Western Approaches Museum

The Western Approaches Museum, also known as Liverpool War Museum, occupies the underground bunker at 1-3 Rumford Place in Liverpool, England, from which the Battle of the Atlantic was directed. The Western Approaches Command moved from Plymouth to Liverpool in early 1941, as convoys of merchant ships crossed the Atlantic towards the Mersey, and Derby House was fitted with a bomb-proof basement protected by thick reinforced concrete. Through the war, naval officers, RAF liaison staff and Wrens worked here around the clock, plotting convoys and U-boat sightings, coordinating escort groups and passing orders by telephone and signal. After the war ended in 1945, the rooms were sealed and kept largely as they were, which explains the unusual state of preservation when the site was reopened to the public as a museum in the early 1990s. The museum's collection consists mainly of the rooms themselves: the Main Operations Room with its large wall map, the Wrens' dormitory, the Admiral's office, the plotting rooms and the signals area, together with wartime equipment, maps and photographs. It adds exhibits on the Blitz, the Atlantic convoys and the women who served here. The approach is immersive and chronological, with audio, original furniture and reconstructed scenes giving a strong sense of wartime pressure. The bunker is on a single level reached by stairs, with narrow corridors. The museum is ticketed, typically about 12 to 15 pounds, and most visitors spend around 90 minutes. It sits close to the Town Hall and Exchange Flags and is easy to combine with a walk to the waterfront.