Below is a list of London Locations featured in John Pearson’s wonderful book, James Bond The Unauthorised Biography of 007. I’m referring to the Hard Copy book with regards to pages and chapters.
I have also included these locations to the online Bond locations map.
Ch1 – This is Commander Bond
John Pearson meets a Mr Hopkins for lunch. Mr Hopkins makes arrangements to introduce John to the real James Bond.
Somewhat incongruously he suggested the next day ay the National Liberal Club in Whitehall. (Also mentioned that cottage pie is the staple dish at Liberals). Pg8
The NLC’s rear entrance on Whitehall Place appears in Skyfall (2012) as an exit from the London Underground, where Silva walks towards the camera.
At a second meeting he is invited out to lunch at Kettner’s (typed Kettners in the book) to meet a man called Urquhart. Another intermediary between him and James Bond. Pg9. Kettner’s is one of London’s oldest restaurants. More info through the Soho House website here.
They order a bottle of chianti. “Brolio not Broglio as Ian would insist on spelling it. But then he wasn’t very good with wines. Pg10.”
Bond spent a month at the King Edward the Seventh Hospital for Officers on Beaumont Street suffering from acute hepatitis. Pg12. A private hospital still in operation today.
The Unauthorised Biography of 007
Ch 2 – Boyhood of a Spy
With Andrew appointed to head office, he took a house in Wimbledon, 6 North View, an echoing Victorian monstrosity facing the Common. Here the Bonds settled for the summer. Pg29.
James’s brother, Henry, was the only one who seemed unscathed by life. The two boys were entered for the summer term at Kings College School. Pg30.
The doctor came and Monique (James Bond’s mum) was sent off to a sanatorium at Sunningdale. Pg30.
James Bond remembers how his father saw him and his brother off from King’s Cross for their summer holiday in Glencoe. Pg30.
The Unauthorised Biography of 007
Ch 4 – Luminous Reader
James Bond met his teacher three days later in an over-furnished flat off Baker Street. Pg58.
Ch 6 – Bond’s War
Bond meets Fleming in The Dorchester,
Bond was ordering his favourite Martini – the bar, to his surprise, had Gordon’s gin – ‘And do make sure,’ he told the barman, ‘that it is…’
‘Shaken, not stirred,’ a voice behind him said. Bond turned, and there was Fleming.’ Pg110.
Ch 7 – Scandal
Bond is dismissed from the service and walks down Baker Street,
The Dorchester is mentioned again,
Bond started shopping around for work,
He lunched alone, generally in a pub along King’s Road.
The rent on the flat in Lincoln Street was due.
Bond is offered a job at Harrods as store detective by a wartime colleague. He would accept the job on the day his fortunes changed. Pg 144-145.
Bond has lunch in the grill room at the Ritz (he loved the grill room at Ritz) with Maddox who had recruited him long ago for the service. Pg 145.
The Unauthorised Biography of 007
Ch 8 – 007 is Born
One of the most exclusive dining clubs in London is the so-called Twinsnakes Club. Fleming had mentioned it much to the chagrin of some of its straightlaced members. It meets once a year, generally at the Connaught Hotel, and consists of the most distinguished members, past and present of the British Secret Service. Pg158.
This club is not an actual club physical, but a club of people. Fleming mentions it in The Man With The Golden Gun he muses about the annual ‘dinner for Old Boys – the fraternity of ex-Secret Service men that went under the name of The Twin Snakes Club. A grisly reunion held in the banqueting hall of Blades.
Bond stayed at a Hotel in Bloomsbury (undetermined). Pg 164.
He bought a King-sized double bed from Harrods ‘if you like women cheap bedding is a false economy’. Pg167.
His favourite included steak au poivre (his secret here was to use Madras black pepper from Fortnums, leaving the raw steak in it overnight) kidneys in red wine with parsley, grilled country sausages from Paxtons, and of course, scrambled eggs.
Ch 9 – Casino
He (Bond) walked down Baker Street to take the underground; by the station he paused to buy an evening paper. Pg 192.
Ch 10 – Vendetta
Bond had been dining with his favourite married woman at the White Tower Restaurant in Percy Street. (Today it is the House of Ho, a fine dining modern Vietnamese restaurant with a sister site in Soho). Pg 213.
(An attempt on Bond’s life occurs on the drive back to Chelsea). Bond spent the next half hour seeing her safely into St George’s Hospital, and then coping with the police. Pg 213.
Ch 12 – Bond Cocu
Fleming described how James Bond sent May a telegram in advance saying that he was coming and ordering flowers and Floris bath essence for the arrival home. Pg 233.
He showed her London, not the London of the guide books, but his private London – London of the river and docks , the City empty on a Saturday evening when there was just one pub by Cannon Street will open, Covent Garden in the early morning.
They ate at the last Chinese restaurant in Limehouse (Bond had first met the owner in different circumstances in Hong Kong), and dined at the Ritz (‘the finest dining room in Europe’) at Scott’s (the inevitable grilled plaice and black velvet at Fleming’s ‘Honeymooners’ Table’) and at a taxi-driver’s shelter in Victoria ‘the best sausages and mash in London).
Bond also showed her the crown jewels, the Soane Museum, Savile Row, the reptile house at London Zoo and took her on a late-night tour of the sewers. They bought smoked salmon in a shop off Cable Street, caviare in Clerkenwell, Steak in Smithfield, and had champagne and strawberries sent from Fortnums. Pg 234.
Thanks to Bond she (Tiffany Case) had ben admitted to England without a passport. Immigration had told her to obtain one later from her (American) embassy. With Bond away it seemed an opportunity to do so; she took a taxi off to Grosvenor Square. Pg 240.
Click to buy physical Map of Bond locations in London
Ch14 – The Truth about M.
He told himself this was stupid – especially now this was needing a new engine and regularly costing more each year to run. Wakeford, the former Bentley mechanic who looked after it for him had obviously grown tired of it, and it was Wakeford who told him about the Bentley Continental which, in Fleming’s graphic phrase, ‘some rich idiot had married to a telegraph pole on the Great West Road‘. Pg 275
Bond found her (Moneypenny) in a state of near prostration after one afternoon non-stop with M. and took her out to Alvaro’s in the Kings Road, where he thought the pasta was the best in London. Pg 281.
*There might be two locations for this restaurant, the original one and the current one as described on their website.
