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JAmes Bond fans have endured a difficult few years. Since No Time to Die Daniel Craigwe’ve been stuck in a weird way. There will be a new James Bond film, directed by Denis Villeneuve, the most exciting director in the history of the franchise. But we don’t know when it will come out, or who will play Bond, or if 007 under Amazon will be popular.
In short, we need something tangible to relieve our anxiety. All we need is to pack up and head north to Swindon, where the Motorola factory used to be, where the new building is just down the road. James Bond.
The BBC has reported that the streets of Taylor Wimpey’s Robin Gardens are named after people close to the franchise. There is also Bond Place, as well as Desmond Crescent and Llewelyn Road, both named after the famous actor who played Q. The BBC also reported that there is a nod to Pierce Brosnan, although the main character seems to be Dench Close, which seems more like a warning than a residential address but never mind.
Why Swindon? Perhaps, it could be because Ian Fleming is buried nearby, in St James’s Church, Sevenhampton, or because he wrote Quantum of Solace just 10 minutes from the town centre. But no. That’s because, 25 years ago, the exterior of the Motorola building was transformed into a Turkish oil refinery in the movie The World is Not Enough.
On the one hand, this is all very sweet – for anyone who knows, this new place will outlive Bond, and this will be an interesting legend for the locals, plus god knows Swindon could use more beauty – but also: right? The whole place was named because the site thought the phone factory looked enough like an oil refinery to fool moviegoers?
Indeed, several places have the same reputation and popularity. The World is Not Enough was shot around the world, with filming locations including Chamonix, the Bahamas and Chatham Dockyard. Maybe they both deserve Dench Close too.
And, remember, this is just one Bond film. Previously, Tomorrow Never Dies, was shot in Feltham and Surrey Quays and the fourth section of the Brent Cross Shopping Center car park. The follow-up, Die Another Day, was recorded at the Eden Project and the Beyond Retro shop on Stoke Newington Road. In fact, if you flash back to 1985’s A View to Kill, you can see that Zorin’s basement warehouse is a Renault distribution center in, you guessed it, Swindon.
If a place is to be renovated anywhere near this place, it has more and more rights to be called James Bond. Fortunately, in the case of A View to Kill, there would be no Dench Close, because Dame Judi Dench he would not join the list for another ten years. But what can boast is Moore Street and Walken Way – maybe even Grace Jones Boulevard – which sounds much better. The only possible argument would be Desmond Llewelyn, who was Q in all of Swindon-set 007. But of course you can’t name enough streets after Desmond Llewelyn.
In fact, maybe this is how we solve the housing crisis. The development of Robin Gardens has been so warmly received that there is now a good argument to go after all the regulars who shot in the Bond franchise and build a new place there. The tank chase from GoldenEye filmed in Peterborough. The Shanghai swimming pool scene from Skyfall filmed at Virgin Active in Canary Wharf. Dramatic scenes of the cargo plane from Die Another Day filmed at Kent Airport which will soon be used as a post-Brexit warehouse. All of these would be homes for people who like a little James Bond.
Until the next Bond movie is out, this is the best we’ve got to keep the fire burning. After all, what is in line with the spirit of Bond: a street in Swindon called Judi Dench, or a mysterious one. James Bond game Amazon was created three years ago?
