Our huts

Step inside the huts

Eden Camp was built in 1942 as a prisoner of war camp, and the huts you walk into today are the huts that stood here then. Every one is original. The only major change is the roofs, which have been replaced over the years because of asbestos. Everything else is the camp as it was built.

There are 21 exhibition huts, and each one takes on a different part of the story. Step into Hut 7 for a Street at War, where the Utility scheme meant cups without handles and suits with fake pockets. Walk through Hut 4 for the Blackout and explore the Anderson and Morrison shelters. Hut 8 tells the story of the women who kept the country running, and Hut 20 is for the Bevin Boys, conscripted by ballot and sent down the pits.

Some huts follow the war itself, from the Battle of the Atlantic in Hut 3 to the air war in Hut 9 and the Great Escape in Hut 18. Hut 11 takes you back to the First World War, with a reconstructed trench you can walk through, and Hut 13 covers every conflict British forces have been involved in since 1945.

And Hut 10 tells the story of the camp you're standing in, partly through the words and belongings of the people who lived and worked here.

Two buildings on site are not original, and we'll always say so. The Heritage Hall, home to our armoured vehicles, was built in 2021. The prefab in the Dig for Victory Garden is a reconstruction from 1992. Everything else, right down to the café and kitchen where prisoners once cooked and ate their meals, is 1942.