The Chancery Rosewood – a Cold War embassy turns Mayfair address

On the western side of Grosvenor Square stands a building every Londoner once queued outside for a US visa stamp: Eero Saarinen's former American Embassy, built in 1960 as the first purpose-built chancery in London. After Washington moved its mission to Nine Elms, the Grade II-listed block spent years behind hoardings while Sir David Chipperfield reinstated its civic poise without disturbing Saarinen's façade, reopening in September 2025 as The Chancery Rosewood, an all-suite hotel of 144 rooms with interiors by the Parisian architect Joseph Dirand. The gilded eagle that sculptor Theodore Roszak cast from the aluminium of a B-52 bomber in 1960 still commands the roofline, watching now over a rooftop bar rather than a chancery. Inside run eight restaurants and bars, including the European premiere of Carbone and the first restaurant outside America from sushi master Masayoshi Takayama, an Asaya Spa with a 25-metre pool, and suites built into a former wartime diplomatic safe room. The MICHELIN Guide gives it Two Keys.

01The house

Eero Saarinen designed the building in 1960 as the first purpose-built chancery in London, a block of Portland stone and exposed concrete with a grid of deep-set, chequerboard windows trimmed in gold-anodised aluminium that disrupted the Georgian terraces around it. Qatari Diar acquired the site in 2013, planning permission for its conversion followed in November 2016, and the United States formally handed back Grosvenor Square for its new Nine Elms embassy in 2017.

Sir David Chipperfield led the restoration that followed, reinstating the building's civic presence while keeping Saarinen's façade intact; original sketches by the architect now hang alongside American design icons inside, and a wartime diplomatic safe room has been turned into a suite. The diagrid ceiling that once hung above embassy visitors still stretches over today's lobby.

Above the entrance, the pediment still carries the gilded eagle commissioned from sculptor Theodore Roszak in 1960 and cast from the aluminium of a B-52 bomber. For decades it was rumoured, along with the rest of the Cold War-era chancery, to conceal a CIA office behind its modernist grid.

02Rooms and suites

There are no standard rooms here: every one of the hotel's 144 units is a suite, and the entry category already runs to 570 square feet. Joseph Dirand designed the interiors, which range from junior suites to two-bedroom penthouses with landscaped terraces.

Insider tip

Five minutes from Bond Street station; book Tobi Masa's omakase counter and Jacqueline's afternoon tea well ahead.

The flagship is Saarinen House, named for the building's architect: 189 square metres with ten floor-to-ceiling windows over Mayfair and Grosvenor Square, a living room opening onto a separate study, a dining area for six, a fully equipped kitchen and a Carrara marble bathroom.

Some of the upper floors never existed in the built embassy at all: Chipperfield's team found them in Saarinen's original drawings, abandoned when the State Department decided it needed less space than planned, and has now built them out with floor-to-ceiling glass and panoramic views across the city.

03Where to eat

Eight restaurants and bars run through the hotel. Serra serves shareable, all-day Mediterranean food inspired by the coasts of southern Italy and Greece from an open kitchen; Carbone, the New York Italian institution, opened its European premiere alongside it.

Tobi Masa is the first restaurant outside the United States from Masayoshi 'Masa' Takayama, whose New York flagship Masa, together with Bar Masa and Kappo Masa, has long carried three MICHELIN stars. His London room is built around a seven-seat omakase counter.

Jacqueline, the hotel's tearoom, was named World's Best Afternoon Tea 2026 by LA LISTE, its pastries made by executive pastry chef Marius Dufay, a recipient of the MICHELIN Passion Dessert Award, with a tea list running past 120 varieties.

04The bar

Eagle Bar occupies the seventh floor beneath the eagle sculpture itself, split into two rooms either side of a six-storey atrium: Upper East, a take on the classic American bar with cocktails inspired by the building's diplomatic past, overlooks Grosvenor Square; Upper West, an aperitif-driven terrace of Champagne and large-format wine, looks towards Hyde Park. Together the two venues hold more than 200 guests across their lounges and terraces.

05Spa and wellbeing

Asaya Spa holds a 25-metre indoor pool, five treatment rooms, a sauna, steam room, hydro zone, movement studio and a gym fitted with Artis Luxury equipment and what the hotel describes as the first reformer bed by TechnoGym.

Inside the spa, the Taktouk Clinic, overseen by Dr Wassim Taktouk, is presented as the first hotel clinic of its kind, combining non-invasive skincare technology with the hotel's wider wellness programme.

06The neighbourhood

Grosvenor Square was once known as London's 'Little America' for its concentration of US missions and residents, and the hotel is a five-minute walk from Bond Street station, within easy reach of Hyde Park and the shops of Mayfair. In an earlier era, the square's residents included the Bentley Boys, the wealthy motorists who parked their green racing cars outside after a day on the track.

07Making the most of a stay

Arrivals are met directly and shown to their suite rather than a conventional front desk, with house-car transfers and personal butler service extended to signature suites and houses. The hotel opened under general manager Michael Bonsor, who had spent a decade running Rosewood London after a career that included Four Seasons and Claridge's.

Within its first year of trading, the hotel was named among Travel + Leisure's 100 Best New Hotels and was called the world's best hotel of 2025 by Luxury Travel Intelligence.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.