House of Spies: St Ermin's Hotel, the London Base of British EspionageSt Ermin’s Hotel has been at the centre of British intelligence since the 1930s, when it was known to MI6 as ‘The Works Canteen’. Intelligence officers such as Ian Fleming and Noel Coward were to be found in the hotel’s Caxton Bar, along with other less well-known names. Winston Churchill allegedly conceived the idea of the Special Operations Executive there over a glass (or two) of his favourite champagne in the early days of the Second World War, and the operation was started up in three gloomy rooms on the hotel’s second floor, with the traitorous Cambridge Spies among its founders. When Stalin’s Russia turned to a peacetime enemy in the Cold War that followed, Kim Philby and Guy Burgess handed over intelligence to their Russian counterparts in the dark corners of the hotel, while MI6 man George Blake operated as a Soviet double agent just across the road in Artillery Mansions. Meanwhile, St Ermin’s proximity to government offices ensured its continued use by both domestic and foreign secret agents. In this first book on St Ermin’s, Peter Matthews, a witness to the intelligence battle for supremacy between MI5, MI6 and the KGB, explores this remarkable true history that is more riveting than any spy novel. |
Other editions - View all
House of Spies: St Ermin's Hotel, the London Base of British Espionage Peter Matthews Limited preview - 2016 |
House of Spies: St Ermin's Hotel, the London Base of British Espionage Peter Matthews No preview available - 2016 |
House of Spies: St Ermin's Hotel, the London Base of British Espionage Peter Matthews No preview available - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
Abwehr Admiralty aircraft airlift Allied American Army’s assault attack battle became began Berlin Blake Bletchley Park bomb Britain British intelligence Broadway Burgess Cambridge Spy Ring Churchill Churchill’s cipher city’s code breakers Cold Cold War Command communist convoy cooperation country’s created cryptographic DDay decoded diplomatic double agent East Germany enemy enemy’s Enigma machine espionage Europe explosive fleet forces Foreign Office France French Resistance Gatow Gehlen German Army Germany’s harbour Hitler huge intelligence agencies intelligence community intelligence evaluations intelligence officer intelligence service intercepted invasion knew Kriegsmarine landings later listening London Luftwaffe messages military Moscow Mulberry harbour Navy Nazis needed operation organisation particularly Philby radio recruited Red Army Room 40 Russian sabotage secret sector security services senior ships signals intelligence soldiers Soviet Union spies St Ermin’s Hotel staff Stalin station supply TICOM took transmissions troops Uboat wireless