Dolphin Square serves as a short-term London refuge and a discreet communications point in Alec Leamas’s dealings with William Ashe and Sam Kiever. Its small, borrowed domestic space offers Leamas a place to rest, but he also uses it to pass on an address and advance a meeting without Ashe’s knowledge.

Setting and Appearance

Ashe’s flat in Dolphin Square is small and anonymous, furnished with a few hastily assembled German curios: beer mugs, a peasant’s pipe, and pieces of second-rate Nymphenburg. The objects suggest a trace of German connection, but the room’s overall plainness makes it feel like a temporary lodging rather than a settled home.

Ashe explains that he spends weekends with his mother in Cheltenham and uses the flat only during the middle of the week because it is convenient. Leamas has expected a place of this unassuming kind. They make up a camp bed in the tiny drawing-room, where Leamas can sleep while Ashe goes out.

A Temporary Refuge

The flat briefly accommodates Leamas after Ashe offers him shelter. Their tea is an awkwardly ordinary interval: Leamas drinks sullenly, unused to comfort, while Ashe appears subdued. Ashe pats him on the shoulder before leaving to shop, and Leamas thanks him with an awkward gesture. The modest hospitality gives Leamas a chance to rest without making the flat a place of ease or intimacy.

Ashe has lived there for about a year or more, but his description of it as a convenient midweek base underscores its provisional character. The camp bed and small drawing-room make Leamas’s stay similarly temporary: the location provides cover and a pause, not a home.

A Discreet Point of Contact

Once he believes Ashe has left the building, Leamas carefully leaves the flat and goes downstairs to the telephone cabins in the centre hall. He calls a Maida Vale number and speaks to Mr. Thomas’s secretary, saying that Sam Kiever has accepted an invitation and hopes to contact Thomas personally that evening. When asked where Thomas can reach him, Leamas gives Dolphin Square as his address.

The call makes the flat more than a refuge. Leamas uses its address to establish a channel for the meeting while keeping his action separate from Ashe, who had proposed that he might contact Sam later. After making enquiries at reception, Leamas returns to the flat and sits on the camp bed, clasping his hands before lying down. He falls asleep thinking of Liz Gold in the Bayswater flat and wondering what has become of her; when he wakes, Ashe has returned with Kiever. Dolphin Square thus links private shelter, covert initiative, and the next encounter in Leamas’s London dealings.