As I have had a number of requests for information on how to get on a tour of this site, here is the information as published by the local tourist office.

Royal Air Force Uxbridge

Sited within Royal Air Force Uxbridge is the former Headquarters of the Royal Air Force Number 11 Group Fighter Command. It was from this underground Operations Room that the fighter squadrons, which were based in the South East of England, were controlled during World War 2 and most specifically during the Battle of Britain in 1940. The Operations Room is preserved as a museum to those who fought in the Battle and contains artefacts and memorabilia from the period. Royal Air Force Uxbridge remains an operational unit and maintains a strict security policy on entry. However, exceptionally, the former 11 Group Operations Centre may be visited by organised parties at the discretion of the Officer Commanding Royal Air Force Uxbridge by prior arrangement.

Applications to visit should be addressed in writing to:
The Curator, Former 11 Group Operations Room, RAF Uxbridge, Middlesex UB10 0RZ

Tucked away at the back of RAF Uxbridge is something unusual. Now a museum, it was until 1958 an operational bunker. When its life as an operational installation was over, it was just locked up and left. In the 1970's it was restored to its present condition and it is now possible to visit, by appointment, but be aware there is a waiting list! Also being on an operational site, you cannot just turn up at the door. Here is the place where much of the Battle of Britain was controlled from. 11 Group Fighter Command was responsible for the area over London and down to the South coast, where much of the German activity was centred during those months of 1940 where the Luftwaffe tried to defeat the RAF as a prelude to invasion. It was a close run thing, and but for the bravery and sacrifice of the pilots of a number of nations who fought in the skies over and around the bunker shown here, history would have been much different. This, then, is a special place and it is now just as close as it can be to the way it was, on the what is recognised now as last day of the Battle of Britain, when the tide of war finally turned. Sunday, 15th September 1940. Firstly, the memorial stone next to the entrance of the bunker.


The inscription on the stone tells its own story, but cannot convey the feelings of those young men going off to do battle, outnumbered and tired, day after day never knowing quite what they would face from one day to the next. To the left of this stone is a set of stairs seemingly going into the ground, past a heavy steel door.


Through this door and past a security area,

is a flight of stairs, followed by another at right angles.


What is immediately apparent is the cool fresh air circulating around the bunker. It comes from one of two plant rooms, both of which are original 1930's gear and both fully operational still.


The rectangular ring coridoor around the bunker

leads eventually to the Operations Room plotting floor. The bunker is on two levels and this room spans both.


Inside is the original plotting table, as it was in 1940. When you see this room in films with the plotters using magnetic cues to move the arrows on the map, it is not genuine Battle of Britain vintage film and it was made in or after 1941. The plain wooden pushers shown here are correct for 1940! First, looking down from the centre of the upper level gallery.


One pace back shows Churchills chair, from that famous day when he asked about reserves and was told there were none.




Also on the upper level is a museum of many items from the RAF of the period of the Battle of Britain. It occupies several rooms and is fascinating on its own.




Looking down from the extreme right of the gallery.


The plastic chairs are not original, but everything else is. The Tote boards with their coloured lights show the state of each squadron, the lower panels show barrage balloons and so on. It is quite a complex system and the detail here is not sufficient to allow easy explanation.

Looking up to the gallery from the plotting floor. The curved glass panes are all original.


This special window was put in the wall to allow King George VI to watch procedings on the plotting floor.


The Tote lights were controlled by an operator on a telephone under the wooden gallery in the plotting room. The information was received from the filter room at Bentley Priory, Stanmore. Here the information was sorted and the results passed to Uxbridge, where this operator operated switches to display the information on the Tote. Not the most comfortable seat in the house! It is every bit as cramped as it looks. The switch panel is yet to be restored.


Outside the bunker, almost no clue as to its existence is evident. Only a few small air towers in the undergrowth, and a pill box covering the rear emergency exit give it away.






Close to the bunker is another relic of the 1930's, also in full working order as was demonstrated to us. The emergency standby generator. This is one of the original three on the site, the others now gone.