MI6 HQ - James Bond

SCREENSHOT. M and a police officer (or is he a real police officer) watch as an explosion rips through the top floors of the MI6 building, centering in M’s own office in Skyfall.

I think I was as shocked as the characters on screen when the explosion happened. It’s not the first time, but it just seemed much more significant, and caused a lot more damage than the rocket launched at the building in The World is Not Enough. M (Judi Dench) is clearly distressed as she watches her office burn, especially since she has just come from a meeting where her involuntary retirement was discussed.

When James Bond (Daniel Craig), who has been missing and presumed dead at this point, sees the incident reported on the news there is no question that he will return. He is a dedicated agent, and MI6 - either the agency or physical building - is his home. My take from watching the movie is that it’s not just the building but where in the building: M’s office. So this explosion is the catalyst that brings Bond “back from the dead.”

Raoul Silva/Tiago Rodriguez (Javier Bardem), the mastermind behind the bombing, calls M “mother” and warns Bond that he may be the favorite now, but so was Silva back in the day and she will turn on him too someday. The latter part of the movie does seem to infer that Bond does look at M as more than just his boss, that she is a mother-figure. Silva specifically targeted M’s office, but not M herself, not yet. The building was used to showcase her vulnerability, and also because Silva knew the emergency plan to move to the War Rooms should the MI6 building be under attack.

The attack put the building center stage in a way it hadn’t been in previous movies that I could remember. At least, not since The World is Not Enough when it was introduced to the fictional James Bond film world - and people realized it was the actual HQ for MI6.

PHOTO BY AUTHOR. Looking at the MI6 building from Vauxhall Bridge.

A quick history lesson

The Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6 has moved around London several times since its beginnings in 1909 under the leadership of Mansfield Cumming, and is now located just off the Vauxhall Bridge on the Albert Embankment.

Google Earth SCREENSHOTS of the former MI6 location in Ashley Mansions.

It was the original director, Mansfield Cumming (“C”), who decided the agency needed its own solo offices, and so one year after the agency was created, in 1910 the SIS took up residence on Vauxhall Bridge Road in Ashley Mansions.

One year later, the agency relocated to 2 Whitehall Court, near the War Office. There’s actually a blue plaque there now to commemorate where the first head of MI6, the first “C” lived and worked. During WWI the office grew enough to require some personnel to use satellite offices, but after the war budgets were cut, and a new, smaller location was to be called home: Melbury Road, Holland Park.

Cumming died before he was retired and his replacement Rear-Admiral Hugh Sinclair, not only directed the SIS but also the Government Code & Cypher School which played a huge role in WWII working out of Bletchley Park to decipher German communication - breaking the Enigma codes. The GC&CS was later renamed GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters).

(Alan Turing, the subject of the 2014 film The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch, worked at Bletchley Park for the GC&CS and is considered the father of computer science and artificial intelligence.)

In 1926, SIS was moved to Broadways Buildings, 54 near the St James Tube Station where it remained throughout WWII, though some offices operated out of Bletchley Park during the war along with the GC&CS.

In 1964 it moved again to Century House, Westminster Bridge Road where it remained until the new building was ready in 1994.

None of these former MI6 headquarters were used in the James Bond films. (Until recently!)

SCREENSHOTS from The World Is Not Enough.

The present building, completed in 1995 (though MI6 moved in 1994), has made more than one appearance in the James Bond movies, the first time in The World Is Not Enough. According to the SIS website, the architect, Terry Farrell, took inspiration from the local power stations’ structures as well as Mayan and Aztec Temples. The land it is built on was once part of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (which now occupies a smaller area a few minutes’ walk away).

The building is massive, standing just over 190 feet. It has 60 “roofs”, has 10 floors above and five below ground, and uses 25 different kinds of special glass for the windows. One would expect no less from a secret service headquarters. In the movies, those safety measures are put to the test.

In The World is Not Enough, not only is the real MI6 building shown, it’s labelled as such! Soon after this, there’s an explosion inside of the building in the vault that blows out a small portion of one wall, and in order to chase after one of the movie’s early villain’s, Bond takes a watercraft from Q’s lab and drives it out of a secret panel in the wall to land in the Thames.

Of course, in real life, things can go a little differently.

In September 2000 a Mark 22 anti-tank rocket was fired at the building, hitting the eighth floor. Despite people feeling the blast in the nearest underground stations and cars on the road, the SIS reported no internal damage to the building, and the surface damage was one window. (The Real IRA, a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army, was responsible.)

Unfortunately, in Skyfall, the building did not fare so well when Raoul Silva (or Tiago Rodriguez if you prefer) played brilliantly by Javier Bardem, hacked their system and caused an explosion centering in M’s office. In Spectre the building is set for demolition, which Blofeld (Christopher Waltz) uses to trap and try to kill Bond and Madeleine Swan (Léa Seydoux).

What it means to me

I spent a lot of time photographing around the MI6 building, and just as much simply staring at it. Beyond the relation to the James Bond mythology, or even of real clandestine spy agencies, the building itself is interesting. I didn’t count the number of roofs when I was studying it, but the number doesn’t surprise me. The architectural style is eye-catching, not something I would associate with the secret service of any country.

As a James Bond fan, it sent a spark down my spine to be standing near where the crew set up and Dame Judi Dench filmed the scene. While I have been watching the James Bond movies since before the Pierce Brosnan years when the current building was used in the films, this building is MI6 for me - and not just because it is the real secret service headquarters.

Of course, for security reasons tours are not possible inside of the building, but I think it works better that way. Sometimes “seeing behind the curtain” ruins the movie magic, and that magic is the best part of the movies I enjoy.

It’s a little heartbreaking that the building was destroyed to move along the plotline between Skyfall and Spectre. There has been speculation about where the new MI6 building will be located almost since the premiere of Spectre. I was expecting the building to have undergone some kind of high-tech renovations that would figure into the plotline, or be in the middle of rebuilding for Spectre.

I will say I did like the temporary HQ in the underground Cabinet War Rooms used during WWII. While the security was compromised (again) by Silva, seeing the modern technology in the historic space was a cool melding of the old and new Bond days, though it was a while before the location of MI6 in the films was ever fully shown. Having the real MI6 building used was a link to reality, and it will seem odd to know the real building is still standing while the James Bond films will go on without it unless they ask Terry Farrell to come back and oversee the rebuild.

Google Earth SCREENSHOTS. 2 Whitehall Court

I had kind of hoped that the new MI6 HQ in the Bond films would be located in one of the buildings near Regent’s Park, like in the novels, but from the trailers of the new film, No Time to Die, to be released in October this year, it looks like they will be using the façade of the former MI6 buildings located in Whitehall Court.

The section of the building that used to house the SIS personnel has actually been converted into a penthouse that went on the market in 2020 for £5.5 million or $7.1 million US. It boasts of reinforced steel-core beams and specially hardened flooring; maybe Bond should consider buying it?

SCREENSHOT Google Earth view of MI6.

How to virtually visit

A tour, virtual or physical, inside of the Secret Intelligence Services HQ is not allowed for security reasons, but you can look around the outside using Google Earth.

1. Open the Google Earth app in Google Chrome or go to https://www.google.com/earth/ (Click "Launch Earth”)

2. Click the magnifying glass icon to search and enter “MI6” or “SIS Building”

3. Use the + (plus) icon to zoom in (if using a PC) or enlarge the screen as you normally would on a phone or tablet - use the 3D feature for the best “view”

4. Click on the little figure icon to see the blue lines and dots show up indicating a closer view

5. Click on a blue line to enter Street View or one of the dots which is in the Photo Sphere (a user has uploaded their photos)

6. In Street View, the white arrows allow you to move along the street in different directions.

SCREENSHOT Google Earth with Street View of MI6.

The 3D option will help get a better feel for the building’s interesting architecture and will pan around to get a 360 degree view of the area. You can go back to the 2D view anytime. I love the Street View for the opportunity to “walk around” and see if anything has changed since my visit, or find new places to add to my list for the next visit. Using Street View to find Bond or Q strolling around the building has been unsuccessful so far...

SCREENSHOT Google Earth in Street View looking from street towards MI6.