💡 : chislehurst caves website
📍:CHISLEHURST CAVES,Old Hill, Chislehurst, Kent, BR7 5NL

🎫 :
3 -15 years £6
16 -60 years £8

Over 60 £6

⌚️ : about 45-50 mins

📅 : CAVES: Open at 10am and last visit at 4pm

Ticket Office: 9am-4pm
gift shop:9am-4.30pm
Cafe :9am-4pm

Chislehurst's caves were carved over hundreds of years. Chalk was dug in caves to fire lime and bricks to build London; Flint was also excavated for firing powder boxes and flintlock guns from years ago.

Chislehurst Caves in South London are 22 miles long, man-made tunnels/caves. Originally from the 13th century, it was used as an Arsenal during World War I and as a bomb shelter for five years before and after World War II, housing 15,000 people at its peak.

There are toilets, post offices, restaurants, dormitories, medical rooms, etc., and even babies are born in caves. It is a small scene in South London, but also a patriotic education base for local children.

If you are in a hurry, it is best to buy tickets online in advance. When I arrived at 1:50, but the group at 2 o 'clock was full, so I can only buy tickets for the next one.

While you wait, you can look at the exhibits on display and briefly explain the history of the cave. You can also buy fun souvenirs, such as ugly monsters and postcards. You can also dine at the cafe here, which serves English breakfast and soup and chips of the day all day.

It is time to enter the cave by the guide, which was thought to be very hot, but on the contrary, it is very wet and cold, feeling more suitable for summer. After entering the cave, take the kerosene lamp for lighting, which is a real flame, the lamp body is still relatively hot except for the handle, and take one together, the official recommendation is that every 4 people take one.

The whole dark environment, holding oil lamps, led by a guide and listen to the explanation, interspersed with ghost stories, lasting 1 hour, ticket price £8. If it happens to be near Chislehurst, it's worth a visit.

It was first opened to the public in 1900 as a showcase where guides told Victorians about the history of the Romans, Druids and Saxons, smuggling and murder.

The giant stalagmite in the cave, which is more than 100,000 years old and about 3 meters tall, was under the sea long ago. The shells of tiny sea creatures become deposits of calcium carbonate and harden into rock.

Pressure squeezes the sea floor to form mountains, and rain erodes into streams. The cave is reached by a 70 meter long tunnel and a flat underground lake! This unusual geological formation is rarely found in caves 👀!

Over the last 100 years, Woolwich Arsenal stored a large amount of ammunition from the 1914-18 war, mushroom farming developed in the 1920s and 1930s, and became the largest underground bomb shelter outside London. Protecting over 15,000 people a night during the Blitz.

In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the cave was used as a dance and concert venue for the most famous musicians in everything from jazz, Skiffle and folk to pop and rock music.

The cave is now open as a tourist attraction and educational centre, with a gift shop and cafe catering for tourists, group outings, private events and children's parties.