Footsteps of WWII · Britain
Biggin Hill Memorial Museum
Museum · Aug 1940 – Jan 1941
The story
Biggin Hill was the best known of the 11 Group sector stations guarding the southern approaches to London, and in 1940 the Luftwaffe tried hard to knock it out. Between August 1940 and January 1941 it was attacked twelve times; the worst raid, at the end of August, hit the WAAF quarters and killed 39 people on the ground. After the war a public appeal backed by Churchill paid for St George's RAF Chapel of Remembrance, built on the site of a hangar destroyed in 1940; Lord Dowding laid the foundation stone in July 1951. The museum beside the chapel opened in 2019 and tells the station's story through the people who served there.
What to look for
The brick chapel's twelve stained-glass windows by Hugh Easton each show a young airman with a squadron badge, and a tablet records airmen lost flying from Biggin Hill. Gate-guardian Spitfire and Hurricane replicas stand outside; the museum is next door.
Plan your visit
Tuesday–Sunday, 10:00–16:00 from November to March (17:00 in summer), closed Mondays. Adult about £8.50, pay at the door. Allow about 90 minutes. Check the website before you go.
Things change, so check opening times before you travel.
Nearby sites
- Imperial War Museum London · 21 km
- Churchill War Rooms, London · 22 km
- St Paul's Cathedral and the Blitz, London · 22 km
- Battle of Britain Bunker, Uxbridge · 41 km
- Bentley Priory Museum, Stanmore · 42 km
All 160 sites in Footsteps of WWII →
Footsteps of WWII: Europe 1939–1945
A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The whole Second World War in Europe, from the first shots at Westerplatte on 1 September 1939 to the German surrender in May 1945: Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Normandy, Arnhem, Bastogne, Stalingrad, Berlin and the camps, in 15 areas from Britain to Russia.
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