London Blitz and Churchill Audio Walking Tour
Walk London's Blitz from the Churchill War Rooms and Downing Street past the Savoy, Fleet Street and St Paul's to the Bank station crater of January 1941.
- 8 stops and 18 minutes of stories, told as you reach each place
- The intro and stop 1 are free in the app: try before you buy
- Download before you go; the audio plays without signal (the street map needs a connection)
- Walking with friends? Pick 1 to 10 seats; everyone hears each stop on their own phone, at the same moment
30 seconds of the real narration
Plays in the free Walk With Me app on iPhone and Android.
The story in order
- 7 September 1940Churchill War Rooms
Black Saturday: the Blitz begins. Four days later Churchill broadcasts from the basement here, warning of invasion. - 12 September 1940St Paul's Cathedral
A huge bomb buries itself beside St Paul's; Royal Engineers dig for three days, and Lieutenant Davies drives it away to be blown up. - 14 September 1940The Savoy
East End families walk into the Savoy's guest shelter; those who were there counted anywhere from forty to seventy people. - 14 October 1940Downing Street
Churchill sends his kitchen staff to the shelter; minutes later a bomb behind Number 10 shatters the kitchen. - 29 December 1940St Bride's, Fleet Street
The "Second Great Fire of London": St Bride's burns, and from a nearby roof Herbert Mason photographs the dome through the smoke. - 11 January 1941Bank Junction
A bomb hits the booking hall above people sheltering in Bank station; the plaque says 56 died, other sources 111 or more. - 10 May 1941St Clement Danes
The last great raid of the Blitz guts St Clement Danes, leaving only the walls, tower and steeple.
About this tour
The Blitz can feel like old newsreel. On foot, it becomes a set of real places a few minutes apart. Churchill's basement and the kitchen he cleared are a five-minute walk from each other. Fleet Street's burned church and the dome that survived are six minutes apart. Walking it, you see how close everything was: power and poverty, the protected and the exposed, the church that burned and the one that didn't. You also see what London built back. When you're done, open the Walk With Me live map to see who else is out walking London today.
The route
4.6 km in walking order from Churchill War Rooms to Bank Junction. Stop 1 is free in the app.
- 1Churchill War RoomsThe basement rooms under King Charles Street where the war was run, how safe they really were, and a joke on the weather board.£34 to go in, optional
- 2Downing StreetThe gates of Downing Street, a dinner interrupted in October 1940, and a cook who did not want to leave her soufflé.
- 3The SavoyThe Savoy's courtyard off the Strand, a luxury shelter below the hotel, and the night East End families came down to use it.
- 4St Clement DanesWren's church on its island in the Strand, now the RAF's own, with two statues outside and one of them still argued over.
- 5St Bride's, Fleet StreetThe journalists' church with the wedding-cake spire, a night of low tide and broken mains, and a photograph taken from a nearby roof.
- 6St Paul's CathedralThe dome in that photograph, the volunteers who guarded its roofs, and a bomb that buried itself deep beside the cathedral.£27 to go in, optional
- 7Christ Church GreyfriarsA rose garden inside the shell of another Wren church, planted where the pews stood, and the same December night from the other side.
- 8Bank JunctionThe junction outside the Bank of England, the station shelter beneath it, and a memorial whose count of the dead is disputed.
What costs extra
2 stops have a ticket to go inside. The story plays outside, so going in is your choice.
| Stop | Inside | Ticket from |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Churchill War Rooms | Optional | £34 |
| 6. St Paul's Cathedral | Optional | £27 |
A taste of the narration
You're on King Charles Street, by the Clive Steps. Under the heavy government building beside you is a warren of basement rooms, the Cabinet War Rooms, now a museum run by the Imperial War Museum.Stop 1, Churchill War Rooms