A space-themed use of the planned technology [Wilkinson Eyre]

SECRET tunnels once home to the agents that inspired the James Bond stories are set to be open to the public.

Camden councillors were expected to give the green light last night, Thursday, to a new leisure complex deep beneath the streets of Holborn.

Described as London’s first major new attraction since the building of the London Eye 25 years ago, developers

The London Tunnels have laid out how they want to convert a wartime bomb bunker into an exhibition centre, bar and events space.

The application shows how the Kingsway Telephone Exchange, as it was once known, stretched out across Holborn to Chancery Lane and covered 8,000 square metres.

In June the City of London Corporation’s planning and transportation committee approved proposals to change the use of the deep-level tunnels into a visitor and cultural attraction; but with the site spreading across a shared boundary with Camden, council approval was also required.

An impression of how the tunnels could be lit up with magical displays [Wilkinson Eyre]

The City said buildings at 38-41 Furnival Street would be combined into a single structure, with the ground floor used as the main entrance to both a permanent “heritage experience”, as well as a temporary cultural space for various exhibitions.

A permanent exhibition will tell the story of the tunnels during the 1940-1941 Blitz and afterwards, while a bar used to keep telephone clerks refreshed will be reopened, making it, perhaps, the deepest place in the United Kingdom to buy a pint, although a snooker room used by workers will not feature.

The firm said it aims to bring in around two million visitors per year, with tickets coming in at £30 per person.

Developer Angus Murray, who has put £12million of his own funds into the scheme, has raised significant investment.

Preliminary work could cost £40million, while another £480million is expected to be spent to revamp the complex and install attractions.

The tunnels’ existence almost slipped into the realms of urban myth, as they were covered by the Official Secrets Act up to 2007.

The ‘secret’ deep-level tunnels under Holborn used as a telephone exchange [Getty Images]

The mile-long series of tunnels were carved out beneath war-torn London, with work starting in 1940 to build a deep-level air raid shelter that was the same depth beneath Holborn as the Underground lines.

The plans were to link a series of shelters to tube stations.

Once the threat of the Blitz had subsided, a group of very special agents took over: members of the wartime secret army, the Special Operations Executive, moved in 1944 to help mastermind the liberation of occupied Europe and plot resistance behind enemy lines.

It inspired Fleming when he was writing the Bond series and had to imagine a London headquarters for Q to build and test his gadgets.

In 1949 the General Post Office took it on and in 1956 it became a centre for the first trans-atlantic telephone cable.

Ian Fleming

After the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis, it housed a hotline to the Kremlin.

It remained a telephone exchange until BT announced they would sell the tunnels in 2008.

Artworks in the application show how different displays will light up the tunnels, including one which makes it look like visitors are walking through a deer-inhabited wood.

With footfall “considerably lower” than pre Covid-19 pandemic levels, the extra visitors would boost the Holborn economy, council officers said in a report.

The project has been widely welcomed, including support from Historic England. Architects Wilkinson Eyre Ltd, who worked on the Battersea Power Station project, have drawn up the brief.