Places to go
Find out more about both renegades and war leaders with these places to visit.
Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms
The V-sign is most closely associated with Winston Churchill. He used it to symbolise "V for victory" during the second world war. Not long after becoming Prime Minister in 1940, Churchill visited the Cabinet War Rooms to see what preparations had been made to allow the war cabinet to continue working throughout the expected air raids in London. He went on to direct the war from here. Highlights are the Map Room, the Cabinet Room and the room where Churchill slept if getting back to 10 Downing Street was too dangerous. The Churchill Museum is the world's first major museum dedicated to the life, work and achievements of Winston Churchill and is a permanent exhibition housed within the Cabinet War Rooms.
Address: Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, Clive Steps, King Charles Street
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
The V-sign has long been associated with youth culture and sub-cultures like Punk, where two fingers are raised in defiance at the Establishment. Brighton Museum has a good costume collection, part of which is called Renegade, where clothes worn by these sub-cultures are explored. Visitors can see items from the Punk clothes shop Seditionaries from the late 1970s, (run by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren) and clothes worn by Skinheads and Teddy boys.
Address: Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton
The British Library Newspaper Library
The British Library holds the finest newspaper collection in the world, and some of the famous V-sign moments have been front page news. Join the other 30,000 people a year who use the collection and have a look at some of the memorable moments immortalised in tabloids and broadsheets alike. The Newspaper Library is currently at the Colindale Avenue site, but the library is trying to make the collection more accessible through digitisation and eventually the moving of it to the main St Pancras site.
Address: Colindale Avenue
