03 May Ryder Street

Our first day in London. My son Johnny and I did the great walk … up to Westminster Bridge then to Trafalgar Square. So crowded we could hardly get any good photographs but it was amazing to see it all live.

Our mother, Hedvig Johnson Allen, always talked about 1 Ryder Street, the address of her office in London. She worked in the X-2 (counterespionage) section of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services.)  “You can read about that address in books today,” she would say.

After I began to research OSS London, I found reference to “7 Ryder Street,” also that today so many years later the street numbering has changed.

From Robin Wink’s book …

So I was determined to solve the mystery of it all! I knew that when Hedy took a cab to work she would make them let her out on Regent Street, then she would walk to Ryder.  Johnny and I took the same route yesterday. From Regent Street, we imagined that Hedy might have walked by or through St. James Park. Today it is  lovely,  landscaped and quiet. I am sure that in 1944 vegetables may have been planted there. Perhaps the original iron fencing had been recycled for the war effort.

I have become on-line friends with Virginia Hahn who also worked for OSS London but does not remember my mother. She suggested that I get Robin Cook’s book Cloak & Gown: Scholars in the Secret War, 1939-1961 because I would find a photograph of the X-2 office on Ryder Street. I scanned his picture and brought it to London.

Johnny and I had no problem finding the building with its very ornate facade. It is now number 14. We walked inside with our photograph and spoke to the receptionist who was very young and had no idea of its history. However, a gentleman who watched us come in and listened to our story about the spy organizations that were housed there during the war came over and said, “Yes … three or four years ago Robert DeNiro came here for a movie (The Good Shepherd, had to be) so they could film the view from the windows. I can’t take you to the private offices on those floors but would you like to go up on the roof?”

#14 Ryder Street, London as it looks today.

Would I like to climb up to the roof of the very building in London where my mother would take turns during the night watching for fires as the incendiary bombs were dropped all over London?

Yes! It was one of those amazing experiences I can hardly write about this morning as I type in the dark while my son is still sleeping. Tony showed us what was new up there (not much) and from what direction the planes and rockets would have come from. He pointed out the newer buildings, damaged during the blitz and rebuilt.

We found the building in the photograph that Hedy marked on a few years before she died. It was similar to her office but not the same one. Today #7 Ryder is Christy’s, the famous auction house. Hedy’s photo is #21 Ryder St. And where the British SOE and the OSS X-2 set up shop is #14.

We were there.

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