Raffles London at The OWO – Whitehall's war office turned hotel

Opposite Horse Guards Parade, behind a cupola-crowned Portland stone façade, Raffles has taken over one of Whitehall's most guarded addresses. Built as the government's New War Office and opened in 1906, the building spent most of the twentieth century at the centre of British military administration before its sale was confirmed in 2014 and the Hinduja Group began an eight-year restoration. Raffles London at The OWO finally opened in September 2023, the brand's first hotel in the United Kingdom, inside a building where Winston Churchill worked, Ian Fleming was a regular visitor, and MI5 and MI6 once ran operations. It now holds 120 rooms including 39 suites, 85 private residences, nine restaurants and three bars, and a Guerlain Spa. The MICHELIN Guide gives it Three MICHELIN Keys.

01The house

Construction began in 1898 under the Scottish architect William Young; Young died two years into the project, and the building was finished in 1907 by Sir John Taylor and Young's son Clyde. The result was an Edwardian Baroque fortress on a trapezoid site, its walls up to six feet thick and faced with some 25 million bricks and 29,000 tons of Portland and York stone. Over 1,000 rooms and two and a half miles of corridor once housed 2,500 military and government officials, and it was from these corridors that Winston Churchill later helped direct the Allied war effort. In 1943, elements of Operation Mincemeat, the deception that helped divert enemy attention from the invasion of Sicily, were coordinated inside the former offices of Naval Intelligence, where Special Operations Executive agents were also interviewed and briefed in the basement.

The restoration brought in the designer Thierry Despont, who had earlier worked as associate architect on the 1980s restoration of the Statue of Liberty. His team preserved the original floors and the staircase from which Churchill once delivered his wartime announcements, its marble railings and chandelier still intact beneath a red-carpeted run of steps. Handsome state rooms and grand offices have been turned into 120 guest rooms and suites with views of Whitehall and Horse Guards, while the building's scale lends itself to the kind of entertaining Raffles is known for.

02Rooms and suites

Some of the grandest suites occupy former offices once used by Churchill, David Lloyd George, John Profumo and Lord Haldane. The most sought-after rooms sit inside the building's corner turrets, with uninterrupted views over Horse Guards and St James's Park – a vantage point no new-build hotel in London can match.

Insider tip

Walking distance from Buckingham Palace, St James's Park, Westminster Abbey and the West End.

03Where to eat

Nine restaurants and three bars share the building's grandest rooms. At the centre is the eponymous dining room of Mauro Colagreco, the Argentine-Italian chef behind the three-Michelin-starred Mirazur on the French Riviera; his London kitchen builds a tasting menu around more than seventy varieties of British fruit and vegetable, with protein playing a supporting role. The signature dish, simply called Lettuce, pairs red oak leaves grown on an urban farm in Elephant and Castle with smoked haddock, sesame chips and a vermouth-and-cockle sauce. The restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in February 2025, alongside three AA Rosettes.

For more private occasions there is Mauro's Table, Colagreco's chef's table with an open kitchen, and Saison by Mauro Colagreco, relaxed Mediterranean all-day dining inspired by the Riviera. Milan's Langosteria, the coastal Italian house, chose The OWO for its UK debut. Afternoon tea comes as Secrets & Spies, an award-winning menu built on the building's espionage history and its role in the evolution of MI5 and MI6, served beneath chandeliers in the Drawing Room.

04The bar

The Guards Bar and Lounge is the hotel's main bar, looking straight out across Horse Guards; no booking is required. For something more discreet, the invitation-only Spy Bar hosts private drinks receptions, a fitting nod to a building where MI5 and MI6 once operated.

05Spa and wellbeing

The Guerlain Spa spans 27,000 square feet across four floors, three of them below ground, and is paired with the training and nutrition programme Pillar Wellbeing. Facilities include a 20-metre indoor pool beneath a double-height ceiling, a vitality pool, steam and sauna rooms, and a gym and movement studio. There are nine treatment suites, including VIP rooms with their own soaking tubs, plus L'Atelier Guerlain for express beauty and fragrance services on the ground floor, with the exclusive Spirit of London treatment designed only for this address.

06The neighbourhood

Whitehall puts the hotel within walking distance of the River Thames, Horse Guards Parade, Buckingham Palace, St James's Park, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, with the West End's theatres and the nightlife of Covent Garden and Soho close by. Waterloo and Charing Cross stations are a short walk away, making the location as practical as it is historic.

07Making the most of a stay

Families are looked after with interconnecting rooms, professional babysitting and crèche services, and a toy lion named Winston for younger guests. The building's past is reason enough to book a heritage tour before heading to afternoon tea, and the Whitehall Ballroom, reached via the Grand Staircase, is where the hotel stages its largest celebrations.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.