Battle of Britain Bunker - Uxbridge

 1/6/22

Another day out and a fascinating 2 hours here. 

To get there by public transport i had a choice of 2 buses from Feltham or 2 buses from Brentford. I chose the latter for reasons you can read at the end of this blog.

If you want to visit yourself and book a tour of the bunker, see here.

From the bus stop in Uxbridge I walked through the aptly named Dowding Park.

I walked past Hillingdon House which was the wartime HQ of 11Group RAF whose operations room was in the bunker.

map of 11 Group

 

Then arrived at the entrance to the bunker and visitor centre.

Passing a large statue of Sir Keith Park.

Dowding Park sounds much better than Park Park

Vistor Centre Entrance

After checking in for my pre-booked bunker tour, I had about 15 minutes to wait for it to start.

bunker entrance

Once down the steps we arrived in the main room. Quite amazing that this has survived and been restored to how it was at 1130 on 15 September 1940.

On that day the RAF claimed a major victory over German aircraft. Air Chief Marshall Dowding had ordered every squadron from 11Group to inercept enemy planes. Winston Churchill was also present and asked Dowding what his reserves were, none he replied. This day was the inspiration for Chrchills famous Never In The Field Of Human Conflict speech 4 days later.

The photos. First downstairs.

Then the view from upstairs.

More photos from the rooms upstairs.

Finally a couple of views of the bunker entrance.

Before going to the exhibition I took some photos outside.

A replica Spitfire and Hurricane

 Memorial

Exhibition

Merlin engine

A great place to visit the thoroughly reccomend visiting.

Home time but when I got to Brentford I made a visit to a local hostelry for liquid refreshment.