Reminds me of Pentagon, they have an underground train station that goes directly into the building but is heavily guarded so you can only go in with permission
MI6 isn’t a nickname, but is an initialism of military intelligence section 6. MI6 was used because they were a lot of British intelligence services operating during the Second World War, and it would make communication more clear.
Australian here. I was living in London a few years ago and I wandered past this building one day without knowing what it was - then I noticed its hostile exterior. It's like something out of a movie. In fact it is something out of a movie I found out later - one of the James Bonds. I gave the close cameras a wave and one then rotated in my direction lol.
The building is a decoy. Most of the actual headquarters is underground and only accessable from undisclosed locations. But the part about the exterior building being built like a fortress is pretty accurate.
I believe it's underground..when I was a cat burglar, I accidentally found a secret way underground in Leeds city centre...half the city has underground hidden shit so I reckon MI6 be well better...
Kinda figured most of it was underground and why it’s not mentioned. There’s more underground tunnels and bases than people realize and man has been doing this since ancient times.
There's lots of underground offices etc from WW2. They'll have been strengthened and improved etc. There's buildings in London with floors elevators don't stop at. There's bollards with tech in them to jam certain frequencies.
@@osmacar5331 I never said it was actually an oxymoron… I said it SOUNDS like one. Obviously the agents themselves aren’t famous, just the organization.
@@busystreet38 OP is applying how the real intelligence world works. They are right. Intelligence officers come from the country doing the intelligence and agents are hired from the target country. It's also quite unlikely that considering the line of work Bond has, that he would be employed directly by the English government. He would be ex SAS or similar working for a random contractor.
They are likely to have multiple sub offices and facilities around the world. There is apparently a real life Q, an may be I'm wrong but I doubt Q works in that office.
Years ago, when i was in the reserves, we had a training day on the themes on land and sea vehicles. I was absolutely desperate for a whizz, and my staff Sargent wouldn't let me pee off the back on to the engine, so we stopped off on the shore front and i ran up and had a pee on a wall that was there. Anyways, it turned out to be the side of the Mi6 building, and before i could shake my little chappy dry, i was surrounded by armed police and armed guys in suits. Had to stand with my hands on my head, with my little peter swaying in the wind with an automatic rifle pointed at my face. After everything was explained, they said i could have used the first floor toilets. Ffs
I worked for a scaffolding company and some of us got to put some scaffolding up for handrails on the roof so they could have some work done, we had to have a police check and drug tested, and our I.D. was changed every day, pretty cool place to be fair. Obviously, we only had access to certain areas. And no I did not see Bond, M, Q or Moneypenny, it's not like they heard that before. 😂
For anyone, Curious, a faraday cage is a metal cage which has been designed to keep in all signals and also keep out all signals so it means that your devices will work directly with each other, but it means that no electronic signals are going in or out of the room that will be within the faraday cage. The word cage will be in reference to the metal cage, like acoustic technology they needed to Work
I have a faraday key pouch for my Range Rover evoge, to keep it theft proof, however if they did manage to get their mits on it I’ve hidden an apple tag in the lining inside, so ok then ….
There are tunnels that run directly underneath the Thames from MI6 to vauxhall bridge then on to vauxhall bridge road 3 separate tunnels 1 direct to parliament 2nd to Downing Street and third tunnnel to buckingham palace 👍
I can assure there is more than one faraday cage in that building. My company wires SCIFs which is just the US govt's name for a faraday cage. I would bet that there are over 100 of them in Melbourne, FL alone. I know one building that has 8 of them.
I wonder how often they have to update those faraday cage systems. I worked for a computer manufacturer back in the 1980s and we had two of them for testing RF emissions leaks for FCC approval. Computer equipment was changing so rapidly back then it seemed we were updating one of them each year to account for the faster speeds/changes in frequencies.
Many years ago when I was about to leave the Royal Air Force I applied for a photographic job with the SIS. Interestingly the job description stated that applicants ‘must not have a fear of heights or enclosed spaces’. I never found out why because I failed the pre-interview aptitude test! (Interviews were scheduled to be held in a central London hotel).
@@WTU208 - Which ‘God’ though? Wotan? Zeus? Thor? Allah? Vishnu? Ra? Bacchus? One of the the many thousands of Shinto deities? The Flying Spaghetti Monster? Mankind has invented so many of these ridiculous mythical beings.
@@c4yourself319 Sorry but this is nonsense. 00s are only from 001 to 0035. Appreciate if you show some respect to the agency that has kept people like you, the civilian, safe in the face of international threat
Actually I did wander all around the building perimeter and watching the CCTV cameras, I then crossed the street and entered the Ducati showroom opposite them and minutes later some special force task police motorbikers (if I remember right, were wearing orange veste so not at all dressed like regular police) invaded the shop, they were at least 6 of them and I was asked to stand outside. Another 2 special force police vehicles were stationed there, as well from a very distinct colour that it could have been either secret services or special force. They asked for me ID, I didn't have it on me but I worked as a bouncer so had my security licence with me. They ran a check on it and verified that indeed I was a certified licensed security man so from that point on their had a more comprehensive attitude toward me but they explained that I had no business walking around that perimeter and glancing at the CCTVs .. It was basically -- OFF LIMIT -- and that was the reason I was being checked out. I could easily had been detained if I had not produced any form of ID .. Moral of the story: if you wander around the strict close perimeter of that building, you WILL get arrested and very much likely detained if you cannot show who you are and what your intentions were .. Scary.
@@ClearGalaxies You can have a normal walk around its perimeter as long as you keeping your head down and not repeatedly looking or starring at the CCTVs .. If you make repeated stops in that pathway that goes all around and is of public access, you will get arrested. If you go there, best is you keep looking at the Thame river right on front and not minding what's on the other side.
@@ClearGalaxies Absolutely. In worst case scenario, you'ld be detained if 1) you couldnt produce any form of ID 2) you were from a none european ethnicity (even if being able to produce an ID in that case) 3) if you were doing any recording showing its perimeter (therefore its building) in the background or 4) were wandering around back and forth ..
It also has fart protection systems, youre able to let off a level 3 poo mist and you dont have to worry about ever smelling it, churchhill said it was a revolutionary
I live near a police HQ that has a perimeter fence, and then out front it has bollards. Theres a section of nicely landscaped garden right in front of the building and rather than have bollards in the lawn looking bad, they put in a ha-ha instead. Really interesting to see landscaping used as part of the building's defences, and it's the kind of thing most people walk past and never think about.
Hi, can confirm that the building is secure. It's extremely difficult to conduct surveillance on the premises, let alone try to assault the building itself.
Rumours have it Chuck Norris has entered the building, walked up ther stairs, absailed down the outside before a security guard has been able to radio in an alert..
If you’re trying to spy on someone you don’t brute force your way in with violence. Chances are there may be a secret agent from other nations that infiltrated it as an double agent, or at least at one point or another.
@@nicolasmarkham9656Sort of. They do satire but they also have a section for legitimate journalism, basically to show up the papers by reporting stories before they do
I remember driving past this place when I was on holiday. Such a cool thought to have driven past such a suspicious building, almost hidden in plain sight.
I used to work at a product release data center for a big tech company.. and it had a special room with dual layer security wherein devs couldn't bring in their own phones or laptops, you could call that eavesdropping-proof. The server room itself was completely surrounded by a faraday cage blocking all cell and radio signals. So, i totally believe that MI6 has all those things and more, haha.
originally constructed as a spec office building. Purchased by the government and heavily refurbished. I was involved with the new MI5 HQ across the river with my temporary office next to the Vauxhall Cross (as it was initially named.) Both building projects were ongoing at the same time so it was interesting to walk from my office past MI6 HQ to the new MI5 HQ project on a daily basis.
Known as legoland by those who work here. Your pass will take you to a certain floor. A certain door on that floor and then only to your desk. Working remotely these days
And M has an office at the top. There is also a laboratory in the basement where they make cool gadgets. Usually Bond steals the flash cars from there too.
@slimshady6242 Wow, a grammar Nazi. You're so smart. Lmao slimshaby 😃 😀 😄 😁 🤣. Says everything. Go worship your idols, and please don't drive your girlfriend over a bridge because Shady makes you feel a certain way.
Bond was based on my grandfather he ran MI6 in Norway and was awarded the CMG/OBE, I've held some heavy water in the 60s. He was Scottish obviously. Corroborated by Wikipedia. Although Wikipedia is captured by the enemy.
If I were to design something like this, I'd make it just like this, only I wouldn't have anything inside that needed to be secure. I'd have all my secure stuff hidden in plain sight. The purpose of this building would be to draw out the ones who are after your secure stuff.
@@peanuts2105i doubt it matters regarding this building as everyone knows about it... Of course breaking the OSA is bad news hardly a scret when MI6 is mocked on James Bond.
There were a ton of MI's during WW2, like 17 or 18 if I remember right. There's only two that are officially active anymore, MI5 (domestic counter-intelligence) and MI6 (foreign intelligence). MI1 is still technically active in a sense as it's role was absorbed into GCHQ (UK SIGINT).
This building was not built for MI6. The developers had commenced building it on 'spec', and the UK government only decided it suited their purposes after it was completed, or shortly before. Due to its unique appearance it was then sometimes referred to as 'The Hanging Gardens or Babylon', or 'Nebuchadnezzar's Palace' - at least by locals. Before construction started the site had been a wasteland for some years, and we sometimes used to sunbathe there.
Woohoo! It’s the home of Family Fantastic member, Brainiac 007 of 6: Licensed to assimilate and be an antivillain’s gun; one of my childhood favourite superheroes, albeit… must admit, Commander Riker made more assimilating backing tracks.
I was a driver in the army (LCpl) and went there once, cant say why. I was literally Just the driver, and while my passenger did what they did, I used the loo. (Never miss an opportunity for a comfort break!) I was watched by security more closely than a CDT “Willie Watcher”, and we were barely through the gate.
the Faraday cage does block incoming radio but it’s still rent is to block outgoing radio waves to prevent transmission from snooping devices in secure areas
