The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum
About
The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum at Prince's Gate holds the principal collection of Polish military and governmental material outside Poland, and it exists because of a specific historical rupture: when the Second World War ended, the Polish government that had fought it from London was not able to go home. Its archives, its army's records and the personal papers of the people who served stayed in Britain, and this institution was created to keep them together.
The museum is named for General Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile and Commander-in-Chief of its armed forces, who was killed in an air crash off Gibraltar in July 1943. Its displays follow the Polish forces that fought under Allied command after the fall of Poland in 1939: the fighter squadrons of the Polish Air Force in the Battle of Britain, among them the celebrated 303 Squadron; the Polish II Corps under General Anders, which fought its way through Italy and took Monte Cassino in May 1944 after four assaults had failed; the Polish Navy, the parachute brigade at Arnhem, and the armoured division in Normandy.
Alongside the fighting units the collection covers the intelligence war, including material relating to the Enigma cipher machine, whose earliest sustained breaks were achieved by Polish mathematicians before 1939 and passed to Britain and France - a contribution that took decades to be acknowledged publicly. The archive holds the records of the government-in-exile, the underground state and the Home Army, and the museum displays uniforms, decorations, weapons, flags, paintings and personal effects that came out of Poland or were carried across three continents by soldiers who never returned.
This is a working archive with a museum attached rather than a visitor attraction, and the arrangements reflect that: entry is free, the museum rooms are open for a few afternoons a week and one Saturday a month, and the reading room is available by appointment. For anyone with Polish family history, or an interest in the war fought by an ally whose story ended badly, it is indispensable.
Categories:
Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- The museum opens on weekday afternoons only, 14:00-16:00, plus the first Saturday of each month - plan around that narrow window.
- The archives keep different hours from the museum and require an appointment; they close for the whole of February.
- Telephone ahead on 020 7589 9249 if you are making a special journey or need access advice.
- Researchers tracing a Polish relative's service should contact the reading room in advance with as much detail as possible.
- Entry is free, but the Institute is largely community-funded and donations matter.
- The building is a town house with steps and more than one level, so it is not step-free.
- Allow at least ninety minutes - the displays are dense and much of the interest is in the documents.
- Combine with the South Kensington museums or the Royal Albert Hall, all within about ten minutes on foot.
Highlights
General Sikorski and the government-in-exile
The institution takes its name from General Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile and Commander-in-Chief of its armed forces, killed when his aircraft crashed on take-off from Gibraltar in July 1943. The displays cover his career, the government he led first from Paris and then from London, and the extraordinary constitutional position of a state that continued to function - issuing orders, running an army, maintaining diplomatic relations - while its territory was occupied by two invaders.
Personal material, decorations and official papers are shown alongside the political history, including the strain of maintaining an alliance with a Soviet Union that had itself invaded Poland in 1939.
Monte Cassino and the Polish II Corps
The Polish II Corps under General Władysław Anders was formed from soldiers released from Soviet camps and prisons, marched out through Persia, and fought its way up Italy, taking the monastery hill at Monte Cassino in May 1944 after earlier Allied assaults had failed at great cost. The museum's coverage is one of its strongest sections: uniforms, weapons, decorations, unit records, maps and photographs, together with the personal accounts of men who had crossed three continents to reach the battle.
The Corps' emblem, the mermaid of Warsaw, recurs throughout, and the cemetery on the slope below the monastery is never far from the interpretation.
The Polish Air Force and 303 Squadron
Polish airmen who escaped in 1939 and 1940 flew with the RAF through the Battle of Britain and beyond, and 303 (Kościuszko) Squadron became the most successful fighter squadron of the battle by claimed victories. The museum holds uniforms, flying kit, squadron badges, log books, decorations and photographs covering the Polish squadrons, along with the frustrations that came with them: the initial reluctance to let Polish pilots fly, the language barrier, and the position of men who had already lost one air force and one country.
It is the part of the collection most familiar to British visitors and it is displayed with care rather than triumph.
Enigma and the Polish cryptanalysts
The earliest sustained breaking of the German Enigma cipher was achieved not at Bletchley Park but by Polish mathematicians of the Cipher Bureau - Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski - who reconstructed the machine's wiring from the early 1930s and handed their work, with replica machines, to British and French intelligence in July 1939, weeks before the invasion.
The museum's material on this is of real significance, because the Polish contribution went unacknowledged publicly for decades after the war while the British story was still secret.
Displays cover the mathematicians themselves, their methods, and their difficult later lives.
Collections
The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum holds the principal collection of Polish military and governmental material outside Poland: the archives of the wartime government-in-exile, the general staff and the Polish Armed Forces in the West, together with the records of the underground state and Home Army, and a very large body of personal papers deposited by veterans and their families.
Museum displays cover General Sikorski and the exiled government, the Polish Air Force squadrons of the Battle of Britain, the II Corps at Monte Cassino, the Navy, the parachute brigade at Arnhem and the armoured division in Normandy, alongside material on the Polish cryptanalysts who first broke Enigma.
Uniforms, weapons, standards, decorations, paintings, photographs and personal effects run throughout, and the reading room serves researchers by appointment.
The Government-in-Exile
General Sikorski, the exiled Polish state in Paris and London, and the politics of an ally occupied by both Germany and the Soviet Union.
The Polish Armed Forces in the West
The air force squadrons, II Corps at Monte Cassino, the navy, the parachute brigade at Arnhem and the armoured division in Normandy.
Enigma and Intelligence
The Polish Cipher Bureau's reconstruction of Enigma before 1939 and the transfer of that work to Britain and France.
The Underground State
The Home Army, clandestine publishing, the Warsaw Rising and the civilian structures of occupied Poland.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.
