The London Military Intelligence Museum is collaborating with the London Tunnels company to exhibit the original World War-era tunnels, along with the spy equipment, weapons and documents housed in them.
The £220 million (R5,2 billion) attraction, which will open in 2028, will showcase a section of the Kingsway Exchange tunnels complex, which stretches out across 8 000sqm beneath High Holborn and Chancery Lane train stations, in central London.
According to The Guardian, the tunnels initially hosted the Special Operations Executive, said to have inspired Q Branch in Ian Fleming’s novels. It then housed the Kingsway telephone exchange, which in the 1950s served as an internal communications exchange during the Cold War. In the 1980s, British Telecom took over, creating the world’s deepest licensed bar for government staff.
The attraction will have a selection of interactive exhibits and a bar. The exhibitions will have information about Ian Fleming’s career and James Bond novels, as well as the World Wars and Cold War.