Safe house

After a much more restful night’s sleep, and a coffee from Pure, we were stood outside Charing Cross Station at 10am with a small group of strangers. We were all here for the James Bond Walking Tour of London, which was one of the presents I’d bought PY for his birthday. The blurb said we were going to visit “over ten filming locations featured in films ranging from Die Another Day to Spectre”.  Somewhere along the way I lost count but we did walk from Charing Cross, through parts of Covent Garden, round Admiralty Arch and down Whitehall. Then, we boarded a bus for Vauxhall where we all stared at the real life spies in the MI6 building. None of them waved back.

This is the outside of a building that was used as a scene in one of the films. The interesting thing is that it’s entirely sealed up. I do wonder how film companies get to use these locations.  Our guide, who was throughly knowledgable and very well versed in the minute details of the films, had some stills that showed Bond exiting here.  

Possibly the most interesting stop was at Rules restaurant in Covent Garden. It claims to be London's oldest restaurant and with a history stretching back to 1798 has only been owned by only three families. The Bond connection comes from the film Spectre when M, Q and Moneypenny meet at Rules. I thought I had wandered all over this part of Covent Garden over the years but I’ve never come across London’s oldest restaurant before, Perhaps we will book dinner one day.