Go back in time at London’s Raffles hotel
The new $2.6 billion Raffles hotel brings the Old World Office back to life and all the history that goes along with it.
The first time I climbed the spectacular main staircase at the Old War Office on Whitehall, I reached down to rub the nose of the lion on the right-hand balustrade.
This was the habit of soldiers past, including TE Lawrence (of Arabia), who would climb the stairs to find out the results of a promotion board or a court martial.
Lawrence once remarked that the staircase, a gargantuan sweep of Italian marble and Derbyshire alabaster, was only for field marshals and their char ladies since it takes you straight to the second floor where the minister for war and the chief of the imperial general staff (CIGS) had their offices.
Now it sweeps you to what may soon become 10 of the most desirable hotel rooms in London. It is here that the OWO Raffles hotel has a run of suites named after their previous occupants (among them Viscount Haldane, the first secretary of state for war; Sir Winston Churchill; and Christine Granville, the Polish-born countess who was Churchill’s favourite spy). These are echoing palaces of wood-panelled splendour where you can now lay your head for the princely sum of £25,000 ($48,200) a night.
The building was first unveiled in 1906 and has now reopened after an eight-year refurbishment that cost £1.4bn ($2.6 bn). Marketing this place must be one of the most pointless jobs in London; repeatedly I am told: “The building speaks for itself.”
And it does. The whole place reeks of history. It was the first building in Britain to have telephone lines installed, and down the sides of every corridor (wide enough for two messenger boys to pass each other at pace) are metal grilles with square indentations — made by a company that appropriated the design from the hand-grenade casings it also manufactured. Early guests in the big suites are given a small piece of grille to take home.
I had two nights in the Haldane Suite, which in square footage is 50 per cent bigger than my home.
Beyond the vast main room with sofas and a desk the size of Kent lies a huge bedroom with a sitting area, bathroom (with push-button electronic seat and TV in the mirror), a dressing room that was more than big enough for both my daughters (aged nearly five and nearly two) to sleep in.
The butler’s pantry is in a space that was once Churchill’s lift for when he didn’t fancy the stairs. This was also the means by which Christine Keeler made her way to see her lover, John Profumo, when he was secretary of state for war.
Just down the corridor is the Churchill Suite, the former office of the CIGS. From here General Sir Alan Brooke ran the Second World War and the Army Council met to plan Operation Torch, the 1942 invasion to liberate North Africa from the Nazis, and the response to Hitler’s last throw of the dice in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.
It was in this room that Brooke once threw a chair at a member of the finance committee when he did not get the resources he needed for the war effort.
It was here too that an insubordinate officer briefed the top brass on carrier pigeons during the First World War, suggesting that if they were cross-bred with parrots, the birds could speak their reports. The humourless generals ejected him.
In the basement, down corridors kept authentically spartan, you walk where young women, sent into occupied Europe for the Special Operations Executive, were recruited. After a while you come to an anonymous door on the left. Behind it lies a Miss Moneypenny desk and beyond that the Spy Bar, which promises to be one of the coolest speakeasies in central London. Behind the bar is an Aston Martin DB5, the actual car used in No Time to Die.
If you can’t get a booking there, the Guards Bar at street level shows the kind of attention to detail that has gone into the project. The red curtains have been made to look like a guardsman’s uniform and the tabs on the menu are like medals lined up on a military chest.
The hotel is a splendid amalgam of old and new, a genuine heritage building preserved for the nation but also a modern feat of engineering. The Hindujas, who bought a 250-year lease from the MoD, dug down three storeys to make the calming double-height swimming pool and spa with its nine treatment rooms. My wife pronounced her Guerlain massage “heavenly” – and she knows a thing or two about such things.
The OWO occupies an entire block, half of which is the Raffles hotel with 120 rooms, and half houses 85 private residences. While the decor of the hotel is “Churchill chic” and Edwardian baroque, the residences are all Daniel Craig-era James Bond, slick modern panelling and sober colours.
A one-bed apartment starts at £4m ($7.68m). The 650sq m duplex corner penthouses, which come with their own turret room, are a cool £100m ($192m). Michael Bloomberg is rumoured to have bought one of them.
Keeping with the espionage theme, the pedestrian entrance to the residences on Whitehall Court is the old “spies’ entrance” to the building, once used by Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the first “C”, the head of MI6.
If you can’t afford a home here, or even a hotel room, which start at about £1100 ($2120) a night, the good news is that for those of us who work in and around Whitehall, the OWO will soon offer nine restaurants.
They include the Parisian-style Cafe Laperouse in the courtyard and the Japanese-influenced Endo on the roof, with views over Whitehall, the Mall and Buckingham Palace. The clock across the road on the Banqueting House has the number 2 blacked out – the time of day when Charles I was executed there.
Mauro Colagreco’s Mirazur restaurant, near Menton on the Cote d’Azur, has three Michelin stars (it was named best in the world in 2019). If my meal was anything to go by he won’t be long in earning multiple stars for the flagship restaurant Mauro Colagreco at the OWO. Unlike some high-end restaurants, it is refreshingly unstuffy and relaxed. The tasting menu here (with the best wine-pairing I’ve ever had) was sublime.
Each course, designed to showcase great seasonal produce, has a “hero ingredient”. I’m usually quick to embrace a slab of dead animal, but the most memorable plate here was lettuce, cucumber and artichoke heart. Colagreco conjured fresh flavours of absurd intensity from items I wouldn’t usually touch with a long spoon. It was stunning.
Yes, there were teething troubles in the first week of opening. The very helpful butlers had to borrow a cot from the hotel around the corner and there were no high chairs for children. Haldane’s desk could also do with a plug somewhere underneath for laptops.
But everywhere the hotel and restaurant staff, some of whom have been on site for two years, are bursting with pride at what has been created and thrilled to have customers to show it off to. This is a destination hotel and even if you can’t stay, the building is a must-visit.
As we are leaving, I rub the lion’s head one last time. Perhaps good fortune will help me win the lottery so I can move in full time.
Four hotels linked to Winston Churchill
1. Beaverbrook, Surrey
The late MP Max Aitken, who became Lord Beaverbrook and a press baron, purchased this grand Surrey pile (then Cherkley Court) in 1910, and Winston Churchill, a great friend, came to visit many times. It reportedly had a spell as a wartime bunker, then fell into disrepair before its transformation into a luxury hotel in 2017. Now it has a spa in the old coach house, an art deco cocktail bar, outdoor swimming pool and elegant sushi restaurant. True history fans can book the Winston Churchill room, the former prime minister’s favourite, which preserves his original bathroom and secret escape passageway.
2. Pale Hall, Gwynedd
There’s no exact record of how many times the former war leader stayed at this majestic country house in the Dee Valley; the owners describe him as “an occasional guest during the 1950s”. But the connection did inspire a lavish Churchill suite in the former gentleman’s drawing room – a baronial-style vision with a spectacular vaulted ceiling, wood panelling and stained glass panels. Guests enjoy a four-poster bed, copper bathtub and fireplace, along with a “lethal” Churchill martini on arrival. It’s also dog-friendly, which would surely have pleased the animal lover and his bulldog, Dodo.
3. Hever Castle, Kent
One of the most insightful stops for fans is Chartwell, Churchill’s beloved Kent estate. While you can’t stay there, you could book a nearby hotel for a leisurely visit. Hever Castle is 12 minutes’ drive away, and Churchill regularly visited and painted landscapes there (which you can see in the studio at Chartwell). As a historical bonus, Hever was Anne Boleyn’s childhood home.
4. Knockinaam Lodge, Dumfries and Galloway
Where war and politics are concerned, some of Churchill’s rendezvous remain shrouded in secrecy. One rumour is his alleged meeting with General Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1944, said to have taken place at this residence on a concealed cove. The story goes that the prime minister flew into nearby RAF Wig Bay, an important seaplane base at the time, so the two leaders could hash out details of the D-Day landings at Knockinaam Lodge, now a charming boutique hotel. Check in to its Churchill suite, with tiled fireplace and original bathtub.
LUCY THACKRAY
In the know
Raffles London at the OWO is at Whitehall. Rooms from £1100 ($2120) a night. Daily tours of the property are available to guests on request, and complimentary tours for non-guests will be available on 10 dates next year.
Tim Shipman was a guest of Raffles London at the OWO.
THE TIMES
