London is home to more espionage sites per square mile than any other city in the world. The city has a long history of espionage that has lasted into the present-day. A few of these sites are pretty obvious; however, there are many more that are not so obvious. Lets take a quick tour of a few London’s top secret spy sites:
1. Holy Trinity Church, Knightsbridge. Holy Trinity may be one for the more surprising sites. The church was used as the KGB’s private mailbox. They commonly used the site to secretly pass items between agents without requiring them to meet.
2. Brompton Oratory. Another church commonly used for dead letter drops. However, the KGB felt comfortable enough with this site, that they often performed live drops here as well.
3. 64 Baker Street. Home to the Baker Street Irregulars during World War II. These “Irregulars” was a secret army commissioned by Churchill to “to conduct warfare by means other than direct military engagement.” In other words, espionage and sabotage.
4. 35 Portland Place. A few blocks away from the Chinese Embassy was one of the most active espionage sites in London. This building was used as a top secret lab that produced some of the most ingenious spy tech of it's day.
5. Old Star pub on Broadway. Right around the corner from the Churchill Museum stands the Old Star Pub. This traditional English pub not only served up drinks, but it was also a popular recruiting station.
6. Boodles gentleman's club. Not far from the Old Star, was another popular recruiting station for MI6.
7. In And Out officers' club. Another good spot to get sloshed and recruited.
8. Cafe Daquise. Just a short walk from the Imperial College, this cafe was a hot spot for KGB live drops. Live drops were secret meetings between agent to trade information.
No trip to London would be complete without a tour of these once top-secret sites from London's espionage past.
Dennis Dufrene is the resident historian and technical writer. With this background, Dennis brings insight and accuracy to the stories published here at Top Secret Writers. Dennis has 314 post(s) at Top Secret Writers
You might also like these articles:
 |
 |
 |
