Queen Anne's Gate — The Spy Chief's Secret Passage

Queen Anne's Gate in London is a street of Georgian townhouses that secretly served as the headquarters and home of British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) chiefs for nearly forty years. At Number 21, MI6 Chief Sir Stewart Menzies used a secret underground tunnel to commute directly to headquarters at 54 Broadway without stepping outside. The site also housed Soviet double agent Kim Philby during World War II.

London · from the walk “Secrets of Westminster & MI6” · audio ~4 min · Generated

Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1H 9AB

How did MI6 chief Sir Stewart Menzies travel between his Queen Anne's Gate residence and headquarters?

Take a look at this quiet, elegant street. Queen Anne's Gate. Beautiful Georgian townhouses, ornate doorcases carved with foliage and figureheads... It looks like nothing more than one of London's most refined residential lanes. But behind these handsome facades lies one of the greatest espionage stories in British history.......... You're standing in the shadow of Britain's secret intelligence headquarters.......... Just behind these houses, at fifty-four Broadway, stood a building with a mansard roof that served from the nineteen twenties as the main operating base of MI six. During the Second World War, a brass plaque on the door identified it as the offices of the "Minimax Fire Extinguisher Company." That was the cover story. Inside was the nerve center of British espionage.......... Now, Number twenty-one Queen Anne's Gate... this is where it gets extraordinary. Sir Stewart Menzies, the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, the man known simply as "C"... lived Right Here. And he had access to a tunnel connecting his private residence directly to MI six headquarters at fifty-four Broadway. He could slip between home and office completely unseen, never once stepping onto a public street. As one biographer noted, to get to his office, he never had to go outside.......... But Menzies wasn't the first spymaster on this street. Before him, his predecessor Admiral Hugh Sinclair also kept a flat here and used the same passageway. And before Them both, this very building housed the Passport Control Office, which moved in during September nineteen twenty-six... a well-known cover for Sis officers operating abroad.......... And who else walked these corridors? None other than Kim Philby, the most devastating double agent in British history. Philby worked inside fifty-four Broadway during the war, passing secrets to Moscow while sitting just meters from the spymaster's private tunnel. He later described the headquarters as "a dingy building, a warren of wooden partitions and frosted glass windows."

...... Here's a twist most people don't know. Menzies was actually Denied a Blue Plaque on this street. Despite his enormous contributions, including overseeing Bletchley Park and the cracking of the Enigma code... the committee ruled they could not ignore his promotion of Philby, the very Soviet mole who betrayed them all.......... And one more thing! The First ever chief of MI six, Captain Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming, set a tradition on this street that defines the service to this day. He signed documents only with the letter "C"... in green ink. Every MI six chief has done the same ever since. Cumming was also famous for testing new recruits by suddenly Stabbing his own wooden leg with a penknife during interviews. If the candidate flinched... he'd say, "Well, I'm afraid you won't do."

...... So look around you. This tranquil street of Grade One listed townhouses, where Lord Palmerston was born, where the philosopher John Stuart Mill once lived... was simultaneously the secret beating heart of British intelligence for nearly Forty years.

Unlocked for everyone by someone who walked here

Nearby stories