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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MI5, Thames House

The Security Service's home since 1994, a 1930s Portland stone block on Millbank built for ICI and now the most watched building in Westminster.

HeadquartersFree

Photo by Tagishsimon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Frank Baines designed Thames House in 1929 for Imperial Chemical Industries, in the imperial-classical manner of the Whitehall it faces across the river from MI6, and the two intelligence services moved into their new homes the same year; the counter-espionage, counter-terrorism and vetting work that MI5 has done since 1909 is run from behind these windows. There is nothing to visit and no plaque; the Service does not advertise itself. The building is familiar all the same, because Spooks filmed the outside of it every week.

Where
12 Millbank, SW1P 4QE
Nearest station
Westminster · 10 min walk

Not open; the front is on Millbank, facing Lambeth Bridge.

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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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