The Reform Club, 104 Pall Mall, SW1

With all that broken glass and swords plunged into wood-panelled walls, it’s clear that ‘Blades’, the club in which Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) challenges 007 to cross blades in the twentieth Bond movie, Die Another Day, is a studio set. However, the central section of the fight, and the lobby in which Bond receives a mysterious key, are the Reform Club.

One of London's famed gentlemen's clubs, its stark grey-block exterior contrasts with a lavish, Italianate interior. As the name implies, the Reform, founded in 1836, was intended to be the home of more radical opinions than establishments like the nearby Athenaeum, and still has a distinctly Liberal membership.

The Reform was Phileas Fogg’s setting-off point in Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in 80 Days (though the 1956 Mike Todd-produced film adaptation uses the Institute of Directors Club, 116 Pall Mall). The real Reform interior can be seen in Roger Donaldson’s 1984 version of The Bounty, where Lieutenant Bligh (Anthony Hopkins) invites Fletcher Christian (Mel Gibson) to join him on the fateful voyage. It also stands in for the interior of the ‘Athenaeum’ in Lindsay Anderson's anarchic O Lucky Man! More recently, the Reform’s pillared interior is the site of the grand party in Shekhar Kapur’s The Four Feathers, with Heath Ledger.

Unless you're a member, or guest of a member, your best chance of glimpsing the club's interior is a guided tour, or Open House London, which takes place for one day in September.

The Reform Club
Open House London

Die Another Day (2002, dir: Lee Tamahori)
The Four Feathers (2002, dir: Shekhar Kapur)
O Lucky Man! (1973, dir: Lindsay Anderson)
The Bounty (1984, dir: Roger Donaldson)