Western Approaches

- darkometer rating: 4 -

The former Western Approaches Command HQ in Liverpool, Great Britain, now a memorial museum. From here the convoys bringing supplies to Britain from North America through the North Atlantic during WWII were co-ordinated and their defence and attacks on German U-boats and warships were organized. In other words, it was the central nerve centre for the Battle of the Atlantic. The Command HQ has been preserved largely as it was back then and is now a key memorial to the British war effort.

>More background info

>What there is to see

>Location

>Access and costs

>Time required

>Combinations with other dark destinations

>Combinations with non-dark destinations

>Photos

More background info: ‘Western Approaches’ is the technical term for the waters off the west coast of Great Britain (and around Ireland). Some key ports lie along this coast, from Bristol to Glasgow, and the most significant one was that of Liverpool. Once WWII began, vital supplies were brought to isolated Britain by means of shipping lines ploughing the waters from the USA and Canada to the Western Approaches and Britain.

These cargo ships were obviously an important target for the Germans, who tried to cut these supply lines, primarily by means of U-boats (submarines), but also other warships and from the air.

In response, the supply ships sailed in convoys (safety in numbers) and were protected by accompanying Allied warships. Support from the air was also important. All this was co-ordinated by the Royal Navy’s “Western Approaches Command”. The Navy acquired a new building in Liverpool, Derby House, and constructed a two-storey reinforced-concrete bunker underneath it. In 1941 the Command moved from Plymouth to its new home in Liverpool.

The secure location in an underground bunker was necessary as Liverpool also became a target of German air raids – the “Liverpool Blitz” killed ca. 4000 people and caused much destruction.

In the Western Approaches Command HQ worked several hundred people (some sources say a thousand), and about 80% of the staff were women, mostly young women (girls, really, aged typically between 18 and 21 years old), especially from the Women’s Royal Naval Service, abbreviated WRNS and affectionately referred to as “Wrens”. The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (Waafs) were also represented. The top dogs, however, were of course still men, including the commander of the HQ, Admiral Sir Percy Noble and his successor Max Horton.

The HQ’s work included cyphering, weather monitoring, tracking and plotting convoys and enemy vessels, and co-ordinating air force support. The HQ had a direct telephone connection to the War Cabinet Rooms in London. Winston Churchill is believed to have visited frequently. But of course everything about the HQ was top secret as far as the general population was concerned.

Through the work of the Western Approaches Command over a thousand convoys with vital supplies for wartime Britain were able to reach their destinations. And the Battle of the Atlantic was eventually a victory for Britain and the Allies.

After the surrender of Germany in May 1945, the Western Approaches Command HQ was still kept operational and was only closed down after Japan’s surrender and the end of the war in the Pacific. The HQ’s Western Approaches Tactical Unit (WATU) was also developing anti-submarine countermeasures for the final stages of the war, including the Pacific theatre.

After the Command HQ ceased operations in August 1945 staff were released back into civilian life (or found new roles within the military) and the HQ was mothballed.

The disused HQ was almost forgotten until it was refurbished and opened as a museum in 1993. Much of it is exactly as it was when the Western Approaches Command moved out. It is thus one of the key memorials to the British war effort in the country. Since 2017 it has been run by the social enterprise group and charity “Big Heritage”.

In 2021, a new exhibition about the Arctic Convoys to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk in Russia opened on the 80th anniversary of the first such convoy to depart in 1941. Another additional exhibition devoted to the “Wrens” was opened in May 2023.

The site is still a work in progress. Many rooms have not yet been opened to the public but may at some point be refurbished and opened up too.

What there is to see: As you approach the address, the location is marked by a very long “shhhhhhh” in large white letters wrapping around the corner from the next street and ending only at the door (a sledgehammer hint at the former secrecy of the site). On the wall by the door it simply says “WWII Museum” in big letters; the wording “Western Approaches HQ” only appears in small letters directly above the door.

When I visited this place, in August 2025, I had pre-purchased a ticket online (see below) so when I got through the entrance I first had to produce the printout and sign in at the ticket desk. With that done I headed down the stairs.

The first room has a short introduction, then it’s through some narrow corridors to the first proper museum section. This is a mock-up of a wartime street (“Dock Street”) with shopfronts, mostly boarded up, and Union Jack bunting between lamp posts. Here the topics of rationing and the threat from air raids are picked up. In one corner visitors can try on period clothing.

The next room is about recruiting and enlistment, in general and for the “Wrens” (see above) in particular, including medial examinations and so on. There are plenty of papers to read – more than I could handle so I just took photos for later.

After this you get to a teleprinter room with several vintage machines on display. They are, like to much in this museum, hands-on rather than “do not touch”. How teleprinters work is explained in copious amounts of text, some of it original manuals and hence quite technical.

Along another short corridor you get to the switchboard room, with four big switchboard panels and auxiliary equipment. Plenty of text here too, not all technical but also some general short explanations digestible by laypersons. In a side room there is also a short video about the origins of the Western Approaches.

Next door is the Central Receiving Room, aka “Code Room”. Here you can learn all about Morse code and even try your own hand at writing and/or decoding Morse. On display is all manner of vintage equipment, including a rusty old German Enigma machine (cf. Bletchley Park). On old telephones you can listen to stories of Wrens who worked here.

The circuit continues along the so-called “Power Corridor” where you can see the main power board. The HQ also had battery back-up in case grid power was lost.

There follows a cluster of small rooms that were the Chief of Staff Rooms, including an office and a comparatively plush single bedroom. On the office desk, amongst a typewriter, telephones, a cup and saucer is also an in-tray with a folder marked “most secret”. In fact, all the people working here were sworn to secrecy and museum staff are still discovering more and more of the roles certain top staff played who were never themselves allowed to talk about it publicly.

The adjacent room features the extra exhibition about the Arctic Convoys bringing arms and aid to Russia. There are ship models, plenty of text-and-photo panels, and medals. In Britain the Arctic Convoys were recognized through awarding of a medal only from 2012; the medal is called the Arctic Star. In the USSR, on the other hand, the Ushakov medal was awarded from 1944. Examples of both are on display here. The coverage on the panels also includes the Great Patriotic War (the Soviet name for WWII) fought on land. And the Soviet contribution to eventual victory is duly noted. In the centre of the room stands an old telephone booth, but I do not recall what its significance was …

And then you come to the heart of the whole complex, the two-storey high Operations Room. It’s dominated on two walls by huge maps of Britain and the North Atlantic on which convoys, enemy ships and U-boats as well as aircraft would have been plotted, including by means of a movable ladder. In the far corner are lots of blackboard-like charts detailing convoy escorts, aircraft states, weather details and whatnot. This is, as it were, the Battle-of-the-Atlantic equivalent to the Battle-of-Britain Bunker operations room in London.

There are also rows of desks with chairs and loads of documents to browse. Inside rooms opposite the wall map are two offices, one for the RAF, the other for the Royal Navy, all with original furniture and equipment. It really looks like the staff have only just moved out. Visitors are invited to get hands-on and even try on military jackets for photos.

Stairs in the back lead up to upper level. First you pass a sleep room for secretaries with a two-tier bunk bed (you are even allowed to have a test lie-down) and the Flag Lieutenant’s room. There’s a stove with a teapot on it and another telephone booth.

Then you come to the Commander-in-Chief quarters with windows looking down into the Operations Room. There’s original furniture, telephones, maps, documents and a bust of Max Horton, as well as plenty of text material.

You exit through a door in the back of the commander’s office and along a narrow corridor you pass a former sentry point, complete with a key box adorned with a period pin-up, before coming to a small room containing a film projector, one allegedly used by Churchill to watch secret war footage. Another side room has a video screen on which clips about hunting down U-boats is played.

Eventually you come to a period tea room where the end of the war is documented, including with newspaper and magazine cover pages and propaganda posters on the wall and a small screen playing footage, e.g. of the King’s speech on VE Day.

Branching off this room to the right is the more recently added special Wrens Museum. In it, spread over several rooms, you get a good and detailed overview of the history of the WRNS (see above) from 1917 to 1993, when the Wrens were fully integrated into the Royal Navy with the same status as their male counterparts. But it was a long way to such equality. During WWII, Wrens often had to fight hard for recognition and against male stereotypes.

The exhibition covers the various kinds of jobs Wrens were assigned over the different periods of their service. A particular focus is on a good number of individual personal stories, including sensitive matters such as homosexuality, romantic relationships, and even motherhood (getting pregnant meant having to leave the service without compensation).

In addition to many text-and-photo panels there are also artefacts on display, ranging from Wren uniforms, recreated sleeping quarters and offices and a bathroom complex. Part of it is a bathtub that is rumoured to have been used by Winston Churchill, and his splashing about is recalled as having made some Wrens giggle.

Then you exit the Wrens exhibition and again go through the End of the War Room and pass a closed staircase (not original) next to which a massive contraption stands – the control rack for the telephone exchange.

Through a hole cut into the original reinforced concrete wall you then come to the exit and back to the ticket desk and small museum shop.

All in all, I found this a mostly very good museum. Especially the Operations Room is brimming with place authenticity. Some of the mock-ups (the wartime street especially) are a bit less convincing. The Wrens exhibition is a valuable addition. I’ve not seen the topic of the Wrens so well covered anywhere before. Overall, then, a visit can only be recommended.

Location: at 1-3 Rumford Street in the city centre of Liverpool, Great Britain. Postcode: L2 8SZ.

Google Maps locator: [53.40746, -2.99327]

Access and costs: Easy to get to from within Liverpool’s city centre; not cheap, but not unreasonably expensive.

Details: To get to the museum you can walk it from most points within the inner city centre. Two metro stations are very near, Moorfields and James Street. Mersey ferry piers are similarly just a couple of minutes away. Lime Street railway station is a ca. 15 minutes walk away. Bus line 838 has a dedicated stop Rumford Street. Right opposite the entrance is an NCP-run pay-and-display car park with about 60 spaces.

The entrance is now clearly marked by arrows and the large letters reading “shhhhhhhhhh ...” that wraps around the corner from Chapel Street. From the other end of Rumford Street ending at Water Street it’s less conspicuous.

Opening times: daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., last admission an hour before closing.

Admission: 14.50 GBP for a Day Pass (students, members of the military 12.50 GBP, children under 16 only one Pound); there’s also an Annual Pass at 17.50 GBP.

The management prefers it if you buy your ticket in advance from the website (liverpoolwarmuseum[dot]co[dot[uk]), but you can also just turn up and buy a ticket at the site. Note that cash is no longer accepted, card or mobile only.

Guided tours can also be arranged for an additional flat fee of 75 GBP for groups of up to 15.

Time required: I only spent a bit over an hour at this site, but did not indulge in any of the interactive aspects and didn’t read all the long text panels (but mostly photographed them for later reading). The museum officially recommends allowing ca. two hours including the Wrens exhibition.

Combinations with other dark destinations: The International Slavery Museum at the Royal Docks is a mere 15-minute walk away. Yet at the time of writing (early 2026) it is closed for refurbishment and scheduled to reopen only in 2029!

The same charity that runs the Western Approaches Museum has in 2021 also taken over the German U-boat U-534, which up to then was run as “The U-Boat Story”. Currently still undergoing refurbishment work, the revamped attraction on the other side of the River Mersey is meant to reopen sometime in 2026.