London Spies Walk

Bond.   James Bond.

Eros keeping an eye on
 the Circus below

Having always been fans of Cold War spy novels, we decided to do the Spies and Spy-catchers Walk, one of the many themed, guided walks available around London. The two hour walk started at Piccadilly Circus and ended up in the embassy area of Mayfair, so if nothing else it was a stroll through some up-market London streets.

The walk and accompanying chat from our somewhat bizarrely garbed guide (dressed more like Sherlock Holmes than Smiley) were focussed predominantly on the famous Cambridge Five and their haunts.

We paused briefly outside Eisenhower's WW2 Headquarters, where one of the Five worked for a while, but as he was a Communist and the Bolsheviks were on our side back then, it wasn't a problem.
Nearby was a nondescript building which was occupied by Ike's staff officers during the war. The guide told us how he was standing in front of the door of this particular building spruiking to his tour group a couple of years ago, when it opened behind him and someone asked him to move. The complaining tenant was none other than our own Barry Humphries - but sadly, apparently not dressed as Sir Les, nor Dame Edna. The Poms and Australians in the walk group were amused, but the Americans hadn't heard

Ike's WW2 HQ

of Bazza so it was lost on them.

WW2 home of Ike's staff  - later Barry H.

The walk also passed through Berkeley Square.

OSS (CIA forerunner) WW2 HQ

A large white building overlooking the square was the wartime HQ of the American OSS, which became the CIA. There were no nightingales singing at the time of our visit, but it was at the end of an interesting street which contained the house the Queen was born in, a Bentley dealer with a Bugatti Veyron in the window, and the headquarters of Holland and Holland, who are still making up-market shotguns. These can be had for as little as 45,000 pounds, although if you want a better one you need to pay over 100,000 pounds.

Holland and Holland

We passed by a solicitors office, formerly Guy Burgess's London pad, which was very near an excellent street sculpture featuring FDR and Churchill seated on a bench, with enough room for other aspiring world leaders to sit in (see photo below for an example).

The walk ended in comfortable proximity to a nice Mayfair pub where we had a pint and watched the start of the FA Cup Final - won by Wigan who beat Manchester City 1-0 against heavy odds.

Ryder Court - WW2 Office
 where Philby worked

Guy Burgess's flat

A winning War Cabinet - FDR, Pen, Winnie