The Thatched Barn was a two-storey mock-Tudor hotel built in 1927 on the Barnet by-pass.
It had been commissioned by a Mrs Merrick and opened in 1934 as a 'roadhouse' and a place "where film stars could meet a lady".
In 1939, Billy Butlin purchased the Thatched Barn as his first hotel but, as war broke out, it was requisitioned as Station XV by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), and used to train spies. In June 1942, the SOE moved its Camouflage Section and main workshops to the Thatched Barn, developing a research facility to create camouflage, explosive devices, and coding equipment. Station XV was run by film director and World War I RAF veteran Capt. J. Elder Wills, who recruited stage prop experts and even magicians; British stage magician Jasper Maskelyne was associated with the Station.
In the 1950s, the Ministry of Works used the Thatched Barn as its Building Research Station, for example, to test concrete.
In the 1960s, it became a Playboy Club, and later it became associated with Elstree Film Studios, and was used as a location for TV series
The Saint, and later
The Prisoner.
The original building was demolished at the end of the 1980s, and replaced by a modern hotel.
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The Thatched Barn was a two-storey mock-Tudor hotel built in 1927 on the Barnet by-pass. 
