MI6 Building London Photo, SIS, Architect, British Secret Intelligence Service Headquarters

MI6 Building London Offices

Government HQ Project on the River Thames design by Terry Farrell Architect, England, UK

post updated 6 September 2021 ; 18 Jun 2014

Address: 85, Albert Embankment, south London, southeast England, United Kingdom

Dates built: 1994-95

Design: Terry Farrell & Partners

Photos © Nick Weall

MI6 Building

Location: south bank of River Thames, just west of Houses of Parliament

SIS Building (SIS = Secret Intelligence Service)

Headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service

Attacked in 2000 by a rocket

Featured in James Bond film ‘The World Is Not Enough’

Location + nearest Tube station : Vauxhall Cross

Address: 85 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP

Owner: Regalian Properties

The headquarters of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) (also known as “MI6”), at Vauxhall Cross, is located at 85 Albert Embankment in Vauxhall, a south western part of central London, on the bank of the River Thames beside Vauxhall Bridge. It is known within the intelligence community as “Legoland” and as “Babylon-on-Thames” due to its resemblance to an ancient Babylonian ziggurat.

The site on which the SIS building stands had been the location of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in the 19th century. Several industrial buildings were subsequently built on the site after the demolition of the pleasure gardens in the 1850s, including a glass factory, a vinegar works and a gin distillery.

Archeological excavation of the site during building found the remains of seventeenth century glass kilns, as well as barge houses and an inn called ‘The Vine’. Evidence was also found for a river wall on the site.