Christmas in Turkey - Seven Hills Hotel

In The World is Not Enough 1999, Bond and Christmas Jones take a well deserved break after saving Istanbul from being destroyed in a nuclear meltdown. In one of the last scenes they are celebrating what appears to be new years eve on a rooftop in Istanbul overlooking the Bosporus. Later that evening they retire to Bond's hotel suite. This has probably been one of the least known locations in Istanbul until now.

As Bond and Christmas literally go undercover in Bond's hotel suite, Mi6 tracks down Bond with one of their satellites. The satellite pans over Istanbul in search of 007. The Hagia Sophia and the small park between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque can be seen on the wall screen at Mi6 as it searches for Bond. The satellite finds Bond's car and zooms in on a house nearby.

M and the staff soon realises, thanks to the satellite's thermal image, that Bond has gotten to bed with Dr Jones and Q loyally shuts off the computer, claiming it must be a premature form of the millennium bug before M can get anymore details. The house where Mi6 finds Bond is actually a hotel in the oldest part of Istanbul.

"-It picks up body heat so humans come out orange.
           -It's getting redder..."

Bond's hotel can namely be found at the intersection of Tevfikhane Sokak and Utangaç Sokak. This is the Seven Hills Hotel, a high class, four star hotel in the middle of the Sulthanamet district, close by the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque located at Tevfikhane Sokak No 8. The distinctive shape of the building is easily recognizable.

Which room Bond is staying in, will probably be possible to determine if you would stay at the hotel. Until then, we have to settle for the fact that it probably is on a high floor.

Bosporus view

The hotel has a rooftop restaurant that probably modeled for the place where Bond and Dr Jones have their champagne, as seen in the top picture in this post, even though that scene in all likelihood were shot somewhere in studio, probably not even in Istanbul. If Bond and Christmas had been on the real rooftop of the Seven Hills Restaurant, the director Michael Apted could have chosen to picture the magnificent Hagia Sophia instead. From the rooftop you actually see both the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.

You find the hotel's website at www.sevenhillshotel.com.
If you do not intend to stay at the hotel, at least to have dinner at the restaurant is highly recommended.

The Galata Bridge, Istanbul

In From Russia With Love 1963, Tania walks through Istanbul to the Hagia Sophia, where she is supposed to deliver the blueprints of the Russian consulate to 007. On her way to the Hagia Sophia church she is followed by a Bulgar as she walks past a mosque in Sultanahmet, and she also walks up the stairs on the Galata Bridge. The film team had a lot of problems with crowd control, which becomes apparent when you see the crowd looking down on Tania from the bridge.

The Galata Bridge is perhaps the most famous bridge in Istanbul, which name probably is known to most people thanks to the football club based in Istanbul, Galatasaray. The bridge spans over the Golden Horn from the Eminönü district to Karaköy. The current bridge was completed in 1994 when the bridge seen in the film, originating from 1912, was damaged in a fire. However, the platform Tania walks on, can still be found in the middle of the bridge. The lower part of the bridge is filled with restaurants today, overlooking the Bosporus.

In the film, the Galata Bridge is shown twice. The second time in another establishing shot over Istanbul, seen in the picture below, just before Bond and Tania go on their boat ride on the Bosporus.

The Bosporus ferries are seen docking by the Galata bridge. You find the same view as in the film over Galata in the Beyoğlu district. The camera in the film was most likely placed somewhere on Rıhtım Caddesi to get the view seen in the picture above.

The mosque seen in the background behind Tania in the top picture, is the large Yeni Camii situated on the Golden Horn, right by the southern end of the bridge. Yeni Camii means the new mosque but the mosque was originally named Valide Sultan Mosque and dates back to the 1660's. This is one of the many famous architectural landmarks of Istanbul. The construction of the mosque had began already in 1597 and took more than half a century to complete. Part of the construction and connected to the mosque today is the famous spice market where a visit is highly recommended.

Greek dance square - Corfu town, part 3

When Melina and Bond goes shopping in Corfu town in For Your Eyes Only 1981, they walk past a few famous tourist attractions in Corfu town, such as the Saint Spyridon church , covered earlier. However, they also stop briefly at what appears to be a small town square where two Greek men are performing a traditional Greek dance.

This is actually not a town square, but rather just a street crossing in front of a small church. This location can, not unexpectedly, be found almost in the middle of the city centre. If you walk down Nikiforou Theotoki, coming from Liston, you will find the place on your left after ca 200 meters.

Bond and Melina stop for a few seconds to observe the Greek dance and then proceed to Pl. Leonida Vlachou and the Maitland rotunda. Today, you find a restaurant called Basilico facing the place where the Greek men danced. Not much else can be said about this small square other than that it is probably the least known Bond location in Corfu, only seen for a couple of seconds in the film.

The Russian Consulate / Şişli Mosque - Part 2

Quite a few scenes in From Russia With Love takes place in and around the Russian consulate in Istanbul. After killing the Bulgar who works for the Russians tailing Bond in Istanbul, Donald Grant parks the Citroën with the dead man outside of the Russian consulate on Klebb's orders, to cast suspicions on the British. The Russian entrance guard gets suspicious of Grant and walks up to the car, only to find the Bulgar dead.

The consulate is located along Halaskargazi Caddesi in the Şişli disctrict of Istanbul and in a few scenes you see a mosque visible in the far background. This mosque is called Şişli Merkez Cami and is located located in Şişli Square between the Büyükdere Avenue and the streets Halaskargazi and Abide-i Hürriyet. As seen from the above picture, a BP petrol station was located right opposite the consulate in 1963. This petrol station is gone.

The mosque is also visible when Bond arrives at the consulate in a taxi, and when Romanova leaves the consulate with her colleagues earlier in the film. Needless to say, the city has changed around the mosque, but the location is still recognizable and well-wort visiting. The fact that all the scenes outside the consulate and the actual consulate building are situated in the same place, and that they are still recognizable, makes it an exquisite location.

The Şişli mosque was the first mosque built Şişli Square during the Republican era in Turkey, after 1923. It was constructed between 1945 and 1950, due to the fact that the Şişli district was lacking a mosque at the time. It had thus only been open for about ten years at the time of filming of From Russia With Love. It is designed in the classical Ottoman architectural style.

After Grant parks the Citroën, he jumps into a taxi where Klebb is waiting, and they drive off along Halaskargazi Caddesi. During their taxi ride, another mosque is very briefly seen, covered here. This mosque is, however, located in another part of Istanbul, in the Beşiktaş disctrict by the Bosporus. Despite the vast change in the city of Istanbul, a few houses seen when Grant gets into the taxi can still be recognized on location today, for instance the beige building in the second picture below.

The entrance to the consulate garden is seen to the right.

The Russian Consulate in Istanbul - Part 1

In From Russia With Love 1963, Bond is sent to Istanbul to meet with Tatiana Romanova in order to try to obtain the Lector decoder from the Russians. He does not know that Romanova is working under orders of Colonel Klebb. Romanova is working at the Russian Consulate in Istanbul where she, unknowingly, is recruited to SPECTRE by Klebb.

The entrance gates to the garden of the Russian Consulate is seen very early in the film when Romanova and her colleagues leave for the day and later when Grant parks the Citroën with the dead Bulgar outside the entrance gate, observed by the Russian guard.

From Russia With Love was filmed during the spring and summer of 1963, mainly on location in Istanbul. Here, in the Şişli district, you can find the entrance gate and the building used as the consulate in the film.

The "Russian consulate" can be found along Halaskargazi Caddesi, and the entrance gate has the number 161. The building is located at a very large property surrounded by big garden. This is the only villa along Halaskargazi Caddesi.
If you walk to the back of the house (to street that runs along the back of the property) and you take the first small street to the right of the building, you are walking down the street 'T.M. Ali Bey'. A funny fact coincidence considering the name of Bond's ally in the film, Ali Kerim Bey.

The entrance gate and fence surround a large building, also briefly seen later in the film. The villa and the neighborhood will be covered in more detail later. This is definitely one of the best Bond locations in Istanbul and well worth a visit.

The fact that the location has not changed notably since 1963 and the fact that you can walk around this location undisturbed, since this location is unknown and of no interest to the common tourist, makes it even more memorable. A taxi from the city centre (for instance Hagia Sophia) should cost less than 25-30 Lira.

Via Veneto, Rome

I know that this post is rather far-fetched, but I think that there are enough Bond connections to Via Veneto in Rome in order for it to qualify as some kind of a Bond location. When Bond and Tracy are talking about getting married and settling down in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Tracy suggests Via Veneto in Rome. The street was made famous in the film La Dolce Vita in the early 1960's, by our Swedish actress Anita Ekberg, who of course also "played a part" in From Russia with love. 

Anita Ekberg was a frequent guest at the famous cafés and restaurants at Via Veneto and was immortalized in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita when bathing in the Trevi fountain. To Bond fans she is known from From Russia With Love, where she featured on the large movie poster for another film produced by Broccoli and Saltzman, namely "Call me Bwana".

Via Veneto became extremely popular in the 1950's and 60's when the European jet-set frequented the restaurants and cafes here. Even though the jet-set today is gone, it remains popular by tourists and it is definitely one of the more beautiful streets in Rome. However, today it would probably be regarded as somewhat tacky, and it is probably not an address that would have been favoured by Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo today. However, it remains one of the most elegant and expensive streets in Rome.

"-Mr and Mrs James Bond.
              -Of Acacia Avenue, Tunbridge Wells.
-Hmm, how about Belgrave Square?
             -Or the Via Veneto, Rome. 
-Paris, convenient for Le Touquet.
             -Monaco, handy for the Raniers. 
-I wonder how much they're asking for this place..."





Some of Rome's most renowned cafés and five star hotels, like Café de Paris, Harry's Bar, Regina Hotel Baglioni are located along Via Veneto. A walk along Via Veneto is highly recommended as well as a lunch or evening cocktail in one of the luxury hotels.

Connery in Istanbul - Dolmabahçe Mosque

After picking up Donald Grant outside the Russian Consulate Klebb and Grant drive off in a taxi. During the ride through Istanbul one particular building is briefly visible. The same building does not feature anymore in the film but a few photos show that both Connery and Armendariz actually visited this location when filming one of the scenes that were deleted from the finished film, which were shot nearby this location. The building turns out to be one of Istanbul's many mosques.

The mosque visible behind Grant and Klebb in the taxi is the Dolmabahçe Mosque, located just by the Bosporus along the road 'Meclis-i Mebusan Caddesi'. The mosque can be found in the Beşiktaş district, approximately 15 minutes by taxi from the Galata bridge. Immediately after passing the mosque, the taxi with Grant and Klebb takes off to the left on what appears to be the street 'İnebolu Sokak'.

"The cold war in Istanbul will not remain cold very much longer..."

However, it would probably not be worth the trouble to find this location if it wasn't for the picture below, namely the photograph with Sean Connery, taken during filming. In this picture Connery is standing on the street 'Dolmabahçe Gazhane Caddesi' with the mosque visible in the background. The reason for Connery's visit to this location was for the shooting of a scene that, sadly, was deleted from the finished film.

The mosque is located right next to the Dolmabahçe Palace, which was the main administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1856 to 1922, and which certainly is a much more visited tourist attraction in Istanbul than the Dolmabahçe mosque. The easiest way to get here is probably to take a taxi to the Dolmabahçe Palace, but it is also possible to take one of the Bosporus ferries to the Kabataş station. From there it is just a short walk to the south.

The deleted scene that was shot here on location features Bond, Kerim and the Bulgar who is tailing Bond earlier in the film. Apparently, Bond is on his way to meet with Romanova and is trying to loose the mysterious Bulgarian pursuer. Bond hops into a taxi and takes control of the taxi's brakes, causing the Bulgar to run into the back of the taxi. A third car joins the pile-up and the driver of the third car turns out to be Kerim. As Bond makes good his escape in the Rolls Royce, Kerim simply says to the Bulgar: "My friend, this is life". This was supposedly a brilliant scene that Terence Young shot several times in order to get the long ash on Kerim's cigarette that Pedro Armendáriz insisted on. However, during a screening it was discovered that the Bulgar in this scene had actually been killed by Grant in the St Sophia earlier. Therefore, this scene was cut and to my knowledge only a few stills survived, such as the picture below. The fact that the Bulgar's Citroën appears to have crashed into Kerim's Ford in front of it, contradicts the story that Bond was in a taxi.

The Citroën and what appears to be Kerim's Ford is visible next to Connery.

"My friend, this is life."