Secrets & Espionage

Where the state kept its secrets and where the spies were made up: the bugged mansion, the bunkers, the headquarters you can only look at, the memorials to the agents, and the addresses of Bond and Smiley.

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Admiralty Citadel

The ivy-covered concrete blockhouse on Horse Guards Parade, built in 1940 as the Navy's bomb-proof nerve centre and still in use.

Bunkers & war roomsFree

Photo by geni, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Churchill called it a vast monstrosity; the Admiralty built it in 1940 and 1941 with walls up to twenty feet thick and a roof designed to take a direct hit, ran the Atlantic convoy war from inside, and then grew ivy over it because nothing could be done about it. It is connected by tunnel to the old Admiralty and Whitehall's other bunkers and remains a Ministry of Defence building, so the nearest anyone gets is the lawn on the Mall side, where the pillbox slits are visible under the creeper.

Where
Horse Guards Parade, SW1A 2AX
Nearest station
Charing Cross · 4 min walk

Not open; seen from Horse Guards Parade and the Mall.

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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