Raffles London at The OWO

Raffles opened its first UK hotel on September 29, 2023, installing 120 rooms and suites inside the Old War Office, the Grade II*-listed Whitehall landmark that had never before admitted the public. The $1.76 billion transformation by the Hinduja Group pairs a Thierry Despont-designed hotel with three Mauro Colagreco restaurants and a subterranean bar built into a former interrogation room. It marks Accor's most consequential UK debut in years, planting its most storied brand a few hundred meters from Downing Street.

The place

The hotel occupies part of the former Old War Office on Whitehall, the government thoroughfare linking Trafalgar Square to the Houses of Parliament, with Horse Guards Parade, Downing Street and the River Thames all within a short walk. Built on the site of the old Palace of Whitehall, the building sits at the administrative heart of London rather than in a conventional hotel district, surrounded by ministries, monuments and the machinery of state rather than retail or nightlife. That address is central to the property's appeal: guests are staying inside a building that shaped a century of British government rather than simply near one, in a part of central London where hotel development of this scale had not previously been possible.

The concept

Completed in 1906 to a design by British architect William Young, the Old War Office was an Edwardian Baroque headquarters of over 1,000 rooms and two and a half miles of corridors. It housed the War Office and later the Ministry of Defence through both world wars: Herbert Kitchener, whose face fronted Britain's "Your Country Needs You" recruitment drive, worked from the building during the First World War, and Winston Churchill served there as Secretary of State for War in the early 1920s. During the Second World War the building became a hub for intelligence work, with candidates for the Special Operations Executive interviewed and briefed in its basement and agents connected to Operation Mincemeat working from its offices; Ian Fleming was a regular visitor, and the building is widely cited as an influence on his James Bond novels. The Ministry of Defence sold the building to the Hinduja Group in 2014 for £350 million, and its conversion into a hotel and residences ran to a reported $1.76 billion. The hotel interiors were designed by the late Thierry Despont, known for his restoration of the Statue of Liberty, while the 85 branded residences — ranging from studios to five-bedroom apartments, including two turret units — were designed by 1508 London. Heritage Suites occupy the former offices of Churchill, David Lloyd George and Richard Haldane, and restoration work preserved hand-laid mosaic floors, oak paneling, chandeliers and a marble staircase original to the building.

Dining & wellness

Dining is built around three venues from chef Mauro Colagreco of Mirazur: a fine-dining restaurant built on British vegetables, Mauro's Table for private dining, and Saison, an all-day Mediterranean restaurant set in the building's former historic library. Additional restaurants include Café Lapérouse, Paper Moon and Langosteria, alongside a rooftop Japanese restaurant with a sake bar. The Guard's Bar and Lounge serves a signature "London Sling" using British ingredients, while The Spy Bar occupies a former interrogation room below ground. The Guerlain Spa spans 2,500 square meters over four floors with a 20-meter pool and nine treatment suites.