Die Another Day [2002 feature film]

In this installment in the long-running James Bond series, 007 (Pierce Brosnan) enters a small building on the south side of Westminster Bridge - opposite the Houses of Parliament - and descends to the disused "Vauxhall Cross" Piccadilly line station to meet with M (Judi Dench). Later it is revealed that the station also houses the workshop of the MI6 Quartermaster, Q (John Cleese), complete with holographic target range!

Although a nice set, the platform tunnel is far too short, while both the name and the signage visible presents huge contradictions in terms of location. The establishing shot firmly places the location as the vicinity of the south side of Westminster Bridge, while Vauxhall Cross is a road junction at the south side of Vauxhall Bridge, some 1,670 metres to the south. Signage on the visible platform suggests that it is the southbound one, the next stations being "Hyde Park Corner," "Knightsbridge," ["South Kensington" missing], "Gloucester Road," "Earl's Court," "Barons Court," "Hammersmith" and "Acton Town." Of the northbound platform there is no sign that there even is one, although the arrangement of both the passageways and the lifts suggest that if there is, both are "outside" the tracks, rather than "inside" them.

The suggestion seems to be that this is actually the disused "Down Street" station, which closed 21/05/32, but in that case the line diagram should also show "Brompton Road" between "Knightsbridge" and "South Kensington," since it closed just later (15/12/34). This is quite apart from the fact that trains still run through the platform tunnels at "Down Street," and they are walled off from view, not open as seen here.  In addition, "Down Street" is on the north side of the Thames, some 2,020m east of the Westminster Bridge site, and 2660m north-west of Vauxhall Cross! The latter, of course, is the site of the current headquarters of MI6, so no doubt the station being named this in the film is little more than an in-joke. The only way to rationalise the station, then, is an abandoned spur branching off east of "Hyde Park Corner."

The London Underground in Films & TV

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