The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space

15.2 | Vauxhall Cross: longitudinal section.
The Un(known) City . . .
agreed price—after adjustments for MI6’s special design needs (which, I
guess, must have included greater security of fuel supplies, enhanced
bombproofing of walls and windows, electronic and acoustic countermeasures,
and so on)—was £130 million. Despite the developer’s (successful) attempts
to keep the building on budget, estimates of the total cost of the
building vary between £240 million and £250 million. 24
Now, the building was always intended to have a second “fit” to install
the “more complex” requirements of MI6; but I would like to know,
what cost the extra £110–120 million? Some have speculated that a secret
underground tunnel was built to connect MI6 with the MI5 building at 60
Vauxhall Bridge Road. If you visit the area, you might think this unlikely,
especially since the MI5 building has become available for rent. Perhaps, instead,
the additional money was used to build a citadel, deep under the building’s
foundations. Of course, Farrell’s longitudinal section for Vauxhall Cross
gives no indication that this might be the case. It shows only one basement,
which is supposed to house plant machinery (see figure 15.2). If this seems
far-fetched, remember that there are (huge) underground citadels underneath
not only MI5’s building in Curzon Street but also Whitehall (of which
the Cabinet War Rooms form only a small part) and various tube stations.