We knew the weekend would be special, it had been planned early on in the year. A celebration of my father in law’s 80th birthday which my mother in law had planned in great secrecy.

She had mentioned that the hotel booking was in central London, something about it being near Whitehall. This was some time ago and with getting the kids ready for school each day, work and everything else in between I forgot all about it until the weekend approached.

The address of the hotel is located at Number 2 Whitehall Court and called The Royal Horseguards Hotel.

We checked in last Saturday afternoon, that is my hubby and our two kids and headed for our rooms on the 8th floor. My parents-in-law had checked into the hotel the night before.

James Bond roof- top scene in Skyfall

As we looked out across the London skyline from our room on the 8th floor at the top of the building, we both commented almost at the same time that it vaguely reminded us of something we’d seen in a film, probably a James Bond Movie.

Turns out we were staying in a hotel a few feet away from the scene and shoot location for the Skyfall movie. The location of the shoot was at N0 3 Whitehall Place, the department of Energy and Climate Change.

Directly opposite the hotel is the street sign for New Scotland Yard, I think you can just about make this out in the photo with the Bus below.

Here’s the scene in the movie trailer:

Here’s some pics from the windows across the rooms on the 8th floor:

The Royal Horseguards Hotel  was once apartments and built in 1884. It was modelled in the style of a French Chateau and adjoins  the Liberal Club.

During both world wars, the building that is now the hotel was taken over by the Ministry of Defence and used by MI5 and MI6.

The 8th floor of the hotel is where the MOD held meetings and coordinated their activities during the wars, it was then known as Block Two.

It was easy to get carried away imagining the secrets, decisions being discussed, perhaps even, in the rooms we were staying in.

The opulence of the hotel and its history was breathtaking, we even managed to get a sneak peek into the Liberal Club, where a portrait of Sir Winston Churchill is proudly displayed amongst many portraits of national heroes.

In March of this year, the first Chief of Secret Intelligence Sir Mansfield Cumming was honored with an English Heritage Blue Plaque which commemorates his former London home and office at 2 Whitehall Court which is part of the Royal Horseguards Hotel.

He was known as “C” due to his habit of initialising papers. This tradition of adopting the pseudonym “C” continues today as each Chief of the service is called C. It inspired Ian Fleming to create the character “M” in the James Bond novels.

Nearby to the hotel are a number of London’s landmarks:

• Trafalgar Square
• Buckingham Palace
• The London Eye as well as the beautiful views across the River Thames.

Although we live in London, it isn’t often that we take a moment out of the hectic daily grind to take-in the history and iconic scenery that surrounds us in everyday life.

As we looked across the rooftops, it was easy to imagine James Bond standing on the roof terrace planning a secret rendezvous. With the release of the next instalment of Bond’s adventures in Spectre this week, I’m looking forward to watching the film.

All in all, it was a fantastic way to celebrate such a big milestone for someone who has been the patriarch of the family. I couldn’t imagine anything else more fitting than this.