During the second world war, various buildings along and off Baker Street were home to the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and Bickenhall Mansions was one of three Residential Blocks taken over. The Mansion Block was in part used by the Dutch section of the SOE as briefing rooms. The SOE managed a network of spies and was finally dissolved in 1946.
Formed in 1940, the Special Operations Executive worked out of Bickenhall Mansions and was known as ‘Britain’s Underground Army’. The SOE were a collection of spies dedicated to infiltrating and sabotaging Nazi plots.
At Bickenhall Mansions, SOE operatives were trained in guerrilla warfare and used radio transmitters to communicate with resistance groups across the rest of Europe. These operatives helped coordinate strikes against the Axis powers and their aim was to disrupt the Nazi supply lines by blowing up trains, bridges and factories.
The night of the 10th May 1941 saw the worst bombing of WW2 and Bickenhall Mansions became “engulfed in fire from end to end” as Baker Street bore much of the bombing raid.
1987 saw the restoration of the exterior façade and the construction of the Penthouses and in 2020 Bickenhall Mansions commenced a multimillion pound total Internal and External refurbishment to restore it to its former glory.
