Latest news with #AngusMurray
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Military intelligence exhibition for Blitz tunnels
The history of military intelligence will be explored as part of a planned tourist attraction in London's World War Two air raid shelter tunnels. As part of its plans to bring the Kingsway Exchange Tunnels to the public, London Tunnels will collaborate with the Museum of Military Intelligence to showcase original artefacts, equipment, weapons and documents. About 8,000 sq m of tunnels under High Holborn were built in 1942 to provide protection during the Blitz. They were later used as a home for a British spy organisation. Angus Murray, CEO, The London Tunnels, said the site was an ideal backdrop to tell the remarkable stories of men and women who played a "vital role in protecting Britain". The tunnels, which featured in the first James Bond novel, have remained unused since they were decommissioned in 1990. The exhibition will feature stories from the Battle of Britain and D-Day, the espionage operations of the Cold War, the Falklands War, peace-keeping missions and the terrorist threat of the 21st Century. General Sir Jim Hockenhull KBE ADC Gen, Commander of Strategic Command and Colonel Commandant of the Intelligence Corps, said it would be "the world's most authoritative permanent exhibition of military intelligence". The trustees of the Museum of Military Intelligence said the "historically significant and evocative location" would bring the exhibition to life. The Museum of Military Intelligence was founded by the British Army's Intelligence Corps and is now also supported by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to Opening up the 'James Bond' spy tunnels under London Museum of Military Intelligence
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Military intelligence exhibition for Blitz tunnels
The history of military intelligence will be explored as part of a planned tourist attraction in London's World War Two air raid shelter tunnels. As part of its plans to bring the Kingsway Exchange Tunnels to the public, London Tunnels will collaborate with the Museum of Military Intelligence to showcase original artefacts, equipment, weapons and documents. About 8,000 sq m of tunnels under High Holborn were built in 1942 to provide protection during the Blitz. They were later used as a home for a British spy organisation. Angus Murray, CEO, The London Tunnels, said the site was an ideal backdrop to tell the remarkable stories of men and women who played a "vital role in protecting Britain". The tunnels, which featured in the first James Bond novel, have remained unused since they were decommissioned in 1990. The exhibition will feature stories from the Battle of Britain and D-Day, the espionage operations of the Cold War, the Falklands War, peace-keeping missions and the terrorist threat of the 21st Century. General Sir Jim Hockenhull KBE ADC Gen, Commander of Strategic Command and Colonel Commandant of the Intelligence Corps, said it would be "the world's most authoritative permanent exhibition of military intelligence". The trustees of the Museum of Military Intelligence said the "historically significant and evocative location" would bring the exhibition to life. The Museum of Military Intelligence was founded by the British Army's Intelligence Corps and is now also supported by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to Opening up the 'James Bond' spy tunnels under London Museum of Military Intelligence
BBC News
7 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Military intelligence show to be housed in London Blitz tunnels
The history of military intelligence will be explored as part of a planned tourist attraction in London's World War Two air raid shelter part of its plans to bring the Kingsway Exchange Tunnels to the public, London Tunnels will collaborate with the Museum of Military Intelligence to showcase original artefacts, equipment, weapons and 8,000 sq m of tunnels under High Holborn were built in 1942 to provide protection during the Blitz. They were later used as a home for a British spy Murray, CEO, The London Tunnels, said the site was an ideal backdrop to tell the remarkable stories of men and women who played a "vital role in protecting Britain". The tunnels, which featured in the first James Bond novel, have remained unused since they were decommissioned in 1990. The exhibition will feature stories from the Battle of Britain and D-Day, the espionage operations of the Cold War, the Falklands War, peace-keeping missions and the terrorist threat of the 21st Century. General Sir Jim Hockenhull KBE ADC Gen, Commander of Strategic Command and Colonel Commandant of the Intelligence Corps, said it would be "the world's most authoritative permanent exhibition of military intelligence".The trustees of the Museum of Military Intelligence said the "historically significant and evocative location" would bring the exhibition to Museum of Military Intelligence was founded by the British Army's Intelligence Corps and is now also supported by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.
South China Morning Post
05-02-2025
- South China Morning Post
Huge new British tourist attraction to centre on World War II tunnels
Tunnels built to shelter Londoners during World War II bombing by Germany are set to be transformed into the British capital's biggest new tourist attraction for years, according to the company that has bought the sprawling network of passages. The tunnels, which are 1.6km (one mile) long and tall enough in parts to fit a double-decker bus, lie under Holborn in central London. They were dug by hand starting in late 1940, when German planes were bombing the city almost every day and night in what was known as The Blitz. During the bombing raids, Londoners headed into underground train stations for safety. By 1942, when the purpose-built tunnels were finished, the Blitz had ceased, so they were never used for shelter. 'It's real. It's emotional,' said Angus Murray, chief executive of The London Tunnels, standing in an arched steel cavern as London Underground trains rumbled overhead. The 1.6km-long tunnels lie under Holborn in central London. Photo: Reuters Murray, a former investment banker, hopes to turn the tunnels into a memorial to the Blitz, which he said would be part museum, exhibition and entertainment space. The tunnels housed spy headquarters in 1944, when James Bond author Ian Fleming worked in them for naval intelligence. The location is believed to have inspired Q Branch, where Bond goes to get his specialist equipment.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ghosts of past spies haunt London underground tunnels
Behind a blue door in a narrow London passage lies a little-known network of tunnels deep underground, once home to British spies and a secret long-distance telephone exchange. Thirty metres (100 feet) below the UK capital's bustling streets, all that can be heard in the tunnels built to withstand a nuclear attack is the rumble of the London Underground's Circle Line. The two main tunnels, five to seven metres in diameter, reached via some steps and then a lift, "were built to defend the British from the Nazis" during World War II, explained Angus Murray, on a guided visit for a small group of journalists. The Australian-born entrepreneur's private equity firm bought the little-known Kingsway Exchange Tunnels in September 2023 from British Telecom. The price has not been divulged. Now Murray hopes to transform the site, which stretches for over a mile (1.6 kilometres), into a major tourist attraction "honouring the history and heritage of London" with a planned opening in 2028. The complex beneath the Holborn district was built as an air-raid shelter during the early 1940s bombardments known as the Blitz. - Inspiration for 007 - The site is now planned to host immersive displays showcasing its distinctive heritage as a World War II bomb shelter and then as the home of the top-secret Special Operations Executive between 1944 and 1945. The Special Operations Executive was created by then prime minister Winston Churchill earlier in the war to support European resistance movements fighting occupation by Nazi Germany. Separate from the MI6 foreign intelligence service, it is considered the inspiration for "Q Branch" in Ian Fleming's James Bond franchise. After the war, the tunnels were used for storing official documents as well as a possible reserve shelter for war rooms, in case of further conflicts. The UK government later enlarged the site in the 1950s at the start of the Cold War to host a secure long-distance telephone exchange, shrouding it in official secrecy for decades. The first transatlantic telephone cable, called TAT-1, was operated from the tunnels, becoming a key cog in the so-called hotline between Moscow and Washington that emerged in the wake of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. In one of the rooms, visitors catch a glimpse of the large exchange and its plethora of plugs through which the operator could manually connect a caller with the person they were trying to reach. "Because during the war some of the telecommunications exchanges got bombed, they needed a deep level telecommunications exchange," said Murray. - Forgotten offices - The site, spread over 8,000 square metres (86,000 square feet), accommodated up to 200 staff working deep underground far from any natural light. It also featured a bar, a restaurant with mock windows, and a recreational room with snooker tables. But by the late 1980s, telecommunications technology had advanced and the complex was decommissioned. British Telecom put the site up for sale in 2008. Further along a corridor, the visitor finds a series of doors. But they only open onto the tunnel walls. Huge generators which once powered the secret communications now lie gathering dust. For years the tunnels lay in darkness, forgotten and disturbed only by some curious explorers. Some graffiti on the walls and empty beer cans dotting the ground remain the only clues to their presence. That is until Murray, a former Macquarie Group executive who founded his own hedge fund, bought the site, aiming to spend more than £200 million to turn it into an attraction worthy of two million visitors a year. "I think that we need to respect the people, the men and women that sacrificed themselves to give us all the democratic rights we have today," he said. mhc/jkb/jxb
