At the end of a cul-de-sac off St James's Street, three seventeenth-century houses became a hotel in 1912. Beneath them lie cellars that sheltered Londoners in the Blitz and now hold more than 8,000 bottles.
In this story · 6 sections
During the Second World War, when the bombs fell on London, people took shelter in the cellars beneath three houses on St James's Place. Above them, the Stafford Hotel had become a home from home for American and Canadian officers stationed in the capital. Today the Union Flag and the Stars and Stripes still hang side by side over the entrance, and the cellars hold more than 8,000 bottles.
The Stafford is a five-star hotel of 106 rooms at 16–18 St James's Place, a quiet cul-de-sac off St James's Street in the City of Westminster, between Piccadilly and Green Park.
The Stafford
- Address
- 16–18 St James's Place, London SW1A 1NJ
- Buildings
- Seventeenth-century houses; hotel since 1912
- Classification
- Five stars
- Rooms
- 106, in the main house, Carriage House and Stafford Mews
- Restaurant
- The Game Bird
- Bar
- The American Bar
- Cellars
- More than 8,000 bottles
- Owner
- The Stafford Collection (since 2020)
01Three houses from the seventeenth century
Numbers 16 to 18 were built as private houses in the seventeenth century, and Lord Francis Godolphin had an extensive wine cellar dug beneath them – cellars that may be among the oldest in London. In the nineteenth century number 17 belonged to Lord and Lady Lyttelton, who left in 1849 when Lady Lyttelton took charge of Queen Victoria's children.
Number 17 later became a private hotel and club chambers, and in 1886 the Stafford Club moved into number 18. In 1912 number 16 was joined to the other two, and the three houses became the Stafford Hotel.
02The cellars in wartime
In the Second World War the hotel sheltered American and Canadian officers, and their gatherings gave rise to a club of their own, the Better 'Ole. The cellars served as an air-raid shelter, both for the hotel and for the public, and Simone Prunier stored her wine collection there for safekeeping.
The cellars still hold the hotel's wine – more than 8,000 bottles of champagne, Armagnac, port and single malts, some dating back to the 1920s – together with an informal museum of objects left behind by the servicemen and women who sheltered there. The American Bar upstairs takes its name from the same wartime years.
03The Carriage House and the Mews
The rooms are spread across three buildings. The main house faces St James's Place; behind it, the Carriage House rooms were developed by Cunard in the late 1980s and redesigned in 2017 with Alexandra Champalimaud. The all-suite Stafford Mews opened in 2007.
04The Game Bird
The Game Bird opened in 2017 with the chef James Durrant, a former Great British Menu winner, and since 2021 has been under the direction of Lisa Goodwin-Allen, executive chef of Northcote in Lancashire, with Jozef Rogulski. Since 2020 the hotel has been part of the Stafford Collection, alongside Northcote and the restaurant Norma in Fitzrovia.
05St James's on foot
Green Park lies at the end of the street, St James's Palace a few minutes south, and Jermyn Street and St James's Street are close by. The whole city is in VERA PI's guide to London, and more great hotels are collected on metromode.co.
06Making the most of a stay
Ask about the cellars and their wartime museum. Take a drink in the American Bar before dinner at The Game Bird, and for more space ask about the Carriage House or the suites in the Mews. In the morning, Green Park is a minute's walk away.
