Thought we could use a category for Bond locations we have visited. Apologies if one already exists. To start, I give you the location (in 2018) of the Fillet of Soul in New Orleans on Chartres St.
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A recent trip to Piz Gloria inspired me to put fingers to keyboard.
It got popped up at JBR, if people donât mind a bit of cross pollination.
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Again, cross pollination notwithstanding, words on Nassau.
The reason for popping this up now, after all this time, will become clear in a few daysâŠ
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Magnificent; thank you for that. A most engaging read.
Further to the above essay, kindly popped up by the good people at James Bond Radio, there has recently been cause and opportunity to add words.
8pm on Sunday evening, my ladyâs roster for all things Airline employment was dramatically changed. Flights were removed, flipped and added in ways previously not experienced. The one flight added to the roster though was a six-day trip to the Bahamas for which she had to report at 6am Monday. The hoped for question, Would I like to go, was again asked and answered with promptitude.
The one location that I would love to have seen the previous time I was there was the strange little wharf affair as seen in Thunderball where Largo briefs his aqua team before which Bond, with ease and aplomb, dispatches one of his number to take his place.
The reason I didnât go searching was because I hadnât had the time to plan an attack nor had I become accustomed to all the benefits of google mapping. Time and a sense of fair play to my shortly-to-be-betrothed was also a factor to explore things enjoyable to us both. This time however, was different. At least, in the planning department.
The wharf, as we will henceforth call it, is on the north shore of Paradise island, just west of the One and Only Ocean Club; Paradise Island being just north of New Providence island and its capital, Nassau. Geography duly asserted, my one unspoken fear in finding this location was the then unknown fact as to just how wide was the scope and coverage of the monolithically proportioned Atlantis, the man-made pleasure palace of Bahamas based Disney stuff.
I walked from the NSNA hotel of the British Colonial Hilton, along Bay Street and over the one of the two bridges linking New Providence to Paradise Island. Negotiating the roads on Paradise Island lead me to a spot as far as I was thinking I could go whereupon I met a chap sat in a guard box manning what looked to be like a Service entrance to Atlantis. Introducing both myself and my story to him, unfortunately, but with understanding and good humour, he could not allow me to look around, but, âWhy donât you pop up to the main entrance, tell them your story and see what they can do for you.â
Walking as directed, I realised that Everyone going to Atlantis, does so by car, taxi, tour bus, bus. They do not walk. They would get deposited in some foyer holding area whereupon they would be stripped of entrance fees. Uppermost in my mind was also the fact that a day pass to Atlantis was roughly $100. It was 4pm and sun down in December was 6pm. Roughing out the maths, $50 an hour didnât seem like a good idea.
Mindful of the above with a slant towards what the security would really be like, on this empty-of-pedestrians road leading directly to Atlantis, there was to the left a tall grass covered bank on top of which, were trees and bushes. Feeling opportunistic, I walked straight up it, crawled through the aforementioned foliage and popped out into a large Service area colonised by trucks, vans and refrigeration units. Continuing to walk with a sense of industrial purpose and familiar direction, I found myself properly in Atlantis. Were people wearing wrist bands? Did they wear name badges with identifying chips?
I headed due north to the coast.
For my insignificant part, Atlantis is a dreadful place. All orderly man-made entertainment, so long as you donât swim too deep, or climb those life threatening rocks. But in its location, they have commandeered the most wonderful beach. Wide and beautifully proportioned, the abundant and perfectly soft sand was met by the waves, rolling with enthusiasm into the coast. Sea based rocky outcroppings in the middle distance broke up the view between sand, sea and horizon.
East looked promising. I turned right and walked.
And there it was! Sandwiched between two beaches, Cove and Cabbage, this strange looking construction was there in all its Thunderball exposed glory. Quite what it was meant to serve in its useful lifetime can only be imagined. Closest to the sea, the construction commenced with a hollow circular construct with sloping sides. Going inland, steps lead from the sea to a walkway and a sheltered something side. Before the inlet goes under Rocky Bridge, the construction winds away to the right to eventually peter out. What was this used for? What was the columned covered area for? There were no mooring posts in evidence, and Lord himself only knows what purpose the steps served.
And more importantly, why wasnât there a bloody big sign for all Atlantis guests to read, informing them of its filmic heritage? There was nothing. I was the only one looking and climbing over it, and no one else seemed to register the slightest interest or awareness. Which, in one respect, was fine.
It meant I had the whole place to myself.
Pictures duly recorded, I headed back through the pools, the casino, the hotel, the bars, the shark pool (yes, really), to my self-appointed entrance, and past a sign informing me of no admittance to anyone other than service personnel. Adopting a suitably servicing look, I headed back to the trees, up the bank and into the night.
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Great story. We had a report about a group of fans visiting the Bahamas locations in the 2015 German fan club magazine. Those guys were facing much the same problems when they tried to get to the place. I guess it was only because of the fact that they were a large group that they were, after some discussion, allowed to visit the place in groups of two.
AFAIK, it was built as a breakwater to reduce coastal erosion back in the day. And I guess that it still serves that purpose and thatâs why it hasnât been removed.
Something less glamourous from me, but very easy to access: the car park were parts of the scenes with the remote controlled BMW and its final jump into the AVIS window were shot:
in may be visited by car (if you park it there) or be accessed through the Saturn media store in the ground floor. This is the upper decl where the Chase ends with the car crashing through the wall and landing in the AVIS window:
The following picture was taken on the place where the car broke through the wall. But in the movie, the actual jump is shown to be from the building on the right into the building on the left, crossing the Mönckebergstrasse shopping boulevard (on the following picture).
This is the window where the BMW ended up. In real life, itâs a shop window of the Galeria Kaufhof department store:
As I said, not very glamourous or spectacular, but when one is in Hamburg, itâs a nice oppotunity to visit a location on the fly as it is right in the center of town.
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Sir, cracking.
Please can you tell me how to upload photos. Mine seem not to have landedâŠ
Thank you.
Ah, thought it was my browser (canât update it anymore as Iâm running on a rather dated Mac OS, which I canât update because my Macbook is rather old, too).
Normally, it should work. I checked the system settings, fund two possible reasons why it didnât:
1 - file sizes of the images are too large (3 MB max. each)
2 - if you tried to upload them by drag & drop, thereâs a maximum of 5 files to be uploaded simultaneously. If you dragged & dropped them all at one time, this could be the reason why it went wrong.
Hope this helps.
Tip top. It was my file size.
Duly corrected and added, for those who might already have read the words.
Best.
Great photos, thanks for posting them simon. Amazing how well preserved the location actually is considering the passage of time.
Amazing pics Simon, thank you!
And here are some of my own. I posted these on the old Commanderbond forums but that was ten years ago, so here we go again.
Where Bond meets Honey Ryder for the first time, a strip of beach accessible by boat from Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We stayed at the Riu hotel, just up the beach from here. The locals called it âJames Bond Beach, laughing watersâ:
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Great photos
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Stoke Park
While thoroughly documented and much lauded, I would submit that any further mention of the superlative hotel, dining and golfing venue, Stoke Park, is always welcome.
Close to my home of Windsor, the venue for my 50th in 2016, and the odd other random visit, it became established half way through the 2018 Christmas festive period that Stoke Park was the clear consideration for New Yearâs Eve. Room and dinner reservations made, I suggested making the evening a black tie event based on the idea that surely there must be something else going on that evening, and that if standards were to be as expected, perhaps we would find ourselves mingling with the other guests.
Designed by James Wyatt with the Capitol Building acting as a template, it has become home to the well-healed for golfing, tennis, gym and spa activities. It was also home to James Bonds Connery and Brosnan for Goldfinger and Tomorrow Never Dies respectively, and Bond-to-be Craig for Layer Cake. Just across the beautifully landscaped golfing greens, lakes and bridges, St Giles Church was also home to Bond Moore for the opening scene of For Your Eyes Only when depositing flowers on Tracyâs grave before being called away for something emergent related.
Back in 2016, I held my 50th in the Ballroom. Said room was home to Brosnanâs Atlantic Hotel bedroom. It should be said that this room quite comfortably held 50+ people, plus dancing and merriment. As a hotel room it was a redefinition of the word sumptuous.
I decided to take this Christmas based opportunity to take some pictures as every previous occasion to visit, I had not really come equipped, either mentally or with props to effect such. Quite randomly, I had also never been to St Giles Church, and, even though I knew of its existence, I had also not been able to find, nor photograph the James Bond corridor within Stoke Park. A walk on New Yearâs Day corrected the former issue; asking one of the hotel staff for directions corrected the latter.
Concentrating on the New Yearâs Eve, and before I had settled into the room, the very helpful chap escorted me to the corridor for a look around. The corridor is to be found in the basement, it seems and might explain why my casual wanderings had previously not unearthed this little gem. Adorning the walls and in securely attached frames, there is an original Goldfinger UK quad poster, plus call sheets, signatures, photographs, and art from the two Bond films. Helpful Chap left me alone for a few minutes.
The evening in question started beautifully. I had been given an N.Peal top for Christmas â this of the same wear as Craig sported in the teaser poster for SPECTRE. Fine gauge cashmere in charcoal grey. Bloody hell it is a nice piece of kit. Wearing both this and similar grey trousers, I had drinks in the bar alone while my fiancĂ© enjoyed the deep bath and facing fireplace in the room. Talking with the bar staff, apparently, to train for Just one departmental area of Stoke Park, in her case the bar, the training lasts for three months.
Changing into black tie, we headed back to the bar for pre-dinner cocktails and canapes. Dinner was in the Humphreyâs Restaurant courtesy of head chef Chris Wheeler. Culinary magic was performed with detailed attentions given to scallops, monkfish and smoked broccoli tortellini. Accompanied by a Puligny Montrachet, suffice to say, it was perfect.
Champagne was taken into the gardens for midnight and a vista of fireworks happening all around the county. It was quite incredible seeing so many fireworks occurring simultaneously across the entire horizon.
And following that, and as we were indeed suitably attired, we joined other guests for the dancing at the Stoke Park hosted Black Tie Ball.
New Yearâs Day, and I headed back to the Ballroom to document some images. One can see that where the bed was positioned, there is a window directly behind it. Evidently the art department had walled off the window.
Looking outside the Mansion, the little caddiesâ hut which in Goldfinger was to the right of the main entrance, has now been moved to the left of the building.
Taking a breakfast fuelled, stomach-filled and thus very slow walk to St Giles, we crossed the greens and water where I believe Bridget Jones, or someone from her film, fell in and splashed about. A beautiful little church, it has many little gated areas in the grounds for gravestones. We had never seen something like this and, as I write, I have yet to find out the reasoning behind such design. Walking a little further, we came across the wooden archway from which the reverend popped to give Moore his emergent news.
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Well, that successfully destroyed my New Yearâs Resolution not to be insanely jealous of othersâ magnificent experiences. Damn you.
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Great pictures, great story. Stoke Park has been on my âmust seeâ list for years.
But Iâve got one little nitpick: you certainly dinât mean to write âAtlanta Hotelâ, but âAtlantic Hotelâ (Hotel Atlantic Kempinski in Hamburg), see picture below (taken on the same trip as the Hamburg pics I posted above) 
Sir, you are absolutely right.
Begging pardon.
With respect, I have corrected the report above. Many thanks for pointing out.
Iâm very much enjoying all the stories - thanks for that. My partner and I were in the UK over Crimbo and he indulged me in my desire to make a pilgrimage to Black Park. For me, it was as much about the Hammer Horrors and the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson series as it was about Bond, but here are a couple of photos from the visit which might JUST have been where Bondâs Azerbaidjan arrival in TWINE and the forest above Enterprises Auric may have been filmed.
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Correct me if Iâm wrong, but that was also used in Valkyrie was it not?