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Explore Smiley’s London

Explore some of the infamous London locations featured in John le Carré’s novels below.

George Smiley's London
Credit: Map and illustrations by Mike Hall

George Smiley made his first appearance in John le Carré’s novel, Call for the Dead, in 1961. He would become embedded in the national consciousness in the 1970s when le Carré’s great Cold War novels, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People were published. In John le Carré’s new novel, A Legacy of Spies, George Smiley reappears, for the first time in more than twenty-five years.

Explore some of the infamous London locations featured in le Carré’s novels below, or click to download the map.

George Smiley's London

1

The Circus, British Intelligence Services HQ

Located at the north-east corner of Cambridge Circus

George Smiley's London

2

No. 9 Bywater Street, Chelsea

George Smiley's home

George Smiley's London

3

Battersea Bridge (North end)

Where Smiley grapples with an East German spy at the end of Call for the Dead

Featured in: Call For The Dead

George Smiley's London

4

Unipress Building, Fleet Street

Where a letter starts Smiley investigating a death at Carne School in A Murder of Quality

Featured in: A Murder of Quality

George Smiley's London

5

Alec Leamas's Flat, Bayswater

The home to the luckless British agent whose strings Smiley discreetly pulls in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Featured in: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

George Smiley's London

6

British Military Intelligence Agency, Blackfriars Road

The headquarters of the run-down Second World War agency attempting to run a mission in East Germany and under the watchful eyes of Smiley in The Looking Glass War

Featured in: The Looking Glass War

George Smiley's London

7

Islay Hotel, Sussex Gardens

Smiley’s operational base during his investigation to uncover the mole in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Featured in: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

George Smiley's London

8

No. 5 Lock Gardens, Camden Town

The mole’s safe house in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Featured in: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

George Smiley's London

9

Foreign Office Conference House, Carlton Gardens

Where Smiley, as new head of the Circus, seeks approval for Operation Dolphin, an espionage offensive against his Soviet nemesis Karla in The Honourable Schoolboy

Featured in: The Honourable Schoolboy

George Smiley's London

10

Hampstead Heath

The site of General Vladimir’s murder, the killing that allows Smiley to confront his old foe Karla in Smiley’s People

Featured in: Smiley’s People

George Smiley's London

11

Paddington Station

Where Smiley meets Ned, a protégé, before the pair embark on reflections and recollections of life in the Cold War in The Secret Pilgrim

Featured in: The Secret Pilgrim

George Smiley's London

12

No. 14 Disraeli Street, Bloomsbury

The off-the-books safe flat arranged by Smiley as a place to deal with the intelligence gathered by Operation Windfall's East German mole during the Cold War and which has somehow remained secret to this day in A Legacy of Spies

Featured in: A Legacy of Spies

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