THE INSIDER'S TRAVEL GUIDE TO

150 SPY SITES IN LONDON
 

UPDATED AND EXPANDED - now 186 pages (previously 136 pages) with over 150 places to visit, full colour, luxury gloss paper, over 250 photos

and a special map section with walks, directions and additional places of interest

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Eye Spy Intelligence Magazine in conjunction with Snapperjack Photography of London, has produced a fantastic full colour guide to the best and least known spy sites of London.  

This ‘insider’s guide’ to over 150 places to visit in the capital is an absolute must for anyone interested in espionage or intelligence.  

Besides the obvious locations such as MI5 and MI6 headquarters on the River Thames, the guide allows you to venture to the least known haunts used by the Services in over 100 years of intelligence collection and planning. Places where iconic figures such as MI6’s first chief Sir Mansfield Cumming carefully controlled his network of agents, tapped on the shoulder of would-be spies, and then had dinner with other famous officers.

Meticulously researched using Eye Spy’s many sources, the guide also features places that hold a wealth of intrigue, the pubs and locations where MI5 trapped some notorious spies and traitors, the dead letter drops used by KGB agents to exchange intelligence and converse, and all the building headquarters associated with British Intelligence during the past century, plus a few more that hold a plethora of secrets.                                                                                                        

No other place on the planet can compare to London in respect of the rich history of espionage and the development of two of the world’s greatest spy agencies. Former MI5 spycatcher Peter Wright once boasted his team “bugged their way across London” - and this fascinating guide allows you to see many of the sites identified by Wright, plus lots more that have come to light. From the buildings used to plan the defeat of Nazism and the cracking of Germany’s Enigma, to the locations where MI5 established 24-hour observation posts to “listen-in” to foreign secrets. This guide provides a real opportunity for you to grasp a most remarkable journey that British Intelligence has taken since it was born from the Secret Service Bureau.

MI6 now resides at the impressive Vauxhall Cross building, though it has had numerous central locations, one of its earliest at 2 Whitehall Court next to the Ministry of Defence. However, we have tracked down so many of the buildings used by SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) to give it its proper title, that were used to perform operations, from the site used to tunnel under East Berlin and tap-in to Soviet telephones, to the building known as “The Craft Centre” where operatives were trained in spycraft, and a location used by MI6 interrogators to question would-be KGB defectors.

There are also a number of buildings in London which housed various intelligence and security bodies. Some were even used by the wartime Special Operations Executive (SOE). The SOE was a powerful organisation that quickly evolved and soon dwarfed MI6 in terms of its personnel and network. Interesting indeed that MI6 could have disappeared if SOE had been allowed to survive, but even more amusing was the fact that MI6 officers and SOE staffers both occupied rooms at St. Ermin’s Hotel. No coincidence either, that St Ermin’s became a household name in the publishing of spy books! 

Of course it would be impossible not to include some of the more shadowy and dark secrets that London streets hold. And these in turn lead to more locations that are well worth a visit. For example, who can forget the KGB assassination of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov on Waterloo Bridge in 1978.

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 2 Carleton Gardens near Buckingham Palace. It was here MI6 and CIA officials met to plan a secret tunnel that would be dug under East Berlin. Once completed, MI6 engineers tapped into Soviet telephone lines. Unfortunately for both services, the man taking notes for Operation Stopwatch was MI6 officer George Blake... he happened to be a Soviet agent who disclosed details of the tunnel to his handler almost immediately.

He was prodded by a specially built umbrella that fired a ricin-laced pellet into his leg by a “hired hand” code-named ‘Agent Piccadilly’. Markov was standing at a bus stop waiting for a bus to take him to nearby Bush House. This building has an incredibly rich association with British Intelligence. For example, it was home to early MI6 front companies, including London Films headed by Alexander Korda and spy networks such as Claude Dansey’s Z-Organisation; it later became central to disinformation campaigns and other intelligence operations. 

Who would have believed “faceless” buildings and glamorous venues could hold so many secrets. Indeed, we have tracked down so many locations, from the places where MI5 watchers were once based; the flat used to interrogate MI5 head Sir Roger Hollis (he was suspected of being a KGB asset); the apartment used by the notorious terrorist known as ‘Carlos the Jackal’ (a photo of this apartment is bound to be a talking point); buildings used as safe houses and planning centres to combat foreign intelligence operatives and a few stops used by Soviet spooks to converse and enjoy an Eastern European meal when not dodging MI5 surveillance teams.

In more recent times, other incidents likened to that of Markov have happened; the strange assassination of Alexsander Litvinenko in 2006, and the equally odd death of suspected Mossad agent and Egyptian billionaire, Ashraf Marwan just a few months later. Litvinenko died of a micro-sized crumb of polonium-210 as he drank tea in a London hotel, while Marwan was allegedly pushed from the balcony of his Mayfair apartment. This guide allows you to glimpse some of the central locations relevant to these disturbing occurrences.

There is a whole listing of more notable sites that have a surprising, though definite intelligence story to tell. Few would suspect the Bank of England would fall into this category, or the steps of a Tube Station in Leicester Square. Many stories associated with espionage, though mostly forgotten, are retold and re-energised in this guide.

If visiting the capital, this book provides hours of entertainment. Besides over 100 splendid colour photographs and places to visit, Eye Spy has prepared a rich and enjoyable text that takes the reader through 100 years of the evolvement of Britain’s secret intelligence services. Packed with anecdotes and a plethora of factual tidbits, the guide also contains general directions for you to reach each and every location.

         84 Charing Cross Road. It was here Leo Marks, arguably Britain’s best codebreaker lived with his father and where he broke his first code. Marks once took an exam to join other codebreakers at MI6’s famous Bletchley Park... he failed. Nevertheless, MI6’s’ loss was SOE’s gain as Marks went on to ply his trade on behalf of SOE agents in WWII

Claridge’s Hotel, Brook Street. At the height of the Cold War, many “persons of interest” stayed at the hotel. This was too much of an opportunity to pass for MI5’s bugging directorate. Several telephones in “primed rooms” were tapped, but the listeners were often frustrated when the guests asked to change rooms. To get over this problem, MI5 bugged every telephone in every room!

Eye Spy’s Insider’s Guide to the Spy Sites of London offers you a rare opportunity to visit the locations that have made London the ‘world’s greatest spy capital’. Following our series ‘100 Years of British Intelligence’, Eye Spy has been inundated with calls from readers requesting we publish in book in the form a travel guide. Thus, this is your opportunity to possess a book that has already captured the imagination of many readers - including numerous persons from within the intelligence world - from home and abroad.

Your visit to London will never be the same again!  

Mark Birdsall, Editor, Eye Spy Intelligence Magazine

Wandsworth Prison - the unlikely setting for MI5’s early WWII headquarters!

83 Baker Street. The front door may have changed, but this was the entrance to the
headquarters of the fearsome Special Operations Executive.

‘White Club’ on St James Street. This was a firm favourite with one MI6 Chief, plus his recruiters and also a certain MI6 officer by the name of Ian Fleming

Behind these doors lies a subterranean complex that once housed a major MI6 facility. Discover what went on beneath this London street!