I decided to attend one more Communion Service at Westminster Abbey at 8 am, so I stopped at the Pret A Manger shop on Victoria Street (photo left), and feasted on yogurt with berries, orange juice and fruit cup. It was all very tasty, and filling--and the price is right! If you enjoy natural and local food without additives and preservatives, Pret is for you. And everything is freshly prepared, every day.
Returning to my seat, the Service began shortly thereafter. There were three other participants and me, plus the priest and his assistant. Halfway through, two more people showed up. I forgot to pick up a Service leaflet at the Chapel door, so I was unable to participate fully in the prayers. But I do remember the priest praying for the Royal Family--and he included Prince William and his fiancee Catherine Middleton, which made me smile. I added a silent, but hearty, AMEN to that.
When it came time to receive the elements, I noticed there were kneelers set before the Lady Chapel altar, so I followed my fellow worshipers and knelt down. When I received the bread and wine, I still felt that sense of peace I'd had in the previous two Communion Services--even though I could hear the rush-hour traffic outside, along with Big Ben's chimes.
At the end of the Service, I took one last lingering glance at the Henry VII Chapel, and stepped out into the Abbey itself. I chatted with the priest, who said to me: "Good to see you again." When I looked at him again, I realized it was Nick, the priest from the first Communion Service at St Faith's Chapel! It was a nice surprise. I thanked Nick again for the Service, and told him it was my last full day in the UK, and how sad I was to be leaving. But Nick spread his arms out and said, "You can take us with you---you're a part of it (meaning the Abbey)!" I never considered that before.
At the gate to the Abbey precincts, I met the staff member who led me to the Lady Chapel and told him how sad I was to be leaving the next day. He, too, wished me a safe journey--and he took my hands in his and assured me I would be greeted warmly upon my return to the UK. And a very kind black woman who was at the Communion Service asked me to give greetings from the UK to the people of the United States!
As I left the Abbey, I had an urgent need to visit the Loo, so I walked back to my hotel room. Thankfully, it wasn't a long walk.... When I got to my room, I noticed that Housekeeping hadn't arrived yet; I did what needed to be done quickly, and went back out again, where I took a few photos of the outside courtyard of the hotel.
At the end of my leisurely walk through the park was the Churchill War Rooms. This was where Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his Government sheltered during the worst days of The Blitz on London, in 1940 and 1941. The Museum is run by the Imperial War Museum. I paid my admission fee, picked up a Guidebook, and one of those self-guide mobiles like I had at the Abbey, and off I went.
Still: it was safer to be here than at nearby 10 Downing Street. Or at the Houses of Parliament: the Commons chamber was destroyed by a German bomb during The Blitz.
And when I walked round the corner for the next stop on the tour, I suddenly came across a mannequin dressed as a Royal Marines guard! During the war, one couldn't go into the Cabinet War Room without passing such a guard (photo right).
Next major stop was the Transatlantic Telephone Room, from where Mr Churchill would call US President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the war. At that time, there was no Transatlantic telephone cable, so communications between the UK and the US were made via a radio-telephone link.
During the war, access to this link was strictly controlled, and secrecy was monitored by a civilian at either end, who would listen in on the conversation. If either leader said anything which was forbidden to be talked about, the line would be cut--and both of them would be advised not to mention the subject!
One of the more amusing observations was made by General Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff: "It was in every way an excellent battle Headquarters, with only one fault: namely, its proximity to Winston!"
The officers assumed the man didn't speak English, and asked him to go get someone who did. Time passed, and the sergeants became impatient, so they entered the building--and didn't notice a man standing at the top of the staircase, who then opened fire with a pistol. The sergeants fell wounded: one of them died instantly, while the other died later in hospital. When the gang tried to break out of the building, one of the constables was also wounded, and died soon afterwards. During an intense search afterwards, several of the gang members were arrested. But two or three of them got away.
On 2 January 1911, an informant told police that the remaining gang members were holed up at 100 Sidney Street, Stepney. Concerned that the gang would get away, and expecting heavy resistance to capture, 200 armed officers converged on the area, and the siege began. At dawn the battle continued. The defenders had superior weapons and a lot of ammunition in store.
The Tower of London was called for backup, and word got to the Home Secretary, Winston Churchill. He soon arrived in person to observe things close at hand, and to offer advice. He also called in a detachment of the Scots Guards, to assist the police. Six hours after the siege began--and just as an artillery piece authorized by Churchill was put in place--the building caught fire. When the fire brigade arrived, Churchill refused them access to the building, and the police waited outside for the gang members to come out. They never did; two of them were found dead inside afterwards.
Churchill was criticized for his role in the siege. There is a contemporary newsreel film of the incident, showing Churchill ducking behind a building, as a bullet went through his top hat, coming within inches of killing him. I shudder to think how history could have been changed, via this rather reckless behavior on his part! Clementine probably wanted to wring her husband's neck for what he did....
They were all rather tiny rooms, with basic furniture: a dresser, bed, and desk and chair. And all of them had chamber pots beneath the beds: the only 'official' Loo was used by the Prime Minister himself!
The scent of food cooking must have filled the nearby corridors and rooms constantly. I'd rather smell that than tobacco smoke any day.
I can well imagine all the discussions about war strategy that took place around this table. Some of them must have been quite lively....and no doubt lasted well into the night.
Close by was a rather empty room, with a few chairs scattered about. By now, my feet were quite sore from walking on concrete floors in the wrong shoes, so I gratefully sat down. Over a sound system, I heard the voice of Mr Churchill himself, in one of his wartime speeches broadcast over the BBC.
It was really awesome to listen to; how many visitors to the Churchill War Rooms today have actually lived through those dangerous years between 1940 and 1945, and heard the Prime Minister speak 'live' over their wireless sets? It must bring back a lot of memories for them. And very close by is the actual room used for those BBC broadcasts. The mannequin seated in the chair looked very real!
I would love to know how the Imperial War Museum got hold of so many period artefacts: how many of them were found when the War Rooms were reopened in the 1980s, and how many were donated by people who lived through the war?
On the other side of the Tunnel was the huge Map Room: it contained many desks and tables, and quite a lot of telephones in different colors (black, red, and green).
On the walls were huge maps, covered in stickpins. One map showed the naval convoy routes across the Atlantic: Britain's wartime lifeline. Another was of Java, Thailand and the Pacific theatre just before the end of the war in the Far East. Next door, in the Map Room Annexe, was a huge wall map of the Soviet Union (photo above right). Stickpins and cotton lines showed the front lines in Russia, dating from the German invasion in June 1941 to the fall of Berlin in May 1945.
It was very sobering to read the numbers of civilian dead and wounded these bombs caused by these first intercontinental missiles. I imagine more than a few Londoners were ready to say "Enough already!"
The last major stop on the tour was Winston Churchill's bedroom. It contained wall-to-wall carpeting, and a small standard Civil Service bed.
On the bedside table is a large metal canister, into which Churchill could throw his cigar stubs (photo right). He didn't use it as a bedroom much during the war: only on three occasions. In 1940, he preferred using the Railway Board Executive's comfortably-equipped conversion of a disused Tube station at Down Street--where he could enjoy his habit of two baths a day, a proper toilet system--and a good stock of fine wines! The maps on the wall showed possible landing grounds in Britain for the Nazi armies in 1940.
Churchill did, however, use his room here for visits to the Map Room and for Government business, when he was forced to meet underground. He also delivered four of his wartime speeches here. His wife Clementine also broadcast speeches from here to Russian listeners, on behalf of the "Red Cross Aid to Russia" charity.
My final stop at the Churchill War Rooms was the Gift Shop. Here, I bought a US-compatible DVD recording of Mr Churchill's State Funeral in 1965. I was happy to find this; the copies at the Imperial War Museum were only compatible for UK DVD players.
My next entry will be about my final UK site to visit: the infamous Tower of London. It deserves its own entry by itself!
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