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INTRODUCTION
Like any developing company, it is not unusual for intelligence
services to move home or expand existing premises. But
eventually they find a suitable home and stay put. That's what
happened in America with the CIA and now the name Langley has
become synonymous with the CIA. The NSA's journey from Arlington
Station to its present home at Fort Meade is another example. In
London we find MI6 and Vauxhall Cross...
Few people interested in spy locations are not familiar with
MI6's impressive headquarters situated at Vauxhall Cross on the
banks of the River Thames. But the Service wasn't always housed
in a such huge premises. MI6 or SIS (Secret Intelligence
Service) had a modest start and premises when it was known as
the Foreign Section of the Secret Service Bureau. Both the
Foreign and the Home Sections of the Bureau rented office space
at 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, from an enquiry agent.
Commander Mansfield Cumming RN, the Head of the Foreign Section,
was less than happy with the arrangement and was soon looking
for alternative premises.
Cumming worked long hours and most weekends. He wished to find
accommodation that would combine both an office and living
quarters. His choice, made within a matter of weeks of the
original move to Victoria Street, was Ashley Mansions in
Vauxhall Bridge Road, Westminster. This impressive building
still exists today.
The steady expansion of the work of the Foreign Section
eventually necessitated another move. Flat 54, 2, Whitehall
Court, Westminster, brought several advantages, not least a
greater proximity to the War Office, Admiralty and Foreign
Office in Whitehall (a few hundred feet from what is today the
main entrance of Britain's Ministry of Defence). Cumming later
took the decision to expand his accommodation at Whitehall
Court, writing in his diary on 23 May 1916 'moved to a new
office'. Today this spectacular building still exists - and the
entrance to number 2 Whitehall Court is home to a posh
restaurant.
Whitehall Court remained the Service's headquarters until the
end of the First World War. Security issues and reductions in
the Service's finances and personnel then led to a move away
from Westminster to West Kensington. 1, Melbury Road has been
described as 'a large red brick mansion in Holland Park' and, as
with Cumming's previous headquarters, it combined the function
of office and residence of the Chief of SIS. It was here that
Cumming died in June 1923. For the record, and like many
historically important intelligence buildings, the building has
long gone. Today the site is occupied by a modern block of
expensive apartments.
Cumming's successor, Rear Admiral Hugh 'Quex' Sinclair, kept the
Service at its west London address for a few more years but a
need to return nearer to the seat of government prompted yet
another relocation. By 1926, SIS had moved into Broadway
Buildings, 54, Broadway, near to St James's Park Underground
Station close to the building used by the Home Office and
backing on to Queen Anne's Gate. The entrance was an unobtrusive
doorway at number 21 Queen Anne's Gate. From here Sinclair ran
his network of European stations under the cover of 'Passport
Control Offices'. Sinclair himself decided to stay close to his
work and moved in to a fourth floor apartment at the address...
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