British Isles Tour - Day Fifteen and Sixteen - Part II More Touring of London; Going Home

On our last day of touring in London, after we went to the British Museum and Churchill War Rooms which was recorded in Part I, we then started our walk to Trafalgar Square.  On the way there, we passed St. James Park.  

We stopped to enjoy the beautiful surroundings and animal-life at the park.


 Everywhere we went, George was always making friends with the animals.

This 90-acre park has a small lake, St. James's Park Lake, with two islands, West Island, and Duck Island, which is named for the lake's collection of ducks, geese, even pelicans, and other types of birds. 

The park gained its name from St. James's hospital which once stood on the northern edge of this property in 1267.  The hospital cared for female lepers who were given the task of raising hogs upon what was just a bleak marshy field far from the edge of town.  From then to now, this area has taken on quite a transformation!

Nestled among all of this beautiful scenery is a little "Swiss chalet for a British bird-keeper."  It truly was built for the keeper of the birds, but now acts as an office. 
 

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St. James's Park is actually surrounded by three palaces. The most ancient is Westminster, which has now become the Houses of Parliament, St James's Palace and of course, the best known, Buckingham Palace.

This park is such a beautiful treasure inside this city.

Across from the park is Horse Guards Parade which is a large parade ground.  It was formerly the site of the Palace of Whitehall's jousting yard, where tournaments were held in the time of Henry VIII, between knights in armor.  Today it is the scene of the annual celebrations of the Monarch's official birthday called Trooping of the Color.  This is, also, where beach volleyball was held during the Summer 2012 Olympics.  (I think I watched just about every single one of them!  I love beach volleyball!)

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We next passed the Guard's Memorial in honor of all those who have given their lives in service to their country since the Great War of 1914-1918.

 We next passed Admiralty Arch which takes its name from the Admiralty building to the south.  It is actually an office building with rooms inside commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of his mother, Queen Victoria.  The inscription along the top reads (in Latin), "In the tenth year of King Edward VII, to Queen Victoria, from most grateful citizens, 1910."

Notice how the middle arch is closed?  That is because the Queen is the only person who's allowed to go through it.  They open it up on State occasions so she can glide by in her golden coach.  At all other times the traffic has to make do with the arch on either side.

 We now reached Trafalgar Square--a place where there are always tons of people just congregating to enjoy the surroundings.  At one end is the National Gallery, which

houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900.  We didn't have time to visit, but we'll save that for next time!

At the other end is Nelson's Column, a monument built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

 There are always lots of people sitting on the stairs leading up to it and posing on one of the four lions which surround it.

In the middle of the Square, is a beautiful fountain.

We then walked across the street from Trafalgar square and ate dinner at a great little Italian restaurant.  From there, we walked down the famous Whitehall Street where I had the experience of a lifetime!  One I shall never forget!

 This is the entrance of Horse Guards Arch.  Horse Guards Parade is the area behind this complex.

The Queen's Household Cavalry is the mounted guard at the entrance to Horse Guards Arch. The mounted sentries (who change every hour) are on duty each day from 10am until 4pm, at which time there is a dismounted parade of the Guard.

The Life Guards (in red) and the Blues and Royals (in blue) have been guarding the gateway since Tudor times.  Prior to 4 p.m., you would see a Horse Guard on his steed standing inside those two arches which are now closed.  We had missed them being there because it was after 4.

 After 4, there are two dismounted sentries on duty until the gates are shut at 8 pm, then only one sentry is left on guard until 7 a.m. when the second sentry returns on duty.  This actually predates 1660, and since the reign of King Charles II have been responsible for guarding the Sovereign's palaces.  

So, we were all enjoying taking our pictures with the guard.  They just stand there and say nothing, but are very polite to let you take all the pictures you want.

 

 Too bad I hadn't read this earlier from the internet:

"Contrary to popular belief, they are not purely ceremonial and are fully operational soldiers."

After taking pictures, we were all starting to leave, but then I noticed to the right, behind some iron gates were the caretakers of the horses, feeding them and preparing them for the night.  I was so disappointed that we hadn't been able to see the soldiers on the horses, so I thought, "Mmmm, just maybe I could get a picture of the horses themselves."  BAD IDEA!!!

 In my attempt to get close enough to the gate to capture the picture of the horses in the stalls, suddenly I heard, "Stop!  Please, move away from the gate!!!"  (At least he said, "Please.")  As I started moving, I quickly snapped the picture, and there coming towards me was that quiet young soldier with his bayonet pointed straight at me!  It scared me to death!  All my family who were walking ahead turned in amazement!  Luckily, I must have looked innocent enough or due to the fact that I was quickly joining my family, nothing became of it, but to this day, I still have dreams of me being shackled in the Tower of London!  Wow!

And all I got was this lousy picture!

Note to self:  Next time take the Household Cavalry tour!

It took awhile for my nerves to call down as we continued our walk along Whitehall Street where we saw one of the most famous addresses in the world--10 Downing Street or "Number Ten" as it is known in the United Kingdom.

 10 Downing Street is heavily guarded because yes, this is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government and the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, an office held by the Prime Minister, at this time David Cameron.

-->  Over three hundred years old, the building contains about one hundred rooms. There is a private residence on the third floor and a kitchen in the basement. The other floors contain offices and numerous conference, reception, sitting and dining rooms where the Prime Minister works, and where government ministers, national leaders and foreign dignitaries are met and entertained. There is an interior courtyard and, in the back, a terrace overlooking a garden of a half acre.

 

  

Our return walk to the hotel was filled with many wonderful thoughts as we knew we would be going home tomorrow.

 

We had learned to love this beautiful, clean city as well as all the other cities and countrysides in the British Isles--there aren't even garbage cans.  You carry your trash with you and yet, we never saw any debris anywhere!

Red buses will always remind me of London!

And I think we all recognized the pride of the people in their country--of their history and their desire to preserve it.  Everywhere you see that pride!

We had to walk inside the phone booths one last time!

I hope they never remove them--they are just icons of their country!

We returned to our hotel and went to bed early since we would be getting up at 4:30 for our shuttle back to the airport and then our return home.

This is certainly a tour that we will always remember with fondness.  We want to thank our wonderful husbands for being such good sports.  Not only were they great traveling companions, they put up with our constant requests for pictures!

Each of the three sisters took about 1,000 pictures apiece during the sixteen days, so you can imagine how many stops we made to take them.  But the guys were such good sports, and now we have all the memories recorded.  Seriously, if you put the 3,000 pictures together, we would probably have a moving picture of our entire trip!

And to my two wonderful sisters who have a love of learning, history, and traveling like I do, I thank you for making this time so special.  We have gained our love of learning and history from our dear father who always explained and still does explain, everything historically to us to gain better understanding.

After returning to the U.S., George and I said good-bye in Atlanta, Doug and Joyce went to Utah, and Larry and Beverly to Idaho.  We already have plans to where we are going next!  The Holy Land!  Can't wait!

British Isles Tour - Day Fifteen and Sixteen - Part I British Museum, Churchill War Rooms, London

Our last day of touring!  We wanted to make the best of it and not leave a stone unturned in London!  As you will see, we didn't miss very much.  After a great breakfast at the hotel, all six of us took a 6-passenger taxi to the British Museum.  

   Joyce was the one who really wanted to go to the Museum.  When she and Doug went to Greece, she noticed that practically every ruin they visited there had an inscription that stated the original artifacts were in the British Museum.  We were so glad she really had a desire to go to the Museum, because it ended up being a fantastic learning experience!

  The Museum houses a vast collection of world art and artifacts and is free to all visitors.  You only have to pay to see special exhibitions there.  It is dedicated to human history and culture with some 8 million works which originate from all continents.

You enter into The Queen Elizabeth II Great Court which is a covered square at the center of the British Museum.  This court just opened in 2000 and is the largest covered square in Europe.  The roof is glass and steel construction with 1,656 uniquely shaped panes of glass.  With all the light coming in, you really do feel "enlightened" by being here!

 At first we paid for some headsets, but became frustrated with them because they didn't follow along with the objects as we saw them.  So, instead, we just read about each item as we got to them.

We started out in the Egyptian area where we saw the real Rosetta Stone.  

 The Rosetta Stone is listed as "a stone of black granite, bearing three inscriptions ... found at Rosetta," in 1801.   It is inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. , a ruler of Egypt.  It was discovered by a French expedition to Egypt, but after the British conquered the French in Egypt in 1801, the stone was taken to England.  What makes this stone so valuable?  

 The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek.  Because it presents essentially the same text in all three scripts (with some minor differences among them), it provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.  This is the most visited artifact in the museum.

We actually stayed in the Egyptian section for quite some time.  It truly was fascinating.  The British Museum has the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts, after Egypt itself, in the world. 

There is no way that I can explain every object that we saw, but I will try to tell about a few and show pictures of many more.

Three black granite statues of King Sesotris III from the Twelfth Dynasty, about 1850 B.C.  As the plaque states, "The faces are excellently worked, although the ears are over-large in common with many statues of the period."

This black limestone obelisk was discovered in 1846 during excavations of the site of Kalhu, the ancient Assyrian capital.  It had been erected as a public monument in 825 BC at a time of civil war.  The relief sculptures glorify the achievements of King Shalmaneser III (reigned 858-824 BC) and his chief minister.  It lists their military campaigns of thirty-one years and the tribute they exacted from their neighbors:  including camels, monkeys, an elephant and a rhinoceros.  Assyrian kings often collected exotic animals and plants as an expression of their power.

  This is a depiction of the hypocrite, Jehu, King of Israel on the Black Obelish of Shalmaneser III, Nimrud, about 827 B.C.  Jehu, King of Israel, broke the alliances with Phoenicia and Judah, and submitted to Assyria.

 Ramesses, referred to as Ramesses the Great, was the third Egyptian pharaoh (reigned 1279 BC - 1213 BC) of the Nineteenth dynasty.  He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire.  At age fourteen, Ramesses was appointed Prince Regent by his father Seti I.  He is believed to have taken the throne in his late teens and ruled for 66 years and 2 months.  It is likely that he died in his 90th or 91st year.  This is part of a colossal statue of Ramesses from the Ramasseum, the temple complex built by Ramesses II, in the deserts of Egypt. 

Beetles of the dung beetle or Scarabaeidae family roll dung into a ball as food and as a brood chamber in which to lay eggs that are later transformed into larva. For these reasons the scarab was seen as a symbol of this heavenly cycle and of the idea or rebirth or regeneration. The Egyptian god  Ra as the rising sun, was often depicted as a scarab beetle or as a scarab beetle-headed man. The ancient Egyptians believed that Khepri renewed the sun every day before rolling it above the horizon, then carried it through the other world after sunset, only to renew it, again, the next day.  They were usually small, but this one is huge!

Here was an amulet in the form of a scarab beetle from the 17th Dynasty, about 1590 B.C.  It has a human face and was intended to ensure that the deceased passed safely through the judgment which would establish whether or not he was deserving of eternal life.  

 It is inscribed with an early version of Chapter 30B of the Book of the Dead, the magical text intended to prevent the heart from testifying against its owner.  It is carved from green jasper, set in a gold mount, and is the earliest known example of such an amulet made for a king."

Me, standing by the "Granite ram of Amun with King Taharqa."  This is the side-view.  The front view is below with the explanation.

Ancient Egypt was famous throughout the ancient world for its many varied gods and goddesses, as well as for their worship of animals (or more correctly animals as manifestations of gods).  Here, as the plaque states, "This statue symbolizes the god's protection of the king."

In front of the winged human-headed bull from Iraq.  Companion pieces are in the Louvre in France.

 

 From the capital city of Nimrud (now Iraq) in 883-859 B.C., this was a gypsum stela (usually erected for funerals or commemorative purposes) with the name and title of the deceased, recorded with a ruler's exploits.  In this case, after the description of the king stating, "I am important, I am magnificent," there is a graphic account of his first five military campaigns.    

"With their blood, I dyed the mountain red as red wool, while the ravines and torrents of the mountain swallowed the rest of them."  There followed a peaceful account of his rebuilding program at Nimrud.

In the Greek area, we saw the Nereid Monument which takes its name from the Nereids,  sea-nymphs whose statues were placed between the columns of this monumental tomb.  It was built for Erbinna, a ruler in south-west Turkey.  Although he was not Greek, Erbinna chose to be buried in a tomb that resembles a Greek temple of the Ionic order.  The monument is much influenced by the Ionic temples of the Acropolis of Athens and has been reconstructed and displayed here in the British Museum.

Beverly standing by Parthenon marbles from the Acropolis of Athens, 447 B.C.
Joyce was particularly interested in seeing this gallery because she and Doug had visited Athens and had gone to the Acropolis to see the ancient buildings there.  They are extensively reconstructing the shell of the buildings themselves.  The sculptures decorating the four buildings on the Acropolis are mostly gone.  

At the beginning of the 19th century, Lord Elgin's agents removed a number of sculptures to England.  Lord Elgin received reports of the continuing destruction of the ancient monuments.  So, they were acquired by Parliament for the British Museum in 1861 and they are now displayed in this gallery.  They include a large number of blocks from the frieze that ran around the temple exterior, together with some fragmentary sculptures from the pediments.  Joyce now is happy that she has seen the Parthenon itself in Athens and the decorations in the British Museum. 

The fragmentary sculptures from the pediments from the Parthenon in Athens.

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Horse sculpture pic (another Elgin Marble):  The head of the chariot horse of Selene (the moon goddess) from the east pediment of the Parthenon.

The famous version of the "Crouching Venus,"from Rome, about 1st century AD

George and Larry by the statue known as Hoa Hakananai'a, a moai (Easter Island statue) removed by a crew of an English ship in 1868 and brought to England.  While most moai were carved from consolidated volcanic ash called "tuff," this is one of just sixteen moai that were carved from much harder basalt.  It weighs around four tons!  It is a human torso and head, with shrunken arms.  The overlarge head is typical for moai.  Originally the empty eye sockets would have had coral and obsidian eyeballs, and the body was painted red and white.  However the paint was washed off during its removal from the island.

Since the British Museum is said to be "dedicated to human history and culture," this display showed the amount of pills an average male and female takes in a lifetime.  It was truly an amazing sight!  No wonder there is so much money in prescriptions!

In addition, there were thought-provoking statements in one area.  I especially liked this one from Raymond Carver, an American short story writer and poet of the 1980s.

One of the most fascinating areas of the museum is where the mummies were displayed. 


The panel above tells the specifics of how the mummification process took place to first preserve the body.   It states that the ancient Egyptians believed that preserving the body was crucial if the deceased was to have life after death.  After death, the body was taken to the Tent of Purification, to be washed in a solution of natron in water (a salt that left the corpse more flexible and life-like than sand) and helped delay composition.   It also absorbs body fats and kills bacteria.

First, the internal organs of the body were removed, the parts of the body which decayed most rapidly.  The brain was removed by way of the nose then discarded.  The other organs were removed through an incision in the left flank.  These organs were often set aside and put in canopic jars (these jars were carved from limestone or were made of pottery.   Each organ was put in its own canopic jar.)  The Ancient Egyptians wanted to store and preserve these internal organs of the owner for the afterlife.

Interestingly, the heart was left in the body because it would be important in the judgment of the dead person before the gods.  

 The body was dried out to eliminate any possibility of bacterial activity and decay.  The torso was packed with bags of natron (salt) and natron was packed all around the body.  It had to be left a minimum of 35-40 days that way.  After drying, the skull and chest cavities were filled.  All fat would be gone and the skin would be loose and wrinkled, so sometimes sand, linen, or mud would be placed under the skin of the face and the arms and legs to restore the shrunken features.
  Resin was then applied to the surface of the body to exclude moisture and perhaps to confer divine status upon the dead person.  Before wrapping, artificial eyes were placed in the sockets and finger and toe covers of gold or silver were put on.   

Next, came the wrapping.  This was an important part of the mummification process.  The notes stated:  "It preserved the integrity of the corpse and--together with the mask and other trappings--gave it the external appearance of a transfigured being."  The material used in the wrapping was usually linen, such as old garments and bedsheets.  Some were torn into long strips others used entire, complete garments--some of which had the name of the deceased, indicating that individuals saved personal supplies of cloth in which to be wrapped after death.  Mummies of kings and priests were sometimes wrapped in fine-quality linen which had been used in temple rituals. 

The head and limbs were usually wrapped first.  Many layers of cloth were applied, large sheets applied alternating with narrow strips.  Some wrappings were soaked in resin before they were put on, and more thick coats of resin might be applied over the entire body at different stages of the wrapping.  Amulets, jewelry, and sometimes a funerary papyrus was placed.  Also, during the wrapping, prayers and magical spells were recited. 

This inner coffin was placed in the box behind which was the outer coffin.  This inner coffin was made of more expensive cedarwood, most often used among imported timbers by the Egyptians.  The eyes and inscriptions which are on both the inner and outer coffins request offerings from Anubis and Osiris.  Anubis, Greek name for a jackal-headed god, was associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion.  Osiris was Lord of the underworld overseeing those afterlives.  Osiris was usually depicted as a mummified king, complete with the ceremonial (curved) beard, crown, flail, and crozier.  His skin is generally green or black, to represent the fact that he is dead.

In Ancient Egypt, a sarcophagus which is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, formed the outer layer of protection for a royal mummy, with several layers of coffins nested within, and was often carved out of alabaster.  All were usually decorated with painted or carved representations of the deceased.  Sarcophagi were most often designed to remain above ground.
Women sarcophagus were, also, in the museum.

Even animals were mummified.

 Turquoise mosaic mask of Xiuhtecuhtli, the god of fire.   Aztec or Mixtec (AD 1400-1521).

This was called "The Tree of Life," which symbolizes the dynamic creativity of Africa.  Mozambique experienced a civil war from 1976 to 1992 in which the country was used as a pawn in a struggle between opposing world powers.  Millions of guns were poured into the country during the war, most of which remained hidden or buried in the bush.  The threat of these weapons led Bishop Dom Dinis Sengulane to set up the Transforming Arms into Tools project in 1995 which is supported by Christian Aid.   

 Mozambicans are encouraged to hand over weapons in exchange for items like ploughs, bicycles, sewing machines--in one case a whole village gave up its weapons in exchange for a tractor.

 This was called the throne of weapons.  It is made of decommissioned weapons collected since the end of Mozambique's civil war in 1992.

 

There is an entire room of how clocks and calendaring have come about.

Another large room that shows objects connected with counting and accounting.

Marble statue of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus.  Severus was the first Roman Emperor born in Africa.   He ruled between AD 193 and 211.

Busts of key figures in the Roman Empire.

Bronze head of Caesar Augustus.  This head of the emperor Augustus was originally part of a statue in Egypt.  The Romans used statues to remind the empire's largely illiterate population of the power of the emperor.  Augustus is always depicted as a youth to reflect his strength and vitality.  This head was decapitated by an invading army from Meroë in modern-day Sudan.  They buried the head under the temple steps as an insult to Augustus.  Ironically, it was this act of defiance that preserved the head.

This is entitled "Painted sarcophagus (coffin) of Seianti Hanunia," found in Tuscany, Italy.  She was a wealthy Etruscan woman.  Etruscan civilization is the modern name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, from the time period of about 150-140 B.C.

The name of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa is inscribed on the chest. She is depicted reclining upon a mattress and pillow, holding an open lidded-mirror in her left hand and raising her right hand to adjust her cloak. She wears a chiton (tunic) with a high girdle, a purple-bordered cloak, and jewellery comprising a tiara, earrings, a necklace, bracelets and finger-rings.

An interesting study was made to find out what she really looked like when she was alive.  Seianti's skull, like the rest of her skeleton, was extremely well-preserved.  A reconstruction has been made of her head.  Scientific testing of the woman's teeth indicates that she was probably about 50 to 55 years old at the time of her death.  Staff at the Unit of Art in Medicine at Manchester University used soft tissue measurements to build up the face on a plaster cast of the skull.  Using a forensic technique devised to create images of otherwise unidentifiable human remains for police investigations, it was determined that:     

  The defect in her jaw and other distortions down her right side may indicate severe injuries received in adolescence.  This damage and the strongly-developed muscle attachments in her thighs have led a pathologist to suggest that Seianti was a keen horse-rider who suffered a major accident, perhaps involving her horse falling on her.  Over the years the resulting arthritis led to increasing inactivity and thus to a gain in weight.

The reconstruction reveals a striking similarity in the features, though the ancient artist has made her somewhat younger and prettier.  He may well have referred either to the facial features of Seianti herself or perhaps to an earlier portrait of her.  (I have seen this myself in obituaries of the newspaper where someone died in their 80s, but the picture they put in the paper is the person in their 30s, so we still do that today!)  The implication is that some at least of the representations on Etruscan coffins and cremation urns bear true resemblances to the dead.
 
 Plaster cast death mask of Napoleon Bonaparte (original made on May 7, 182, two days after his death).

 During the time of Napoleon, it was customary to cast a death mask or mold of a great leader who had recently died.  A mixture of wax or plaster was carefully placed over Napoleon's face and removed after the form had hardened.  From this impression, subsequent copies were cast.

Mosaic pavements from Turkey and Tunisia.  So much painstaking effort to do these!

All of these items were taken from a cremation burial site north of the Thames in Britain.  The grave dates from late in the first century B.C. midway between the expeditions of Julius Caesar (55 and 54 B.C.) and the invasion of the Emperor Claudius (A.D. 43).
The burial was that of an important man whose body had been wrapped in a bear skin and cremated:  the burnt bones are in a heap, on the floor of the grave, to the left.  In front of the bones is a unique set of decorated glass game-pieces, which are likely to have been used for a game resembling ludo (a board game for two to four players, in which the players race their four tokens from start to finish according to dice rolls.  Like other Parchisi games, but simpler). 

 

This is a dry lacquer, gilding, shell-inlay and wood Buddha of the late 18th or early 19th century.  The Buddha sits in the position of meditation, holding a myrobalan in his hand which is a fruit that has medicinal properties and identifies the Buddha as a healer.

Well, we could have gone on and on--as I said, there are 8 million objects in the museum, but we still had other places to go, so we met back at the Great Court.

All of us leaving the British Museum.

And we piled back into the taxi,  we asked the driver to take us to The Tower of London.  He informed us that there was a demonstration being held there and all of the streets were blocked off.  So, Doug took a taxi back to the hotel, and the rest of us took the taxi to visit the Churchill War Rooms.

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The Churchill War Rooms is a museum in London.  The museum comprises the Cabinet War Rooms, a historic underground complex that housed a British government command center throughout the Second World War.   

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  In 1936, the British government department responsible for the Royal Air Force,  believed that in the event of war enemy
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aerial bombing of London would cause up to 200,000 casualties per week.

Therefore, construction of the Cabinet War Rooms, located beneath the Treasury building in the area of Westminster, began in 1938.  They became operational in August 1939, shortly before the outbreak of war in Europe.  They remained in operation throughout the Second World War, before being abandoned in August 1945 after the surrender of Japan.  Basically, this became a bomb shelter for the British government to run the war from. 

These stairs led down to "The Dock," which was the sub-basement.  It was very low, cramped corridors and rooms used as sleeping quarters for all but the most senior staff.  It was so shallow that everyone had to stoop to move around.  

As is stated:  "Rats insects, the noise of the air supply system constant bright lighting and the lack of flushing toilets made the 'Dock' unpopular.  Not surprisingly perhaps, many people preferred to take their chances at night, leaving the War Rooms to face bombs and the blackout."

Prime Minister's Dining Room

Clementine Churchill's  (wife of the Prime Minister) bedroom

The couple rarely slept downstairs (although their daughter Mary sometimes used her mother's room while on leave from the Applicant Testing Services). 

Winston Churchill's office/bedroom.  Churchill's office-bedroom included BBC broadcasting equipment; Churchill made four wartime broadcasts from the Cabinet War Rooms.  Although the office room was also fitted out as a bedroom, Churchill rarely slept underground, preferring to sleep at 10 Downing Street or the No.10 Annexe, a flat in the New Public Offices directly above the Cabinet War Rooms. 
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Chiefs of Staff Conference Room

The kitchen area.

--> On 22 October 1940, during the Blitz bombing campaign against Britain, it was decided to increase the protection of the Cabinet War Rooms by the installation of a massive layer of concrete known as 'the Slab.'  Up to 5 feet thick, the Slab was progressively extended and by spring 1941 the increased protection had enabled the Cabinet War Rooms to expand to three times their original size.  This is now just a little break room for the public, but you can see the huge steel girders to handle the weight of the the thick concrete above.

This was one of the Cabinet Rooms in the underground war  headquarters. 

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Following Winston Churchill's  appointment as Prime Minister, Churchill visited the Cabinet Room in May 1940 and declared: 'This is the room from which I will direct the war'.  In total 115 Cabinet meetings were held at the Cabinet War Rooms,  the last on 28 March 1945, when the German V-weapon bombing campaign came to an end.

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While the usage of many of the individual rooms changed over the course of the war, the facility included dormitories for staff, private bedrooms for military officers and senior ministers, and rooms for typists or telephone switchboard operators.

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Once operational, the facility's Map Room was in constant use and manned around the clock by officers of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force.  These officers were responsible for producing a daily intelligence summary for the King, Prime Minister and the military Chiefs of Staff.

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 This is the Transatlantic Telephone Room.  From 1943, a code-scrambling encrypted telephone was installed in the basement connected to a similar terminal in the Pentagon building.    This enabled Churchill to speak securely with American President Roosevelt, in Washington, with the first conference taking place on 15 July 1943.   Later extensions were installed to both 10 Downing Street and the specially constructed Transatlantic Telephone Room within the Cabinet War Rooms.  (Each colored phone was connected to a different place.)

Leaving the Churchill War Museum.  It is barely noticeable, but it is where all the people are lined up on the left to go down.

The Churchill War Rooms are right under the Treasury Building on the right.

We still had daylight left, so we still had many more places to see, so we headed off for some more fantastic places to have many more experiences!

Next up:  Final Blog About British Isles Tour (I had to break it down to two parts because it ended up being so long!)