock weren’t decorative—controllers used them to timestamp plots so they knew, at a glance, how ‘fresh’ each sighting was.
WAAF plotters (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) provided much of the bunker’s workforce; the ‘rake’ jobs demanded spatial memory and split-second hearing.
On ‘Battle of Britain Day’ (15 Sept 1940) Winston Churchill watched operations here; two days later he gave his ‘so many to so few’ speech in the Commons.
