This is the bombproof bunker from which Sir Winston Churchill and his government ran the nation during World War II. Many of the rooms are exactly as they were in September 1945: Imperial War Museum curators studied photographs to put notepads, files, typewriters, even pencils, pens, and clips, in their correct places.

Along the tour, you'll have a personal recorded sound guide that provides a detailed account of the function and history of each room in this nerve center. Rooms include the Map Room, with its huge wall maps; and Churchill's bedroom/office, with a basic bed and a desk with two BBC microphones for those famous broadcasts that stirred the nation. The Transatlantic Telephone Room is little more than a closet, but it held the extension linked to the special scrambler phone (called "Sig-Saly") on which Churchill conferred with Roosevelt. (The scrambler equipment itself was actually too large to house in the bunker, so it was placed in the basement of Selfridges department store on Oxford Street.)