Portland stone ministry frontages with giant order columns run south from Trafalgar Square, and the Old War Office corner played MI6 headquarters in three Bond films.
What Whitehall looks like
The street is wide and straight, running about four tenths of a mile south from Trafalgar Square to the Cenotaph. Parliament Street continues the same frontages to Parliament Square. Portland stone ministry blocks line most of both sides, with giant order columns and heavy cornices repeating along them under balustraded parapets. Brick terraces and red terracotta office blocks stand among them toward the northern end. Concrete and steel security barriers run along both kerbs, and the pavements behind them are wide.
At the Avenue corner stands the , a Baroque block from 1906 with a dome on each of its four corners and seven floors below them. It is a hotel now rather than a government office.
Horse Guards faces the road from the west side, a Palladian block from the 1750s with a central carriage arch and two pedestrian arches through to the parade ground. Two mounted troopers of the King's Life Guard are posted at the front from 10am to 4pm and change every hour, and dismounted sentries hold the post until 8pm.
stands in the middle of the roadway at the southern end, unveiled in 1920. opens off the west side beyond it, shut behind black steel gates with police officers at the railings.
sits on the east side opposite Horse Guards, a classical hall from 1622 with two rows of rectangular windows between engaged columns, the lower row under alternating triangular and segmental pediments. The stands behind and south of it, ten floors of Portland stone built from 1939 to 1959. Two 40 tonne stone figures flank its Horse Guards Avenue entrance.
Shot in Whitehall
The ministry frontages have played a fictional intelligence headquarters and a fictional government ministry, and both wizarding entrances sit on side streets rather than on the main carriageway. The open road has its own credits, among them the deserted London sequence of 28 Days Later.
Octopussy, 1983
Old War Office Building
Played MI6 headquarters, London
The Old War Office Building played MI6 headquarters, filmed at its corner with Horse Guards Avenue. The same building stood in for MI6 in A View to a Kill and again in Licence to Kill.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2007
Played the Ministry of Magic visitor entrance
A red telephone box on Great Scotland Yard played the Ministry of Magic's visitor entrance, filmed at the junction with Scotland Place. That side street runs off Whitehall's northeastern end rather than fronting the main road.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, 2010
Played the Ministry of Magic staff entrance
The Ministry of Magic's staff entrance was dressed as a gentlemen's toilet on Horse Guards Avenue at its junction with Whitehall, beside the statue of the 8th Duke of Devonshire. The real Ministry of Defence entrance is in shot behind it. Edge of Tomorrow later used that entrance as a fictional United Defense Force headquarters, with the flanking Charles Wheeler statues removed digitally. No Time To Die shot Bond arriving at the same doors to see M.
28 Days Later, 2002
Jim walks up an empty carriageway past an overturned red double decker bus in the deserted London sequence, the bus positioned and taken away again within fifteen minutes. V For Vendetta marched masked crowds down from Trafalgar Square, and staged its confrontation at the foot of the street in Parliament Square over three nights. Skyfall drove M along the same road to a hearing, and Bond comes up out of the Westminster Underground exit onto it.
Federal Triangle went up as one plan in the early and mid 1930s. Its neoclassical government blocks were held to a uniform six storeys and faced in limestone, which is the nearest an American city comes to a continuous run of ministry frontages. The stone here is greyer and the frontages more ornate, so a tight frame on the Ministry of Defence flank holds better than a wide one on the domed corners. Red buses, left hand traffic and the memorial standing in the roadway have to stay out of shot. Try searching limestone government blocks now.
Merrion Street Upper in Dublin, Ireland
Government Buildings on Merrion Street Upper is Edwardian Baroque faced in Portland stone, three storeys around a quadrangle behind a Doric entrance screen. A heavy cornice runs the whole length of it. Aston Webb's building went up from 1904, the same manner and the same decade as the Old War Office here. The Dublin block stands alone behind its railings and gate screen rather than in a continuous street wall, so a wide frame taking in stone on both sides gives the substitution away. Keep the shot on one frontage. Try searching Edwardian Baroque stone frontage now.
Cathays Park is a Portland stone civic centre of the same Edwardian Baroque generation, with City Hall and the Crown Court sharing an almost identical facade treatment. Those two are lower though, no more than four storeys against the seven and ten along this road. The Cardiff buildings stand apart in lawns and gardens with open sky around them, so a wide shot showing continuous frontage and moving traffic will not pass. A frame on one portico and the stone behind it works. Try searching Portland stone civic portico now.
