A spectacular hotel where the war was won

It’s 1940. German bombs are falling on London. In a magnificent building on Whitehall, the leaders of the British military gather in the Army Council Room. Here, they decided to found the Special Operations Executive – famously known as the ‘Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.’

The Army Council Room was the setting for many of Britain’s major military decisions in the twentieth century. The intelligence services – MI5 and MI6 – were both founded here, and the D-Day Landings were also approved in this room. It forms the heart of one of London’s most historic buildings, the Old War Office.

Construction of the Old War Office began in 1899 on the site of the former Palace of Westminster. The building was designed on a colossal scale by the architect William Young, its exterior adorned with turrets, columns and statues.

This flamboyant style was known as Edwardian Baroque and was popular for municipal buildings across the British Empire. It was meant to celebrate the glories of the nation, which in the case of the War Office meant 25 million bricks and 26,000 tonnes of Portland stone.

The office was both a palace and a fortress. Its interior featured 1,000 rooms and 2.5 miles of corridors. Messages were often passed around by Boy Scouts riding bicycles.

Numerous legendary figures worked in these rooms. Winston Churchill ran the department just after the First World War and visited often during the Second. Lawrence of Arabia was employed here in October 1914, while Ian Fleming was also a frequent visitor when working in naval intelligence.

At one point, the building included a covert doorway known as ‘the spies’ entrance’. Among those who might have used it was Krystyna Skarbek, a Polish aristocrat who adopted the English moniker Christine Granville and joined British intelligence in 1940. Described as Churchill’s favourite spy, she performed numerous heroic missions in occupied Europe and now has a hotel suite named in her memory.

The Ministry of Defence moved out in the 1960s and the government sold off the lease in 2014. The building was purchased by London-based members of the Hinduja family, who wanted to leave a lasting mark in the city. It was then acquired by the Singaporean chain, Raffles, for their first London hotel, and christened the OWO.

‘We wanted to build on the beauty and personality of what was already there,’ explains Geoff Hull of EPR architects, ‘which was absolutely wonderful.’ Hull oversaw the restoration, and he compares the spectacular staircase in the building’s entrance hall to the Viennese Opera House.

The entrance is one of many spaces now restored to its former glory. The staircase consists of English alabaster columns, Brescia marble railings, and Piastraccia marble steps. According to one legend, each day Churchill arrived at the office, he would run his hand over the snout of the lion at the base of the staircase to bring him luck.

In total, four future prime ministers have occupied the Secretary of State’s office here. It was also used by John Profumo for his infamous meetings with the nineteen-year-old model, Christine Keeler. That room has now been christened the Haldane Suite – after the building’s first Secretary of State – and is one of the most impressive in the entire hotel.

The restoration of the Old War Office cost £1.2 billion and lasted seven years. Because the building was Grade II* listed, enormous care was taken to preserve the original features. For instance, the cobblestones in the central courtyard were carefully numbered so that they could be lifted and replaced in exactly the same spot. Similarly, the fifty acres of plastered ceiling have been retained, which meant cleaning off a century’s worth of cigar smoke.

The results are superlative. The OWO now boasts 130 rooms and 85 private residences. Even if you don’t stay for the night, it’s worth visiting one of the nine restaurants and three bars. Our favourite is based in a former high-security vault in the underground cellars that once contained the mission reports of Britain’s intelligence agencies. An Aston Martin is suspended above the bar, but photography is banned inside.