Jonathan Thomas (00:12)
Welcome to the Anglotopia podcast. The podcasts are people who love British travel, history, and culture. This week, we're gonna talk about Churchill. It's been a little bit of time since we've talked about Churchill, and the subject for this week's podcast is going to be about sort of, I'm envisioning it as the Anglotopia guide to Churchill's Britain. And we're gonna guide you through all of these special places.

in Britain connected to Churchill. So places that were important to his life, to his career, and to his most famous activities. So this is a topic I like to think I know a lot about. ⁓ If you're watching the video on YouTube, if you look to my left, that whole bookcase right there is all Churchill books. So, and I have visited most of these places. So I'm gonna... ⁓

guide you through the places, why they're important to Churchill, and then give you some visiting tips in case you would like to visit because some of them are kind of off the beaten track, maybe a little hard to get to. But I will give you all the information you need to know to go on a perfect Churchillian journey across Britain. So I've divided this into two sections. We're going to do important places in London and then important places outside of London.

So that's a kind of a good demarcation. ⁓ And so we're gonna kind of skip around Churchill's life and times, and I'm gonna kind of assume that you have a broad knowledge of Churchill and his life and his activities and what he's most famous for. ⁓ if you don't, we've got tons of podcasts about Churchill. I encourage you to go listen to those. ⁓ There are about a million books about Churchill.

⁓ There are even books on this topic about places associated with Churchill, which I've read. So we're going to start with London. ⁓ Now, Churchill, as a member of the British aristocracy, had a very deep connection to London. His life revolved around London as life in the British Empire would have revolved around London for his entire life. He viewed London as the heart of the British Empire.

mean, it was functionally the heart of the British Empire. The Empire was run from Whitehall. ⁓ The the one aristocratic social life revolved around the London season. The royal family was usually resident in London. So pretty much everything was happening in London just as it is today. And so he has a lot of places that are important in London. And so we're gonna, I'm gonna ⁓

kind name them all, we're going to focus on the ones that are most important. And then you can actually visit. ⁓

So we will start with ⁓ the Houses of Parliament.

Churchill had two great careers that he's well known for. ⁓ We know, most people know him as the politician Churchill, but he was also a writer as well. And so a lot of these places will have a connection to both of those things. But if he had a single place of work that was most important to him, it would be the Houses of Parliament and the Palace of Westminster. He spent most of his political career in the House of Commons.

⁓ At one point he was the oldest member of the House of Commons before he finally retired. And from the early ⁓ 20th century until the 1960s, he was a figure in the House of Commons. And he genuinely had a great love and affection for the Houses of Parliament. He thought they were beautiful. He thought they were the heart of the empire. He thought that

It was an immense privilege to work there. And while he served very many different constituencies throughout his career, he always served in the House of Commons. so ⁓ he made all his famous speeches there. He ran the war from the Houses of Parliament when he wasn't in Downing Street or in his bunkers, the many important votes. And when we think of a lot of his speeches, they happened here first. So like

⁓ Many people don't know that when you hear recordings of Churchill's speeches, most of those were actually recorded after the war. And he, so he had quite an opportunity to editorialize and make dramatic effect for those speeches. Most of those speeches he would have read first in the House of Commons, which did not have radio facilities and were not broadcast. And so,

When he made his iconic, you know, we will fight them on the beaches speech, for example, he would have made it in the House of Commons to his parliamentary party first. And then later that day, he would have made a broadcast and it would have been broadcast to the empire. And so. The House of Parliament has special place there, the House of Commons that as we know it was not the same House of Commons that Churchill served in. And why is that? Well, the war.

⁓ The House of Commons was bombed during World War II and it was pretty much completely gutted by fire. There's a famous picture of Churchill examining the ruins of it. so ⁓ the House of Commons that you can visit today is a sort of 1950s sympathetic restoration of the original sort of neo-gothic ⁓ House of Commons. And so he

From the 1950s onwards, he would have served in that House of Commons, which would have been different than the one he did in earlier his career. So roundabout way of saying, ⁓ one of the key places you should visit if you want to get a sense of Churchill, the man and the politician, is you should visit the Houses of Parliament. ⁓ I did this about 10 years ago, highly recommend doing this. The Palace of Westminster is an incredible.

agglomeration of buildings. ⁓ it's the scale of it doesn't really pictures don't really do the scale of a justice. You know, it's such a massive place because it's got two chambers of parliament. It's got ⁓ the House of Commons, the House of Lords, but it also has offices for MPs, also has state apartments where like the Speaker of the House lives. And it's it's a massive it's like a massive little community within Westminster. ⁓

It's also a very highly secure place. ⁓ And so it is only open for tours when Parliament is not sitting or in session. ⁓ But they say sitting. And so ⁓ that usually means that you can only tour us on a few days of the year. Usually August, September Parliament's not sitting because they break for holidays and the ⁓

parliamentary party ⁓ convention season. And so those are good times you can usually visit the House of Parliament. ⁓ They break for Christmas, you can usually visit. And then I highly recommend signing up for the ⁓ House of the Palace of Westminster email list because they'll email you when you can book tours. so it's kind of, it's a little challenging to kind of coincide a trip with when they're actually having tours.

It's very similar to how Buckingham Palace is not open all year. you kind of have, if you want to see Buckingham Palace, you have to visit right when it's open, which is only the summer opening, which is usually from July to September. So, highly recommend doing the tour. I did a tour and ⁓ I, it may have changed since COVID and since I toured it, but when I did it, I did a guided tour where we were guided around by a guide and she showed us the.

The tour started on Westminster Hall, that famous ⁓ thousand year old William the Conqueror chamber, and then they're shown around all the houses of parliament. ⁓ it's not just the chambers that you get to see, you can see the galleries, there's incredible works of art ⁓ that when they built the houses of parliament displayed British history and British culture and British.

exceptionalism. ⁓ It's incredible to see. the palace is always in various degrees of renovation. So, you know, your mileage may vary with their scaffolding or if there's parts closed off or and they even also offer tours of various parts of the palace that are normally closed to the public like the since the Big Ben renovation or Elizabeth Tower for the plants. There's now regular tours of Elizabeth Tower.

However, those usually are not open to foreign nationals. ⁓ However, you can usually see the State Apartments for the Speaker of the House when the House isn't in session. just sign up for those emails because you'll be notified when those various things are available. ⁓ I highly recommend ⁓ doing that. And ⁓ like I said, the House of Commons was his place of work and he loved deeply loved

the House of Commons and the esoteric rituals they had and the opposing factions and the bane and the name and the insult and the jokes and he was a House of Commons man and the House of Commons has honored him. There is a statue of him right outside the door. You can also still, they kept some of the... ⁓

damage from the bombing in ⁓ the doorway so that you can so as a kind of remembrance to what had happened and when you do these tours you actually get to go onto the floor of the chamber sit on the benches ⁓ it's really surreal highly recommend doing it ⁓ so that's the houses of parliament ⁓ the next place which is a place you can't really visit it's 10 downing street and so

Tendonning Street obviously is where Churchill would have lived when he was in office as prime minister, both during the war and in the 1950s when he served his second term as prime minister. ⁓ And Donning Street is a weird thing. It's not grand like the White House or like a palace. It's a terraced building on a side street that kind of got donated to the British government by, I believe, Downing. ⁓

kind of evolved into the seat of government. And so there are grand state rooms and there's gardens and the Chancellor of the Exchequer who manages Britain's money, he lives next door and there's rooms where the Prime Minister works, where his office is, but then he, it's also where he lives. so, ⁓ you know, this is where Churchill would have lived during World War II. ⁓ when...

during the heights of the Blitz, he often wasn't in Downing Street. He would have slept in one of the secret bunkers around the area, which I'm gonna get to. ⁓ And it's a neat place, ⁓ but visitors can't really see it. You used to be able to walk down Downing Street and see the famous door and all that, but because of security, you can't do that anymore. ⁓ I have been told, I'm a member of the Foreign Press Association in London, so.

I've been told that I am allowed to use my press pass to go down and see the door, but I haven't done it yet, I'm not brave enough. ⁓ However, there are select days of the year when Downing Street might be open. So if you've never heard of it, it's called Open House London, it's held every September. It's when a lot of buildings that are normally closed off to the public open up for people to tour around. And usually Downing Street is one of those buildings that's open.

They will give you a guided tour. have to clear security ⁓ However, getting tickets is really hard You have to join in you have to join basically an open ballot and see if you get selected So and so it's hard to plan it again hard to plan a trip around this because you don't know if you're gonna get tickets until literally weeks before this thing happens, so ⁓ Hard to do so But a more accessible place and and I think it's really cool ⁓

It's one of the most important places in British history. It's the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. So this is ⁓ famously a bunker beneath ⁓ the Treasury Building in Whitehall where basically Churchill ran the government and ran the war. They're especially during the height of the Blitz. And so you go down there and you can see all the rooms as they were when the war ended.

can see the big maps on the walls. You can see the room where Churchill would have held war cabinet meetings. You can see where he slept. You can see where he wrote speeches. There's, I, you know, I haven't done this actually in, I toured it in 2001 when I visited with my mom when she took me to London for the first time. I haven't done it since then, which is woeful on my part, but when I did it, they did a guided audio tour that kind of.

set the scene and it really ⁓ kicked off my interest in the history around World War II and Churchill because it really showed what a monumental event this was for Britain compared to how it was for America. And ⁓ you really get a sense of Britain's make do and mend attitude. Like this is not a...

Opulent bunker by any means is literally a basement in the building that was reinforced and they made they made do And now they've also made do by turning it into a museum So highly recommend seeing it if you are Churchill Ian you have to see the cabinet war rooms ⁓ And it's a very important place so ⁓ Finally Admiralty house ⁓

So this is, the Admiralty is where Churchill famously worked when he was First Order of the Admiralty and where they sent that famous cable when he was appointed First Order of the Admiralty, right? At beginning of World War II, they said, Winston is back. And so he would have lived here in one of the state apartments there while he was First Order of the Admiralty. ⁓ Admiralty House is still kind of owned by the British government. Again, it's occasionally open for open house London.

⁓ The Admiralty Arch, which is I believe next door, has been turned into a hotel. So you can get like a sense of history there if you want to stay in the hotel. ⁓ Another place that is actually not on my my list here that I will mention is the Downstreet Tube Station. So ⁓ there's an article about this on on London-Topia. will link to it in the show notes. ⁓ This was ⁓ one of this was Churchill's secret war bunker.

So Downstreet Tube Station was a tube station that was closed by the 1930s. And so when the railway or the authority that was going to run Britain's railways during the war needed a headquarters, they used this underground tube station and reinforced it and turned it into a bunker. during the Blitz, Churchill actually slept here several times because it was so reinforced and was so critical to the infrastructure of Britain during the war.

⁓ And so the station was abandoned since World War II and a lot of the infrastructure was left in place. so the London Transport Museum about 15 years ago started offering Hidden London tours. And so they started opening up these abandoned tube stations for tours, one them which is the downstream tube station tour.

And you basically go down and you can see what's left, kind of the ruins of these bunkers and they explain the history. And it's really cool to be in this place that Churchill actually stayed, actually ran, you know, ran Britain during the war. And it's much less known than the cabinet war rooms and Downing Street and people that a of people don't know, but because it was so close to the action that it was easy for them to get Churchill to. And so he slept there. think they said.

70 or 80 nights during the war when the bombing was really bad. So I'll link to the article in the show notes. It's really interesting Beyond Those locations there's a couple other locations worth mentioning so 28 Hyde Park Gate was Trichell's final residence in London Not open to the public. It's a very expensive townhouse in a very expensive area

But you can go and see it. I think there's a little plaque there. He lived there from 1945 until 1965 when he died. it's one of the places where he lived longest.

Westminster Abbey is an important place.

There is a memorial to Churchill in the nave. And it's also the place, it's called the center of remembrance ceremonies when they do remember the war. Churchill State Funeral, however, was at St. Paul's Cathedral. ⁓ everybody should go to St. Paul's Cathedral. It's an amazing place. And it was the...

the famous picture of the cathedral surviving the bombing raids with the smoke and everything is a symbol of Britain during the war. ⁓ Also check out the Churchill Arms Pub. I don't know if Churchill ever went there, but it's named after him and it's very famous for its hanging baskets during the summer and in the fall when it's just filled with flowers. ⁓ It's a direct connection is probably ephemeral, but it's, know.

So ⁓ also BBC Broadcasting House recommend that that's where Churchill would have made some of his famous speeches they do open for tours so you will need to look ahead on their website for tours at the BBC Broadcasting House ⁓ I'm sure they will talk about Churchill on one of those tours and then ⁓ let's see that is it for London location

So if you want to get a sense of Churchill plenty of places in London to go if you can only have time to visit one place I recommend doing the Palace of Westminster do the tour there so Alright part two of this podcast Churchill's Britain beyond London and so We're gonna talk about several several places here. ⁓ I Think we'll start with Blenheim Palace

And so this is where Churchill was born in 1874. it's a, it's, it's a.

if if we're going to talk about Chartwell later, but if Chartwell was Churchill's beloved home, Blenheim Palace would have been his spiritual home. ⁓ Churchill's father was the second son of the Duke of Marlborough. So, you know, he he had this aristocratic connection to this illustrious Churchill family. For those who don't know, the first Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill, led led all.

It was a sponsor for all the victories during the Peninsula Wars in the 1600s. And as a reward for his service, he was given the funds to build one in palace, which is a massive Baroque palace by John Nash that is it's it dwarfs. It almost dwarfs other palaces in Britain. It's insane. It's a non-royal palace, but it's a palace nonetheless. And it's it's been the seat of the Churchill family since

those illustrious days and Churchill himself ⁓ loved his own family heritage and he felt that because of the heritage that he came from that he was destined for his own greatness and so he found a lot of his own strength and his own greatness within his family history. He even wrote a one million word biography on John Churchill, so the first Duke of Marlboro.

This is he was born. He was born in what was essentially a closet. ⁓ The room is still there and ⁓ you can visit the room on the tour of Blenheim Palace where they've got the birthing bed where he was born and they've got his own paintings hanging on the wall. ⁓ It's ⁓ highly recommend seeing it. Churchill joked that ⁓

At Blenheim Palace, he made two most important decisions in his life to be born and to propose to his wife, Clementine, at the Temple of Diana on the grounds. So I highly recommend walking around the grounds and you can see all the follies. And ⁓ it's there's currently there's the palace has done great strides and kind of beefing up their connection to Winston Churchill. So there is actually now a dedicated Winston Churchill exhibition that is in one of the basements when you exit.

tour. ⁓ I mean, even if you didn't, aren't interested in Churchill, visit Blenheim Palace. It's an incredible place. The staterooms are amazing. ⁓ Right now, the main, the central area is covered in scaffolding because they're redoing the roof and it's going to be like that way for a couple years. But the interiors are still, are not covered in scaffolding. So highly recommend going to Blenheim Palace. ⁓ It is, it's a special place.

And if you're at Blenheim Palace, ⁓ and this goes to show how important Blenheim was to his spiritual identity, Churchill's actually buried nearby. There's a village next to Blenheim Palace called Bladon ⁓ It's kind of a suburb of Woodstock where Blenheim Palace is, and it's where the church there is where all the Churchill family are buried.

And so he decided to be buried there where his illustrious ancestors are buried. And so if you're gonna visit, let him walk down to Bladon and pay your respects to Churchard. There's a quaint little church there where you can get a little Churchill souvenir if you saw night from the Honesty gift shop. ⁓ recommend going when school's not in session, because it's more peaceful when school's not in session. ⁓

there's literally a school right next door to the graveyard and it can be quite loud. So the next place we'll talk about, which would be after Blenheim and after the Houses of Parliament, the most important place in his life would be Chartwell, which was his beloved country home that he famously bought in 1922 without discussing with his wife Clementine.

And it was a source of love and motivation for him for the entire rest of his life. But it was also the source of great woe and cost for him. ⁓ To him, the manor house represented the England that he loved the most. It's right on the Weald of Kent, a beautiful area of countryside that inspired him. And he

sought out to basically rework the estate of Chartwell and his own image of England, his own little Arcadia. And so ⁓ it's where he wrote, it's where he painted, it's where he had his family life and raised his children in the later years. ⁓ He famously laid the brick walls. He ⁓ dug the ponds himself and he produced much of his literary output that he would eventually win the Nobel Prize

For literature for so he famously said that a day away from Chartwell is a day wasted ⁓ and I've been to Chartwell twice and it's ⁓ it's not a grand house. It's not like Blenheim Palace, Blenheim Palace is a palace Chartwell is a family home and it's owned by the National Trust and ⁓ It's quite popular so ⁓ it works on a timed entry system

So you kind of need to plan ahead if you're going to visit. ⁓ I've had the pleasure of having guided tours from the staff that are arranged for Anglotopia. They don't do guided tours. Well, they do. Okay, I stepped that back. Most tours are self-guided where you can walk through and enjoy the house on your own. then ⁓ sometimes they'll do special tours like

They've recently opened up Churchill's bedroom to special select guided tours only on certain days. And so if you want to know when these things are going to be, you need to check the Chartwell website on the National Trust website to see when they're going to be happening. And then you can you can book those in advance. It's quite difficult to get to Chartwell if you don't have a rental car. I mean, because it's literally in the middle of nowhere. And

I would say that if you are in London, it's kind of easy to get to. You just take the train to Seven Oaks from, I believe it was London Bridge Station. ⁓ Don't quote me on that. I'll put links in the show notes. ⁓ you take the train there and then you take a, there's usually a taxi rank outside the train station. And then you can take a taxi from the train station right to Chartwell and just arrange with the taxi driver to.

take you back when you're done a Chartwell. If you drive, obviously there's a National Trust car park. You could easily spend all day here. there didn't don't and once you've done the house, don't forget to go explore the grounds and the gardens that he set up because they kind of left them as he would have wanted them. But go to his artist studio, which is a little bit of a walk.

from the house and you can see hundreds of his paintings. It's the biggest collection of his paintings ⁓ anywhere and you can see see them all in one place and the place oftentimes the place where he actually painted them. So ⁓ Chartwell, it's a special place. ⁓ You can see the great library where he did most of his writing, where he wrote, you know, his memoirs about World War II, World War I, where he wrote.

the book about the Duke of Marlborough, where he his history of English-speaking peoples. ⁓ I cannot recommend enough going to Chartwell if you are interested in Churchilliana. ⁓

Next we will talk about Harrow. The Harrow is the prestigious public school that Churchill went to for four years where he famously did not excel as a student where you can see his name engraved in the graffiti in one of the rooms. He ⁓

Yeah, he didn't love his time at Harrow or boarding school. ⁓ But I mean, who would have loved those things when it's the high Victorian air and your parents are ignoring you? Then there's ⁓ Sandhurst, which is in Berkshire. That's the Royal Military College. that's where ⁓ even though he failed twice to get in, he eventually got in. And that's where he kind of found his calling as a a military career, even though his military career didn't last long. It lasted long enough for him to become.

⁓ famous and well known for his military prowess. ⁓ I should do a whole podcast on Young Churchill because some of the stuff that he did is wild.

Let's see. Chequers which is the official country residence of the Prime Minister. Churchill didn't spend a lot of time there during the war, but he would have in his second premiership in the 1950s. Again, this one's not open to the public, but you can walk the public foot trails around it, at least see the house. A lot of famous politicians and world leaders will have passed through Chequers.

We have a little extra time, so I'm gonna talk about a few places outside of Britain with a connection to Churchill that are also worth visiting. And also one key place if you're interested in researching Churchill himself, first up is the Churchill Archives at Cambridge University. Now Churchill famously didn't go to university, but after the war, the Churchill Archives and after he died were set up so that...

They can be the archive of everything Churchill and we've actually had the head of the Churchill archive on the podcast before. ⁓ So if you want to do some deep research into Churchill, that's the place to go. It's open to the public. If you have a research request, you just simply have to write and ask and they will do their best to help you. ⁓ Now for outside of the UK, special places related to Churchill, ⁓ let's talk about the US. So.

He famously stayed in the White House ⁓ for many months throughout the war. ⁓ So I've never been to the White House, but I've seen it. I've seen it outside the gates. But ⁓ other places related to Churchill are there's the Churchill Center, I believe, at George Washington University. And ⁓ I think it's in Virginia or in Washington, D.C. They also have a Churchill Leadership Center, which focuses on Churchill and leadership.

It's kind of an outcrop of the International Churchill Society. ⁓ There's also the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri. Why is there a Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri? Well, ⁓ that's where Churchill made his famous Iron Curtain speech. And so there's a restored Christopher Wren Church there that was, it was destroyed in the Blitz. And so it was... ⁓

moved brick by brick from London to Missouri where they rebuilt it and restored it. so, and then there's now a Churchill Museum. And it's it's kind of this focal point of a lot of the Churchill history and remembrance here in the USA. So if you can ⁓ go see that I highly recommend going to the Churchill Museum. I actually interviewed the head of the Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri. And I will link to that in the show notes.

So ⁓ that is it for places related to Churchill that you can visit. ⁓ I will add one more thing because this podcast have a long shelf life. If you're going to be in London from May 2026, the ⁓ Wallace Collection is going to be doing a special exhibition of Churchill's paintings.

It's going to be the first major exhibition of his paintings since I believe the 1950s. So it's going to be a great opportunity to see some of his best paintings that a lot of which are in private collections now on public view in London and a blockbuster exhibition. And so I'll put a link to that in show notes as well. So keep an eye on that if you have plans to travel to Britain next May. So if you enjoy the Anglotopia podcast, please like, subscribe or leave a comment.

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