Room 217, 7 Whitehall Place, Whitehall, London

On 2 Jul 1940 Colonel Gubbins was directed to form a British resistance organisation in advance of a pending German invasion. He was given a couple of rooms in the War Office at 7 Whitehall Place and immediately began by selecting Officers to lead these Auxiliary Units. The first Intelligence Officers were interviewed by Gubbins here.

Room 217, 7 Whitehall Place was located in what is now Raffles London at The OWO, the office facing towards Whitehall Place, and with a view of Scotland Yard. The office in question was originally the Office for use of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) and largely served as-such during peacetime.

In August 1940 some of the Auxiliary Units HQ Officers moved out of London into temporary offices in Northgate House, 38 London Street, Faringdon.

It was later used as the office of the Head of Operations for the SOEs during that early-war period (before the department was redistributed across the surrounding buildings in the latter stages of the war).

In modern day, this room has been beautifully restored and serves as one of a number of Heritage Suites: ‘The Granville Suite’ – named in honour of Christine Granville, one of the most-celebrated and the longest-serving female member of the SOE. A virtual tour can be seen here.