Churchill War Rooms Tickets: Entry, Tours and Tips

The Churchill War Rooms are the underground rooms beneath government offices on King Charles Street where Winston Churchill, his War Cabinet and the military chiefs worked through the Second World War. Today they're run by Imperial War Museums, and you enter from the Clive Steps on King Charles Street.

The bunker was chosen before the war began. According to IWM, the basement was confirmed as an emergency refuge on May 31, 1938, close to Downing Street and Parliament, and Churchill's War Cabinet first met in its Cabinet Room on July 29, 1940. The lights in the Map Room were switched off in August 1945, the day after Japan's surrender, and the room has been left as it was. IWM opened the rooms to the public in 1984 and added the Churchill Museum in 2005.

A visit has two halves. The Cabinet War Rooms are the preserved wartime rooms: the Cabinet Room, the Map Room with its pin-marked charts, the Transatlantic Telephone Room where Churchill could speak privately to the US President, and Churchill's own bedroom. The Churchill Museum tells the story of his whole 90-year life; among the objects IWM highlights is the Union flag that draped his coffin at his 1965 funeral. Look out, too, for the scratch marks on the arms of Churchill's chair in the Cabinet Room.

You have three realistic choices, and the right one depends on whether you want a guide and how much of the day you'll spend in Westminster.

• Official IWM ticket. For visits between September 2, 2026, and March 31, 2027, IWM's ticket portal lists adults (16–64) at £34, children 5 to 15 at £17, and concessions (65 and over, students with ID, and disabled visitors) at £30.60. Children 4 and under go free, as does one carer per booking. You pick a date and timeslot and use the museum's own audio guide inside. This is the cheapest way in and the one we'd choose if you don't want a guide.
• Walking tour with entry included. A guide covers Westminster's wartime sites outside, then you go into the War Rooms. In most tours the guide leaves you at the entrance and you explore with the audio guide; your ticket is booked as part of the tour. Expect to pay more than the official ticket, since you're also paying for a two- to three-hour guided walk.
• Ticket reseller. Viator lists entry tickets sold by third parties. Most add little beyond the official ticket, and the plain tickets we found have fewer and weaker reviews than the tours. We include Vox City International Ltd's only because it adds a self-guided audio walk of political London, but note that it's all sales final: no refund if your plans change.

IWM also runs its own guided tour, The Secrets of Churchill's War Rooms, which lasts about an hour, includes admission and is aimed at visitors 16 and over. It costs more than standard entry; check the current price and dates on iwm.org.uk.

All four walking tours below include War Rooms entry. They differ on group size, where they start, and whether your guide comes inside.

Best overall: small-group WWII walk

Urban Saunters's tour meets at the Boudica statue on Victoria Embankment. Over 3 hours in a group of 15 or fewer, the guide covers Westminster in wartime: the Houses of Parliament, the Battle of Britain Monument, the Cenotaph, the Ministry of War, Downing Street and Whitehall. Then you head down into the War Rooms on your own with an audio guide. It suits most people: you get the context outside, then the freedom to linger in the Map Room as long as you like.

Best guided inside: semi-private tour

Babylon Tours London starts at the Churchill statue in Parliament Square and walks about an hour along Whitehall, past the Cenotaph and Horse Guards Parade, before a guided visit inside the War Rooms. Entrance fees with reserved entry are included, and groups are kept small. This is the one to book if you want someone to explain the Map Room and the Cabinet Room as you stand in them. Two cautions from the listing: the shared option isn't suitable for wheelchairs (a private upgrade is), and the tour needs at least two guests to run, with an alternative or a full refund if it doesn't.

Best value and longer options

• City Wonders UK also meets at the Boudica statue and runs a guided WWII walk past Big Ben and Westminster Abbey (from outside), with groups of up to 25 and headsets when needed. Your War Rooms ticket, its reservation fee and an audio guide and map are included. Strollers can't be accommodated.
• Top Sights Tours Group LLC is the longest option at 5 hours. It starts at The Ritz on Piccadilly and spends three hours on the top sights of Westminster, including the Changing of the Guard on its 10am Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday departures, before ending at the War Rooms with your entry.

Reviews tell the story here: the small-group and semi-private tours are the standouts, and the larger-group options trade some of that for a lower price or more sightseeing. Compare all five in the table above.

The War Rooms sell entry by timeslot, and IWM advises booking ahead because slots can sell out. Walking up without a ticket is the surest way to wait or be turned away. A few rules from IWM's ticket portal and visitor pages make the difference:

• Book a timed ticket online before you go, either directly or as part of a tour.
• Arrive in your window. You can enter within 30 minutes of the start of your timeslot (book 10am, arrive between 10:00 and 10:29). IWM says it can't guarantee entry before your slot.
• Travel light. Suitcases and other large items aren't admitted, and there's no luggage storage on site, so leave bags at your hotel.

None of the tours here is sold as skip-the-line. What a tour does is book your entry for you, and Babylon Tours London lists reserved entry. You still go through the same entrance and security as everyone else.

How long. IWM recommends allowing at least two hours. Its schools guidance breaks that into at least 45 minutes for the Cabinet War Rooms and a further 45 for the Churchill Museum. Add the walk if you book a tour: the combined tours above run from about two to five hours.

Opening hours. IWM lists the War Rooms as open 9.30am to 6pm, with last entry at 5pm. Its ticket portal says it opens from 9am on Fridays and Saturdays and 9.30am Sunday to Thursday, and it's closed December 24 to 26. Check the booking calendar for exceptions before you plan around a specific day.

Best time to go. IWM doesn't publish crowd data, so we won't guess at the quietest hour. What IWM does say is that slots can sell out, so book as soon as your dates are fixed, and give yourself a slot that leaves the full two hours before the 6pm close. If you want the guard change too, pair a Sunday with the 10am parade, or book Top Sights Tours Group LLC's tour on a ceremony day.

Accessibility. IWM says the site is wheelchair accessible throughout, with a lift alongside the 15 steps between street level and the basement. The narrowest point on the route is 68cm. Step-free access to the entrance is from the St James's Park side; check IWM's access page for the current route. Carers go free with a disabled visitor. One ticket seller's listing also warns that some videos include loud sounds of bombing and air-raid sirens.

The entrance is on the Clive Steps, King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AQ, between Parliament Square and St James's Park.

• Westminster is the closest Underground station, served by the Jubilee, District and Circle lines. IWM puts it about five minutes' walk away, via Parliament Square.
• St James's Park station is about ten minutes' walk, according to IWM.
• Charing Cross and Victoria are also within walking distance, and Charing Cross is where IWM points visitors who need to leave a suitcase.

If you need step-free access, check the TfL page for Westminster station on the day; when we checked, TfL reported step-free access to the Jubilee line was unavailable because of a faulty lift. Tour meeting points are close by: the Boudica statue is at the Westminster Bridge end of Victoria Embankment, and the Churchill statue is in Parliament Square.

The War Rooms sit in the middle of London's most walkable sightseeing district, so build the rest of the day around them. Parliament Square, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Downing Street are all within a few minutes, and our Westminster tours guide covers Abbey and Parliament visits and which days each runs.

Buckingham Palace is on the far side of St James's Park. A morning at the Changing of the Guard followed by an afternoon War Rooms slot makes an easy royal-and-wartime day; our Buckingham Palace tours page has the ceremony days and the best guided walks.

For more history, spend another day at the Tower; see our Tower of London tours. And if you'd rather see the city after dark once the War Rooms close, our London night tours page compares the evening options.