In the film Diamonds Are Forever, Bond fights and kills Peter Franks in the lift on his way to Tiffany Case’s apartment. The scene is set in Amsterdam, though the lift we presume was filmed on a set in Pinewood. However, there is a lift in 107 Fleet Street that claims to be the lift featured in the film.

I went with Roger my cockapoo to take a closer look and thought I’d share my photos here. I enquired about the lift at reception but unfortunately couldn’t get any more information. I have also dropped an email to a company connected to that address, and will update if I hear anything back. You can watch my short video of going inside the lift Ad-free on YouTube here.

In the video, Inside Diamonds Are Forever, Guy Hamilton director speaks about creating that scene:

“There is no more boring than a couple of blokes swinging at each other and I began to think about having a fight in this elevator because it would be fun. They would break the glass and they would shatter the whole thing and obviously as it came to a floor, your head would be chopped off. And put the two largest guys I could think of in a small elevator and they would love to swing at each other, but every time I moved back my elbow has gone through this (glass).”

Joe Robinson who played Peter Franks in the film, also spoke about that scene:

“Bob Simmons who is our stunt gaffer he loved the idea. Sean and me both wrote the fight ourselves. Some of Bob’s ideas were good but we thought we could improve on the ideas. And you (Guy) approved of what we were doing so that was the main thing. I worked with Sean before, I taught Sean judo. To see this small lift and see Sean both of us 6’2 and 220lbs, it was quite something and I thought it was a brilliant idea. I remember Sean saying, look, what are they going to do next have a fight in a telephone box?”

Martijn Mulder from On the Tracks of 007 said of this lift in Fleet Street,

“Nothing to be confused about. It’s a completely different elevator. No idea why they claim to be that elevator. Even a blind person sees it’s not.”

Interesting fact about Joe Robinson

The guy Bond is fighting here, Joe Robinson, was actually a boss in real life. He once fought off a group of about 10 muggers by himself when he was 70. He taught Connery judo for YOLT and he accidentally pulled off Connery’s toupee when they were filming this scene. – Comment on YouTube.