Visiting - Explore
The bunker is in no way a small, confined space. It was once the workplace for more than 300 people who often slept here during shifts, which means there are sleeping quarters, offices and secret rooms to explore – some rooms have yet to be opened to the public as this site is very definitely a work in progress when it comes to discovering new areas and making them accessible.
The vast bunker will take you approx. 1 hour 15 mins to explore, maybe more depending on what you find to see and do along the way, and at the end of the tour you will be pleased to find hot drinks and biscuits at war time prices.
Here is a brief list of some of the rooms you will find on your tour:
Intro Room
The first room you will enter features a short film educating you on the key points surrounding the museum – there are places to sit!
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Recruitment Room
The recruitment room is an ongoing rotating exhibition space featuring uniform, documents and footage related to those living during WWII.
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Switchboard Room
Off the corridor from here visitors can look in the Switchboard Room where information was received before being forwarded to the teleprinters and phones around the building. Here you can see the internal mechanisms that made these machines work.
During the course of the Second World War we received over 30 million messages in the building!
The Power Corridor
The power corridor connects the Road to War room to the RAF Plotting Room. This area of the building is slightly narrow, although there is plenty of room for two people to walk side by side and stop to read the information on display. However, for larger groups it is more difficult to move around this section at the same time. On the wall there is a power board and an information panel.
Dock Lane
The street scene is a recreation of a 1940’s street based on original shops of the time. Visitors can go into the shops, pick up war time recipes to take home and look through the windows at photographs of Blitzed Liverpool. There are quiet sound effects in this room coming from the pub. There is a also a hopscotch and a dressing up area. There is information on food rationing, clothes and the black market. Visitors are welcome to use this space to play, read or just wander around.
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Teleprinter Room
Explore our Teleprinter room – an area of the museum that was hidden away behind a wall until it was discovered in 2020!
RN Secretary
Visit our newest room opened in the bunker, an area dedicated to the Secretary of the Royal Navy.
Radio Room
In this room you can try your hand at some Morse code, using our instructional video. Leave a message for future visitors or see how well you could find a signal on our receivers.
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The Convoy Room & Memorial
In the next rooms you will learn about the convoy system and the men who were instrumental in carrying it out. You can listen to their stories as well as read about their history. You will also learn about the Merchant Navy and how they served alongside the men of the Royal Navy.
You will pass by our memorial to the men who served and died in the Battle of the Atlantic as well as our permanent poppy display.
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The Main Operations Room
This is the biggest room at the site. Visitors can walk around and sit down at desks which have recovered paperwork and documents, which can be handled, opened, and read to learn about the personnel who worked in this building. Visitors are encouraged to touch touched phones, typewriters and try on military jackets and hats to take photographs.
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The Cabins
The RAF and Royal Navy Cabins are also situated in the Operations Room. There three steps up to each cabin. They contain working typewriters which can be used by visitors. Exiting the rear of the Naval cabin, you will go up a staircase leading onto the next floor. To the right is a guard sentry point, a desk with a key cabinet featuring an original pin up girl poster still on the inside.
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Flag LT & Secretary Sleeping
In these rooms you can see how the officers would have bunked, try out the beds and read some of the notices that the secretary spent days working on.
Tea Room
Here you will be able to watch victory footage from the end of the war. We also have crafts rotating throughout the year which you can take home with you!
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Hortons Office & bedroom
This room is laid out to replicate Admiral Sir Max Horton’s bedroom and office with books, cigars and golf balls and communication equipment. His signature pinstripe pyjamas are also present.
There is a speaking tube connected to the cabin below, so you may hear sounds from downstairs.
Battery Corridor
The next section of the building is a connecting corridor. There is a slight ramp. There is currently an exhibition telling the story of Superintendent Wren Agnes ‘Nan’ Currie who was in charge of all of the WRNS based at Western Approaches as well as the stories of Elizabeth Copley and Mary Hall.
In the same corridor area is an original Gaumont Kalee Dragon projector which is believed to have been used by Winston Churchill in order to watch war footage. It was donated to the museum many years ago and not originally sited here.
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WRENS Museum
Opened in 2023, our WRENs Museum tells the story of the Women’s Royal Naval Service from the 1910’s all the way to the 1990’s.
Exit
You will now exit the bunker back on street level. There is a temporary exhibition on U534 as well as several free leaflets and booklets available to take before entering back in to the reception and gift shop.
