A riverfront mansion not far from Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire that became the home of M (Bernard Lee) in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The location reflects a new filmmaking style in producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman’s sixth Bond film, thanks to their new director, former Bond editor Peter Hunt. Whereas on You Only Live Twice director Lewis Gilbert and screenwriter Roald Dahl had been more concerned with the fantasy elements of Bond’s world—creating huge, workable sets and incredible stunts—Hunt pressed for a return to the basics of Ian Fleming’s writing. This new emphasis is quite apparent in several sequences that were transferred to the screen almost word for word from Fleming’s novel. One of these little bits of nostalgia was the visit to M’s house.

Hunt had always wanted to show the admiral’s home, complete with a sixteenth-century cannon guarding the driveway, an riverfront view, and a servant named Hammond. On OHMSS, he was given his chance, and Richard Maibaum wrote a sequence in which Bond (George Lazenby) comes to tell his chief that Blofeld (Telly Savalas) has been found in Switzerland. The exterior filming of the home, shot at Thames Lawn, was completed on Wednesday, April 9, 1969.