London Cage Interrogation Centre

The London Cage opened in Kensington Palace Gardens in 1940 as a secret interrogation centre for German prisoners whose questioning was considered especially important. It operated outside normal public visibility and was commanded by intelligence officer Alexander Scotland.

During the war the centre sought military intelligence from prisoners; after 1945 it became important in investigations of alleged German war criminals. Claims concerning coercion, mistreatment and the use of unusual interrogation methods later made the Cage one of the more controversial institutions in British wartime intelligence history.

Helen Fry’s The London Cage reconstructs the centre from archival sources and uncensored material connected with Scotland’s memoirs, examining both the intelligence obtained and the ethical controversy surrounding its methods.