George Smiley made his first appearance in John le Carré’s novel, Call for the Dead, in 1961. He would become embedded in the national consciousness in the 1970s when le Carré’s great Cold War novels, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People were published. In John le Carré’s new novel, A Legacy of Spies, George Smiley reappears, for the first time in more than twenty-five years.
Explore some of the infamous London locations featured in le Carré’s novels below, or click to download the map.
1
The Circus, British Intelligence Services HQ
Located at the north-east corner of Cambridge Circus
2
No. 9 Bywater Street, Chelsea
George Smiley's home
3
Battersea Bridge (North end)
Where Smiley grapples with an East German spy at the end of Call for the Dead
Featured in: Call For The Dead
4
Unipress Building, Fleet Street
Where a letter starts Smiley investigating a death at Carne School in A Murder of Quality
Featured in: A Murder of Quality
5
Alec Leamas's Flat, Bayswater
The home to the luckless British agent whose strings Smiley discreetly pulls in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
Featured in: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
6
British Military Intelligence Agency, Blackfriars Road
The headquarters of the run-down Second World War agency attempting to run a mission in East Germany and under the watchful eyes of Smiley in The Looking Glass War
Featured in: The Looking Glass War
7
Islay Hotel, Sussex Gardens
Smiley’s operational base during his investigation to uncover the mole in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Featured in: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
8
No. 5 Lock Gardens, Camden Town
The mole’s safe house in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Featured in: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
9
Foreign Office Conference House, Carlton Gardens
Where Smiley, as new head of the Circus, seeks approval for Operation Dolphin, an espionage offensive against his Soviet nemesis Karla in The Honourable Schoolboy
Featured in: The Honourable Schoolboy
10
Hampstead Heath
The site of General Vladimir’s murder, the killing that allows Smiley to confront his old foe Karla in Smiley’s People
Featured in: Smiley’s People
11
Paddington Station
Where Smiley meets Ned, a protégé, before the pair embark on reflections and recollections of life in the Cold War in The Secret Pilgrim
Featured in: The Secret Pilgrim
12
No. 14 Disraeli Street, Bloomsbury
The off-the-books safe flat arranged by Smiley as a place to deal with the intelligence gathered by Operation Windfall's East German mole during the Cold War and which has somehow remained secret to this day in A Legacy of Spies
Featured in: A Legacy of Spies