Comfortable The Cabinet War Rooms example essay topic

Before answering the question of how comfortable the cabinet war rooms, I will discuss the meaning of comfortable. Comfortable can be talked about in relative or absolute terms, relative is when you discuss how comfortable a place is in comparison with other places and realistically what could be in a place. Absolute is when you talk about how comfortable the cabinet war rooms in comparison with how comfortable it could be in your wildest dreams, ignoring the facts that it still had to be effective and that they were in use during the World War with strict rules on food and lighting etc. From visiting the cabinet war rooms, I can see that in context with the rest of London at the time, they are quite comfortable enough in relative terms to still be effective. However, this evidence is unreliable, as several installations have been added to add to the comfort of the visitor. For example, in the primary evidence from Olive Margerison, she mentions how it was very stuffy with a very poor ventilation supply and how she would always try and leave as often as she could.

In the modern Cabinet War rooms, an Air conditioning system has been installed so you cannot imagine how it would have really been like. From other evidence from Olive Margerison, she mentions how the facilities for lower ranking staff were very 'Spartan'. She said the ventilation 'left much to be desired' and how she felt the Cabinet War rooms were 'Not luxurious, least of all luxurious'. This evidence can be taken as reliable as it is a primary source, but she is very old and her memory is fading so you cannot take her evidence as absolute truth. In the Cabinet War Rooms today it is 'not safe' to see the lower ranking officers living conditions so this shows that it cannot have been too pleasant to stay down there. She also says of how she always had to bring her own bed linen.

On the positive side, she does say that the comfort 'didn't matter' as they 'crashed out' and were 'absolutely worn out'. She also says that she was aloud to go out and this was fairly flexible, this is good as it creates a good working environment and this adds to the comfort. She also said the lighting never failed, there were regular health checks and that she made good friends which was 'Absolutely wonderful'. From her interview she seemed to say that it was a pleasant working experience as friend brought her in and that they were all very good friends. This evidence may only be partially reliable as she picks up on this a lot more than the discomforts.

She says that it was always efficient and effective and this is linked to comfort as if somebody is relatively comfort they work well without having too many disruptions. From her evidence you get a very clear sense of a very friendly working atmosphere. From the booklet, we can see that the docks were very cold. Low ceilings, limited ventilation, plain walls, no plumbing and very scare plain bedrooms. This would have been uncomfortable but from the interview with Olive Margerison we can see that this did not matter to the staff. Upper staff living upstairs had it much easier, from the image of Winston Churchill's bedroom we can see there are pictures on the walls, proper toilets, wallpaper and general homely effects, this is very different from the lower staff's rooms.

In conclusion, I can see that the cabinet war rooms were physically uncomfortable; there was a poor ventilation supply, cramp living condition and a generally very uncomfortable place to work. However in relative terms, the cabinet war rooms was comfortable enough to allow it to be successful and effective. There is also a very clear bond of friendship and pulling together in hard times coming out of the interviews with the staff. Thus I can conclude that the Cabinet War Rooms was comfortable enough for it to be effective.