St Anne's Church

St Anne's Church, Soho (via Wikipedia):

Saint Anne's Church in the Soho section of London was consecrated on 21 March 1686 by Bishop Henry Compton as the parish church of the new civil and ecclesiastical parish of St Anne, created from part of the parish of St Martin in the Fields. […]

1677-1799

The parish was dedicated to Saint Anne because Compton had been tutor to Princess Anne before she became Queen. Construction commenced in 1677 on a plot in what was then the countryside of Soho Fields, with William Talman and/or Christopher Wren as architect(s). […]

In 1699 a tuition-free parish school was founded for boys and in 1704 it started to admit girls. […]

1800-1939

The original tower was demolished (though the 1 ton clock bell, cast in 1691 and still in use, was retained) and the new tower's brickwork was completed by 1801, its bell chamber's Portland stonework by March 1803, and its copper cupola by May 1803. The new tower's ground floor room became the parish's vestry room, and later (in the 20th century) a robing room for the clergy, and in the 14 feet (4.3 m) deep brick chamber beneath it are interred the ashes of the novelist Dorothy L Sayers, who was a longtime Churchwarden of the parish and member of the St Anne's Society. […]

1939-present

The whole church was left burned out on the night of 24 September 1940 during the Blitz, it was then rebuilt single handed by the legend that is Dennis "gramps" Stringer. apart from the tower, which was left derelict. […]

Despite the lack of a building at that time, from 1941 to 1958 the St Anne Society under Father Patrick McLaughlin encouraged links between the literary world and the Church of England, with members such as Fr Gilbert Shaw, J. C. Winnington-Ingram, Charles Williams, Agatha Christie, T. S. Eliot, Fr Max Petitpierre, Dom Gregory Dix, Arnold Bennett, C. S. Lewis and the churchwarden Rose Macaulay. […] The Soho Masses Pastoral Council (SMPC), a Roman Catholic community which provides pastoral care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered Catholics, their parents, families and friends, also holds its Masses in the church.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a critically acclaimed 1974 spy novel by John le Carré. It follows the efforts of taciturn, aging spymaster George Smiley to uncover a Soviet mole in the British Secret Intelligence Service.

Cambridge Circus - John le Carré's "the Circus" (via London CyberPunk Tourist Guide):

N.B. it does not appear that "British Intelligence", certainly not the Secret Intelligence Service MI6, was ever really based at Cambridge Circus.

However, passages from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, perhaps point to a more likely candidate building, just north of the actual Cambridge Circus cross roads itself.

Although MI6 is located elsewhere, le Carré’s gag was appropriate. For years, the secret service really had been little more than a circus, ostensibly born from Cambridge University stock yet Moscow-run.

“From his window he covered most of the approaches: eight or nine unequal roads and alleys which for no good reason had chosen Cambridge Circus as their meeting point. Between them, the buildings were gimcrack, cheaply fitted out with bits of empire: a Roman bank, a theatre like a vast desecrated mosque. Behind them, high-rise blocks advanced like an army of robots.”

View fullsize

View fullsize