Talk:Cambridge Circus, London

message: Photos added The Blackfriar 11:21, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
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message: This page has been tagged as unreferenced. Wikipedia's verifiability policy states "... any material challenged or likely to be challenged must be attributed to a reliable, published source ...". In this case the material has not been challenged: is there any reason to suppose it is likely to be challenged? If not then there is no justification for the tag. JamesBWatson (talk) 16:36, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
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message: This talk entry elaborates on the Circus as a shooting location for the BBC TV-miniseries "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", made in 1979, and "Smiley's People", made in 1982.
David Cornwell was careful to leave out true information about real persons, office locations, field operations and trade protocol that he dealt with in his years with the Services. As the official website https://www.sis.gov.uk/our-history/buildings.html will confirm, there never was any office space occupied by MI5 nor MI6 near the Cambridge Circus. David Cornwell may know the area (including its many book shops) well and may have studied several building details there, to use them as suitable background features to conjure up the right scene atmospheres. But, enjoying a writer's artistic liberty, he is not bound by law to accurately describe even the details that did exist. In short, he may have used existing details in a blend that suited him. The following sidenote will illustrate this; the Camden safehouse location is the most notable example of such a detail blend. The terrace house which had a back garden bordering on the Regent's Canal in Camden and at the same time offered a view on Primrose Hill and a main road leading to Camden Town's centre, could only be in St. Mark's Crescent. But from that location, Peter Guillam could not have walked near a canal lock, watch the flashlight signal from the tow path and inspect the bridges for hidden adversaries, as the nearest lock is too far away to fit the actions described in the book. The lock that provided a perfect fit for both the book and the miniseries scenes, is the City Road lock in Islington, a few miles east from Camden. The perfectly matching safehouse location (both for the book action and the miniseries scenes) is the nearby Noel Road. It is not known if the BBC found the best matching shooting location out by itself, or had a chat with Cornwell prior to shooting, about all of the Camden lock area details being wrong and unfit for use, with Cornwell putting them on the right track.
The BBC must have found itself in the same trouble when investigating the Cambridge Circus location, since none of the buildings directly adjacent to the roundabout fitted Cornwell's description. According to the writer, the HQ building was to have five floors and an attic floor, a column of hexagonal "pepper pot shaped rooms" on one of its corners, from which there was supposed to be an overview of Charing Cross Road and New Compton Street. "Trentishoe Mansions" on 90 Charing Cross Road is the best match, save for the facts that it is somewhat removed from the Circus and that the overview is on Old Compton Street (there is no New Compton Street). Would this location have been used, a plausible depicting of the book scene with Mendel keeping watch on the Circus HQ's entrance to witness Alleline, Haydon and Bland attending a crash meeting and to check which one of them left for the Camden Safe House to join Polyakov, would not have been possible, since the book description specifically and in detail mentions the roundabout, with Mendel watching from its opposite side. The choice of 24 Cambridge Circus to act as the HQ building in the miniseries, was probably the most practical and convincing compromise, in spite of its lack of pepper pot corner rooms and five floors. The opening scene of the 1979 "TTSS"-miniseries offers a view on the roundabout, with number 24 in the background on the left. This shot was taken from one of the upper floor office rooms in the Palace Theatre. The scene with Mendel watching the entrance was shot from the top turret room in the building in 138 Shaftesbury Avenue. In the book, Mendel watches the main entrance, but this door may not have been to the BBC's disposal, so they probably got their permission to use the side entrance instead, and used that in the shots. 24 Cambridge Circus briefly features in the 1982 sequence "Smiley's People" as well, in a short scene where Smiley and Guillam are to meet Saul Enderby and are seen to arrive in a taxi, which passes the roundabout in front of the theatre and turns left in to Shaftesbury Avenue, halts there and drops both men off at again the side entrance. But the camera does not capture the men actually entering that door, suggesting that the BBC may not have bothered to ask for permission to use that door, or failed to get it. The next shot shows Smiley and Guillam entering a similar door from an inside view and walking along long corridors, guided by Ferguson, to meet Enderby and get means and support from him to turn Grigoriev in Bern. This inside shot was made in another building; the corridor lengths wouldn't possibly fit number 24's dimensions. The inside HQ office shots were said to have taken in an office building in Cork Street, which is rumoured to have a real link to some existing British service department. I obtained that info from this link: http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/tv-locations/95617-tinker-tailor-soldier-spy.html
Quote of forum member "Automotivehistorian" in the above link: "The 'Circus' shots were filmed in Cork Street, London W1, opposite the car park. I worked at 3 Cork Street, and before the crew took over and installed scaffolding and lighting, it was an MI6 building. Green MoD plated Leyland Sherpas used to pull up and collect and drop off items and there was a MoD PC on the door. The offices were on the 1st and 2nd floors. I recognised the inside shots as it was very similar to our offices which also had a gated lift" (end quote).
24 Cambridge Circus currently houses a restaurant in its ground floor (with the side entrance still being in place). This address is featured in Google's Street View, which allows you to have a lookaround. The top floors of the Palace Theatre (from which the opening scene of TTSS was shot) and the top turret room in 130 Shaftesbury Ave (the ground floor of which currently houses an HSBC bank branch)can also be seen. The sycamore trees around number 24 have grown considerably since 1979 and 1982; at present they obscure most of the building, if the BBC were to use the same camera standpoint. Cambridge Circus was changed from a rather cramped roundabout into the crossroads which it now is, in the latter 80s, as it was a notorious source of traffic congestion during rush hours.
Thanks to the readers for their time and trouble. Feel free to edit, correct and improve. Greeting form Santpoort-Zuid, the Netherlands Gerhard Schreurs
Gerhard Schreurs (talk) 11:44, 8 June 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  BBC Shooting locations of miniseries 1979 and 1982 

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