MI5 mystery at Millbank: has the pig left the building?

Of all the watering holes across the capital, Mr S knows full well that the Pig and Eye club is both the most elusive and exclusive. So Steerpike was curious to hear that the MI5 joint has apparently been forced to change its name in order to err on the right side of political correctness.

Originally set up by spies during the Cold War in their then-headquarters on Curzon Street, the Pig and Eye was a place where secret agents could meet over a drink – or five – without risk of being overheard by the wrong people. Peter Wright wrote of frequenting it in his best-selling espionage book Spycatcher. The secret establishment is then said to have moved with the security service to Millbank when they relocated there in 1995.

However, sharing Thames House with the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre – which houses staff seconded from 16 government departments and agencies including the police – has meant that the bar has adapted its name to spare blushes.

Mr S has been informed that it’s now simply called ‘the Eye club’, amid fears that the term ‘pig’ could upset the in-house police if misconstrued as a derogatory reference to them.