James Bond's journey through Kent - in pictures

Last year, MI6 Confidential published an article of mine in which I described my journey through Kent following the routes taken by James Bond and Sir Hugo Drax through Kent in Moonraker. I took some photographs on the way, and so I thought I'd publish a selection on the blog. You'll have to excuse the poor quality of some of them – I took them during a rainy December afternoon.

Outside Molash on the A252. Ian Fleming records that Bond took a hairpin bend on his approach into Molash on his way to Dover.

 

Fleming mentions the Charing fork, today marked by a roundabout, when Bond pursues Drax from London. 

 

The junction of Gabriel's Hill and King Street, Maidstone. The taxi marks the position of the traffic lights which momentarily hold Drax's Mercedes up.

Fleming tells us that Drax passes the Royal Star hotel, now a shopping arcade, on his way out of Maidstone.

The Sir Thomas Wyatt restaurant where Gala Brand learns the terrible truth of the Moonraker project.

Bond races down this stretch of the A20 around Wrotham Hill.

 

The Farningham bypass, where Bond reaches speeds of 90 miles per hour.

 

Bond's view from the Swanley junction looking south-east towards Farningham.