Have you ever noticed how hotels of a certain age and size like to use the word ‘grand’ when talking about themselves? For instance, their lobbies are always grand. Their suites are grand and spacious, the bathrooms opulently appointed. The architecture of the building is grand and historical, yada yada yada.
Not surprisingly, very few of these hotels ever actually live up to their over-inflated hype. And yet, even before Raffles London at The OWO (aka Old War Office) opened in 2023 – apparently, London’s biggest building project since the Olympics in terms of manpower – it was obvious that ‘grand’ barely began to describe the 76,000 sq m complex of 120-room hotel, 85 residential apartments, 16-seater private cinema, nine restaurants, three bars, and wellness facilities. The provenance of the seven-storey beauty along London’s historic Whitehall is impressive.
A massive Edwardian baroque pile of finely carved columns, arches and corner turrets, it was built in 1906 to house the UK government’s war office and, latterly, the Ministry of Defence. From within its cavernous interiors, Winston Churchill directed the war effort. Spy agencies MI5 and MI6 were formed here, whilst a succession of prime ministers would drop in for meetings – 10 Downing Street is down the road – perhaps after tea at Buckingham Palace a few minutes away.
In other words, for a hotel, much less one called Raffles, that’s a lot of history to live up to. That it does so in spades and i.