Secret wartime tunnels below London to become a spy museum, memorial and bar
Due to open in 2028, the 90,000 sq ft site below London that possibly inspired James Bond is set to become a major tourist attraction
There is a part of London that few people have seen: a place where the city prepared for the Blitz, James Bond’s creator got inspiration, and secret Cold War messages passed between Washington and Moscow.
It is a network of tunnels 100 feet (30 metres) below the streets that was secret for decades – but could be the city’s next big tourist destination.
Local authorities have approved plans to fill the 90,000 sq ft (8,360 square metre) site with an intelligence museum, an interactive World War II memorial and one of the world’s deepest underground bars.
“It’s an amazing space, an amazing city,” says Angus Murray, chief executive of The London Tunnels, as underground trains rattle overhead. “And I think it tells a wonderful story.”
The tunnels lie directly below London Underground’s Central Line in the city’s Holborn area. Work on them began in secret in 1940, when Britain feared invasion by Nazi Germany. They were designed to shelter up to 8,000 people from bombs in a pair of parallel tunnels 16.5 feet (5 metres) wide and 1,300 feet long.