| Leconfield House | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Location | Curzon Street, London |
| Coordinates | 51°30′24″N0°09′00″W / 51.50659°N 0.15008°W |
| Completed | c. 1939 |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 7 |
Leconfield House is a building in Mayfair, London. It was the headquarters of the Security Service (MI5) from 1945 to 1976.
The site at the junction of South Audley Street and Curzon Street was occupied in the second half of the 18th century, all of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century by Chesterfield House, which was built in 1749 for Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield. [1] In 1869 Chesterfield House was purchased by the City of London merchant Charles Magniac, who considerably curtailed the grounds in the rear, and erected a row of buildings overlooking Chesterfield Street, named Chesterfield Gardens; the first occupier at No. 9 Chesterfield Gardens was Lord Leconfield. [2]
After Chesterfield House was demolished in 1937, part of the site was used for the construction of Leconfield House, named after Lord Leconfield, who had died in 1901. The new building, completed in 1939, served as the operational headquarters of London District throughout the Second World War. [3]
The structure went on to be occupied by the Security Service (MI5) in 1945; by 1969, when Stella Rimington arrived, it was "dreadfully run down....the inside had not been painted in an age..." [4] The headquarters of MI5 remained at Leconfield House until 1976, when it moved to 140 Gower Street. [3]
The building, which has since been substantially rebuilt, is now occupied by various businesses including that of Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz. [5] In May 2020, Robert Tchenguiz submitted plans to Westminster City Council to convert the building into a 65-bedroom private members' hotel. He had bought the building for his Rotch property business in 2004 for about £140 million. [6] The submitted plans were refused permission by the Council, and Tchenguiz's subsequent appeal against that decision also failed. [7] In October 2022 Tchenguiz lodged a further appeal. [8]
Mayfair is an area in London, England and is located in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. It is between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane and one of the most expensive districts in the world.
The Security Service, also known as MI5, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and Defence Intelligence (DI). MI5 is directed by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), and the service is bound by the Security Service Act 1989. The service is directed to protect British parliamentary democracy and economic interests and to counter terrorism and espionage within the United Kingdom (UK).
Park Lane is a dual carriageway road in the City of Westminster in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north. It separates Hyde Park to the west from Mayfair to the east. The road has a number of historically important properties and hotels and has been one of the most sought after streets in London, despite being a major traffic thoroughfare.
Dame Stella Rimington is a British author and former Director General of MI5, a position she held from 1992 to 1996. She was the first female DG of MI5, and the first DG whose name was publicised on appointment. In 1993, Rimington became the first DG of MI5 to pose openly for cameras at the launch of a brochure outlining the organisation's activities.
Elizabeth Lydia Manningham-Buller, Baroness Manningham-Buller, is a retired British intelligence officer. She worked as a teacher for three years before joining MI5, the British internal Security Service. She led the newly created Irish counter-terrorism section from 1992 and then became director in charge of surveillance and technical operations. She became Director General of MI5 in October 2002 and, in that capacity, led the Security Service's response to the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Following her retirement in April 2007, she became a crossbench life peer in 2008.
Peter Maurice Wright CBE was a principal scientific officer for MI5, the British counter-intelligence agency. His book Spycatcher, written with Paul Greengrass, became an international bestseller with sales of over two million copies. Spycatcher was part memoir, part exposé detailing what Wright claimed were serious institutional failures he investigated within MI5. Wright is said to have been influenced in his counterespionage activity by James Jesus Angleton, counter-intelligence chief of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1954 to 1975.
Grosvenor Square is a large garden square in the Mayfair district of Westminster, Greater London. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from the duke's surname "Grosvenor". It was developed for fashionable residences in the 18th century. In the 20th it had an American and Canadian diplomatic presence, and currently is mixed use, commercial.
The SIS Building, also called the MI6 Building, at Vauxhall Cross houses the headquarters of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), also known as Military Intelligence, Section 6 (MI6), the United Kingdom's foreign intelligence agency. It is located at 85 Albert Embankment in Vauxhall, London, on the bank of the River Thames beside Vauxhall Bridge. The building has been the headquarters of the SIS since 1994.
Thames House is an office building in Millbank, London, on the north bank of the River Thames adjacent to Lambeth Bridge. Originally used as offices by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), it has served as the headquarters of the United Kingdom's internal Security Service since December 1994. It also served as the London headquarters of the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) until March 2013.
The Director General of the Security Service is the head of the Security Service, the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency. The Director General is assisted by a Deputy Director General and an Assistant Director General, and reports to the Home Secretary, although the Security Service is not formally part of the Home Office.
Richard Seifert was a Swiss-British architect, best known for designing the Centre Point tower and Tower 42, once the tallest building in the City of London. His eponymously named practice – R. Seifert and Partners was at its most prolific in the 1960s and 1970s, responsible for many major office buildings in Central London as well as large urban regeneration projects in other major British cities.
Devonshire House in Piccadilly, was the London townhouse of the Dukes of Devonshire during the 18th and 19th centuries. Following a fire in 1733 it was rebuilt by William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, in the Palladian style, to designs by William Kent. Completed circa 1740, it stood empty after the First World War and was demolished in 1924.
Gower Street is a two-way street in Bloomsbury, central London, running from Euston Road at the north to Montague Place in the south. The street continues as North Gower Street north of Euston Road, while to the south it becomes Bloomsbury Street.
Michael John Smith was convicted of spying in the UK.
Curzon Street is located within the Mayfair district of London. The street is located entirely within the W1J postcode district; the eastern end is 200 metres (660 ft) north-east of Green Park underground station. It is within the City of Westminster, running approximately east to west from Fitzmaurice Place past Shepherd Market to Park Lane.
Robert Tchenguiz is a British entrepreneur, property investor, activist shareholder and securities dealer. The younger brother of Vincent Tchenguiz, he undertook a series of corporate deals, focusing particularly on property assets associated with UK pub and supermarket chains, during the 2000s. However, the value of some of his investments plunged during the financial crisis of 2007–08, exacerbated by the collapse of his major financial backer, Iceland's Kaupthing Bank. His and his brother's businesses were also the targets of a UK Serious Fraud Office inquiry and various lawsuits.
10 Trinity Square is a Grade II* listed building in London, United Kingdom, overlooking the River Thames at Tower Hill, in the southeastern corner of the City of London. Built in the Beaux Arts style, it is best known as the former headquarters of the Port of London Authority and is thus also sometimes referred to as the Port of London Authority Building.
St. Ermin's Hotel is a four-star central London hotel adjacent to St James's Park Underground station, close to Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and the Houses of Parliament. The Grade II-listed late Victorian building, built as one of the early mansion blocks in the English capital, is thought to be named after an ancient monastery reputed to have occupied the site pre-10th century. Converted to a hotel in 1896–1899, it became during the 1930s, through the Second World War and beyond, a meeting place of the British intelligence services, notably the birthplace of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), and where notorious Cambridge Five double agents Philby and MacLean met their Russian handlers. St Ermin's is now part of Marriott Hotels' Autograph Collection. The hotel is owned by the family of Tei-Fu Chen, founder of Sunrider International.
South Audley Street is a major shopping street in Mayfair, London. It runs north to south from the southwest corner of Grosvenor Square to Curzon Street.
140 Gower Street was the headquarters of the Security Service (MI5) from 1976 to 1994. The site was acquired by the Wellcome Foundation in 1998.