The Spy Bar

A top-secret bar at Raffles which can only be accessed by hotel guests. Such furtiveness makes sense; the hotel is in the Old War Building, which is where Ian Fleming came up with his infamous James Bond books when he was a Naval Intelligence Officer. The two rooms – know as 006 and 007 – were once storage vaults for the reports and papers of MI5 and MI6 agents, while the entrance lobby was once a guard room. Naturally, photography is banned in the Spy Bar, and, of course, the best order is for a Vesper martini – Bond’s favourite.