Cold War London: Spies of Mayfair & Westminster

London, United Kingdom

50 tickets 3.2 km · about 1 hr 40 mins · 12 stops · Standard walk How Walking Tickets work

Cold War EraSecret & Hidden

This route explores Cold War London, where Britain and the Soviet Union fought a hidden war through espionage, surveillance, and secret communications. It follows the city’s role as a major spy capital, shaped by government, diplomacy, finance, and intelligence work. Key stops include the Audley Square Spy Lamp Post, Leconfield House, 54 Broadway, Palmer Street, and St Ermin’s Hotel. Along the way, it reveals how ordinary streets and elegant buildings concealed some of the era’s most dangerous betrayals.

The stops

01
Audley Square Spy Lamp Post
Audley Square Spy Lamp Post is the lamp post outside Number 2 Audley Square in Mayfair, where a genuine KGB dead letter box operated in the 1950s.
02
Leconfield House
Leconfield House is an office block in Curzon Street, Mayfair, that served as the headquarters of the Security Service from 1945 to 1976.
03
Site of Curzon Street House (1-4 Curzon Street)
The Site of Curzon Street House at 1 to 4 Curzon Street in Mayfair was a Security Service building used from 1978 for registry, administration, and technical services.
04
White's Club
White's Club is a gentlemen's club at 37 to 38 Saint James's Street whose members included Sir Stewart Menzies, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service from 1939 to 1952.
05
The Economist Building (25 St James's Street)
The Economist Building at 25 Saint James's Street is the modern home of The Economist and marks the later journalistic cover associated with Kim Philby.
06
14 Ryder Street
14 Ryder Street in Saint James's housed Section Five counterespionage offices of the Secret Intelligence Service during the later years of the Second World War.
07
2 Carlton Gardens
2 Carlton Gardens is a town house off The Mall that housed Section Y of the Secret Intelligence Service and hosted early planning for Operation Gold.
08
The Blue Bridge, St James's Park
The Blue Bridge in Saint James's Park is a bridge over the lake designed by Eric Bedford in 1957 and favoured for discreet meetings by intelligence officers.
09
21 Queen Anne's Gate
21 Queen Anne's Gate is a townhouse in Westminster that housed a covert Secret Intelligence Service annex, including the Passport Control Office cover and a residence for successive chiefs known as 'C'.
10
54 Broadway (Broadway Buildings)
54 Broadway in Westminster, part of Broadway Buildings, served as the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service from the mid-1920s until 1964 under the cover name Minimax Fire Extinguisher Company.
11
Former GCHQ London Office, Palmer Street
The Former Government Communications Headquarters London Office on Palmer Street is a red-brick block above Saint James's Park Underground station that served as the agency's covert London base from 1953 to 2019.
12
St Ermin's Hotel & the Caxton Bar
St Ermin's Hotel and the Caxton Bar is a Victorian hotel in Westminster where Section D and the Special Operations Executive were based and where Cold War intelligence officers regularly met.