Houses of Parliament - Strahov monastery, Prague

In Casino Royale, after Bond has killed Mollaka the Bomb maker at the embassy in Madagascar, M is summoned to appear in front of a committee in the Houses of Parliament. Bond's actions are questioned by the committee and they hold M responsible. M and Villiers are walking through what appears to be the Houses of Parliament after the meeting. 

The scene in the film pictures the Parliament and then cuts to the Committee room where M and Villiers are walking out.

"Christ I miss the cold war!"

The library, however, is not located in London, but in a monastery in Prague. The hall where M and Villiers are walking through is called the Philosophical Hall, and can be found at the Strahov Monastery. The monastery was founded in 1143 and the Philosophical Hall dates back to the late 1700's. The entire hall was totally renovated between 2009-2010.

The Philosophical Hall is open for the public, but only through the main entrance. If you want to walk through the halls you need to call ahead and book a tour. Due to the temperature changes only small groups are allowed in the hall a the same time. The film team probably managed to film there due to the fact that the hall were to be renovated a few years later.

In the adjacent room to the Philosophical Hall, a fake wall with the committee room entrance was put up. It is quite obvious that the walls with the red wallpaper are backdrops. Especially when you look through the room in the background.

Bookshelves from the Theological Hall can be seen in the background 

In the far background you can see a very small part of the the Theological Hall which is another library located parallel to the Philosophical Hall in the monastery.

Theological Hall

"I give Bond 00 status and he celebrates by shooting up an embassy! Is the man deranged?!"

Skyfall Embankment station - London

In Skyfall, Silva escapes from the custody of Mi6 and down in the London underground tunnels. Bond pursuits Silva on the tube which evidently is hard during rush hour. Silva gets off the tube, escapes though a service entrance and supposedly emerges at Embankment station, located at Northumberland Avenue. The entrance to Embankment is seen in the background as Silva is being picked up by two of his henchmen.

However, the notably round building doubling for Embankment station is in reality one of the entrances to Charing Cross station, which is located above the real Embankment tube station. Thus, the building is not an underground station entrance. On top of the round building is instead Charing Cross station and through the tunnel, visible to the right in the above picture, is the real Embankment station.

We are supposed to get the impression that the Embankment station is located close to M's public hearing which supposedly is taking place somewhere in Whitehall. However, the building that was used for M's hearing is in reality located at Trinity Square, covered here earlier. This building is located close to the Tower of London, and thus not at all within normal running distance from Westminster.

Silva is coming up from some kind of service entrance from the underground before getting into the police car. It is unclear where the steps lead to that Silva is coming up from. Seen through the fence, when Silva is coming out, is the beautiful park Whitehall Gardens.

A fictitious Underground sign was put up on the metal frame above the stairs.

Silva is coming up from some steps next to a small building located at the intersection of Whitehall Place and Northumberland Avenue right at the corner of Corinthia Hotel.

Corinthia Hotel is actually another lesser known Bond location. This was namely the hotel where the Spectre cast stayed when they were in London for the premiere. When visiting London for the premiere with some friends we were fortunate enough to have tea in the lobby at Corinthia and actually came across both Christoph Waltz, also having tea at the time, Lea Seydoux having some red wine with a few friends, and Craig (!) having neither tea nor wine but only rushing through the lobby...

It was a memorable afternoon tea I can assure you.

Hildebrand Prints and Rarities - The Mi6 Safe House in Spectre

When realising that C, a.k.a. Max Denbigh has gone rogue in Spectre, M, Q and Moneypenny retreat to an Mi6 safe house in central London to regroup. Quite unexpectedly, they find Bond in the safe house, confirming to M: "it's safe". The safe house is located on the roof of a building located right by Trafalgar Square.

In the film, is the entrance to the safe house hidden in an old shop named Hildebrand, selling prints and rarities. The sign to the shop at the entrance reads:

                            Hildebrand
                       Prints and rarities
                 Established 1953, London

The name on the shop is one of the many references to previous Bond films and Ian Fleming that can be found in Spectre. The shop is named Hildebrand, which of course is a reference to Ian Fleming and one of the short stories he wrote named "The Hildebrand Rarity". This short story is included in Fleming's book "For Your Eyes Only" which is a collection of five short stories called: "From a View to a Kill", "For Your Eyes Only", "Quantum of Solace", "Risico" and "The Hildebrand Rarity". The year 1953 is of course a reference to the year when Fleming wrote Casino Royale.

The film License to Kill is based very loosely on a few elements in Fleming's short story "The Hildebrand Rarity". Inter alia the character Milton Krest and the whip used by Sanchez in the film both feature in the book. So far are "Risico" and "The Hildebrand Rarity" two of the original Ian Fleming titles that have not yet been used as a name for a Bond film.

The safe house is located on the roof of the building at No. 35 Spring Gardens, overlooking Trafalgar Square.    

Sackler Room at the National Gallery - Skyfall paintings

In Skyfall, Bond meets with Q at the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square to get his equipment and ticket to Shanghai. Bond is waiting in Room 34 in the British gallery, where paintings of British painters between 1750 and 1850 are displayed.

Bond is looking at the famous oil painting by William Turner called "The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838".

It pictures the HMS Temeraire, which had played a distinguished role in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, being towed away on the Thames to be broken up for scrap, after less than 40 years in service. In the film, the painting came to symbolise Bond's age and the claim that he may have had his day.

The painting has been voted Britain's favourite painting in a poll organised by BBC Radio in 2005.

One of the paintings on the opposite wall, seen behind Bond, is Thomas Gainsborough's painting of "Mr and Mrs William Hallett (The morning walk)" from 1785. This painting can still be found hanging on the same wall as in the film.

It becomes obvious that some of the paintings have been rearranged since 2012, even though Thomas Gainsborough's painting of Mr and Mrs William Hallett appears to hang in the same place. In the film, to the left of Gainsborough (behind Q) is Joseph Wright of Derby's famous painting "An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump" from 1768. This painting had been moved at the time of my last visit in October 2015, and been replaced with another William Turner painting, namely "The parting of Hero and Leander" seen in the picture below.

"Report to the new Quartermaster for your documentation. He hasn't set up shop yet but Tanner will put you two together."
      - M to Bond - 

The meeting takes place in the Sackler Room, room No. 34, at the National Gallery located at Trafalgar Square. Room 34 contains artwork from British painters, painted between 1750 and 1850.

The Sackler Room is named after Dr. Mortimer Sackler, who was an American physician and entrepreneur. He gave millions of pounds to numerous educational, scientific and cultural institutions and enabled the restoration of the principal British gallery at the National Gallery.

Just as Timothy Dalton's line "farewell to arms" in License to Kill was a reference to Earnest Hemingway's novel, which house Bond and M was meeting in, Bond's line in Skyfall: "Brave new world" is a reference to another author. 'Brave new world' was a novel written by the British author Aldous Huxley.

"-A gun, and a radio... Not exactly Christmas is it?
-What did you expect, an exploding pen? We don't really go in for that anymore."
                          - Bond and Q -

Perhaps the line "brave new world" also is reference to the line "farewell to arms" in License to Kill, since Bond is not getting very much equipment from Q. Just a gun and a radio...
Bond is obviously not too happy with the equipment or the new Quartermaster.

Room 34 at the National Gallery

M's restaurant in Spectre - Rules' Restaurant

Finally, our long awaited Spectre, Craig's forth installment and the 24th film in series, premiered in London on 26 October earlier this week. Naturally, a trip to London for the premiere was inevitable. It had been reported earlier this year that the film team had shot a few scenes with M, Q and Moneypenny in Covent Garden, namely at Rules Restaurant. We therefore took the opportunity to make reservations for a late night dinner.

In the film, M is having dinner in the restaurant, drinking red wine when Q and Moneypenny come in. A short dialogue follows after which M leaves the table and walks out.

As we had yet to see how Rules would feature in the film, we had made reservations for a late night dinner following the premiere on Monday. Walking into the restaurant after the premiere that evening was very special. M's table could be spotted easily as the big painting hanging over the table (the above picture) could be recognised from the film.

Quite unexpectedly the head waiter told us, as we looked around the restaurant: "don't worry, I've given you the table", and showed us straight to M's.

The dinner was excellent, with sterling service from the staff. Since the last order for food is 23.00 (at least on Mondays) the restaurant was fairly empty during our visit. We ordered hare, lamb and whole duck, all excellently prepared. The English sparkling water Hildon can also be seen in the restaurant in the film. The restaurant was established in 1798, which makes it the oldest restaurant in London. It is located at Maiden Lane in Covent Garden and serves traditional British food, specializing in game birds, small game, oysters, pies and pudding etc.

Filming at Rules took place on and around 22 May this year. One of the waiters told us that filming took three days during which time the restaurant was closed and the staff were put on leave with pay. Only a few of the staff was needed during filming.

M picks up his umbrella from the umbrella stand and leaves as Q and Moneypenny are standing in the restaurant foyer. The exterior is only briefly seen in the film.

              "He's on his own..."
                         - M -

The Shanghai Skyscraper - Broadgate Tower, London

In Skyfall Bond tracks down the assassin Patrice who has stolen the secret hard drive and escaped in Istanbul. In the film, very little is known about Patrice, but thanks to intelligence from the CIA, Mi6 learns that Patrice will turn up in Shanghai in two days time. Patrice is apparently going to carry out an assassination from a skyscraper in that city.

When Patrice arrives at the Shanghai Pudong Airport he takes a taxi downtown, followed by Bond dressed up as a private chauffeur. Even though some car scenes were filmed in Shanghai, none of the principal cast were ever on location in red China. Rather surprisingly, this location can be found in central London, namely 20 Primrose Street.

For the exterior shots of the Shanghai skyscraper, the filmmakers used Broadgate Tower, located in the main business district in the City of London. Next to Broadgate, two other skyscrapers were added digitally in the film to make it look more like the densely built city of Shanghai. With its 165 meters, Broadgate is the 12th tallest building in London. It was constructed between 2005 and 2009. The interior scenes from Shanghai airport were actually also filmed in England, at another old Bond location, namely the Royal Ascot racecourse which Bond visited in A View to a Kill. Skyfall is thereby the second film in the Bond series where a racecourse has doubled as an airport. In GoldenEye, the exterior of St Petersburg airport was filmed at Epsom Racecourse in Surrey.

Bond follows Patrice into the building and finds a dead guard after walking up some escalators. These escalators can also be found on location inside the building and are accessible from the lobby.

The elevator where Patrice enters and Bond "hangs on" was re-constructed by the filmmakers and cannot be found on location. The rest of the interior scenes in the skyscraper were also shot in studio.

Among the more notable tenants of Broadgate Tower you find reputable law firm Reed Smith LLP. Many thanks to my esteemed colleague on secondment at Reed Smith, senior associate Bità Pourmotamed, for valuable information and the pictures.