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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Noor Inayat Khan memorial, Gordon Square

The first memorial in Britain to an Asian woman: the SOE wireless operator who kept transmitting from Paris when the rest of her network had been taken.

Memorials & plaquesFree

Photo by 14GTR, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noor Inayat Khan, a Sufi teacher's daughter who wrote children's stories and lived round the corner in Taviton Street, was flown into France in June 1943 as the first woman wireless operator SOE sent; her circuit collapsed within weeks and she stayed on alone for three months, moving her set from safe house to safe house, until she was betrayed, and she was shot at Dachau in September 1944 saying the single word liberté. She was awarded the George Cross posthumously, and Karen Newman's bust, unveiled by the Princess Royal in 2012, sits under the trees a few yards from where she used to sit and write.

Where
Gordon Square, WC1H 0AG
Nearest station
Euston Square · 5 min walk

Inside the garden, which is locked at dusk.

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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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