MI6 at Century House

I'll put it here for now but after talking about SIS in my Skyfall review, I flicked to my London book to double check stuff and figure I'll quote. Building once was Century House, now Perspective Housing (a block of flats)

(from the London Compendium, Ed Glinert)

MI6 HQ (1966-1994)
Westminster Bridge Road, London

Quote :

This 22-storey tower block was the unlikely home of the Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, the organisation made glamorous by the antics of its most famous fictional member, James Bond, during the last decades of the twentieth century, at a time when, officially, it did not exist. In the forecourt of the building was a petrol station staffed, inevitably, by former agents on the lookout for terrorists contemplating driving up and leaving a bomb on the premises.
Meanwhile, inside the offices, agents were hatching a number of unethical plans including the toppling of Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan leader. MI6 moved to Vauxhall Cross in 1994. During refurbishment of the building at the end of the twentieth century workmen found a basement cell, a powerful chemical disintegrator, stronger than a shredder, and evidence that MI6 probably had its own private Tube station connected to the nearby Bakerloo line.

tickled by the Tube line. Need to look into that.

Telegraph have this: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1356363/The-very-public-face-of-the-secret-service.html

photo here: https://wayneharrisonphotographic.wordpress.com/the-spying-game/part-4-mi6-secret-intelligence-service/

So Bond wasn't trying save face in YOLT when Tanaka asked if M had a "similar arrangement".

Fascinating stuff. That petrol station looks like the grandest looking petrol station I've ever seen.

It always makes me wonder about these tube stations. There's always been a rumour the BBC had their own, small station by Broadcasting House (also on the Bakerloo Line) once but how these places could not be noticed is anyone's guess. If a Tube train pauses for even a few seconds between stations it's eyebrow worthy as you notice such things. The Beeb's was meant to be above Oxford Circus which is the second busiest station in all London and the MI6 one would be between Waterloo (the busiest) and Lambeth North (dead quiet). So who knows.

I like the image of former agents being petrol attendants. As locations goes, their old one at Lambeth is quite basic. Lambeth has never been a flash area and never will be.