Raffles London at The OWO, UK – Churchill’s war rooms, Bond’s MI6 and a copper bathtub

Right so imagine you’re staying in a building where Winston Churchill used to deliver wartime briefings from the balcony above the marble staircase. Where MI5 and MI6 were literally born. Where Ian Fleming worked and gathered material for a character named James Bond. Where the building’s basement was used for Special Operations Executive interrogation rooms and now contains a speakeasy accessible only to hotel guests, with half of the actual Aston Martin DB5 from “No Time to Die” suspended above the bar. Where one of the five heritage suites is named after Christine Granville – Churchill’s favourite spy, the woman who inspired Vesper Lynd – and the bathroom has a copper soaking tub. This is not a hotel that borrowed history for marketing purposes. It lived it.

Raffles London at The OWO is the first Raffles in the UK, opened in September 2023 after a six-year, £1.4 billion restoration of the Grade II* listed Old War Office on Whitehall. It came in at No.13 on The World’s 50 Best Hotels 2024 with the Highest New Entry Award. The video covers three room categories – Corner Suite (96 sqm), the Granville Suite (162 sqm) and the Churchill Suite – plus the Guards Bar, Saison restaurant, the Drawing Room, the spa, the gym, the courtyard, the building interiors, and the walks outside. All of it is extraordinary. Let me tell you why.

The building – 700 years of history on Whitehall

The OWO has been historically important for longer than most countries have existed. Edward I was the first British monarch recorded living on this site in the 13th century. Henry VIII died at Whitehall Palace which occupied this location in 1547. Oliver Cromwell died here in 1658. The current building – the Edwardian Baroque structure in Portland stone with its distinctive cupola – was completed in 1906 specifically to house the administration of the British Army.

The 20th century is where it gets genuinely extraordinary:

• 🎖️ Winston Churchill served as Secretary of State for War here – and would deliver briefings from the balcony above the grand marble staircase
• 🕵️ MI5 and MI6 were both founded within these walls
• 🎬 Ian Fleming worked here and drew directly on the building and its agents for the James Bond novels. The OWO served as a filming location for five Bond films between 1983 and 2015
• 💪 T.E. Lawrence – Lawrence of Arabia – worked here
• 🔐 The Special Operations Executive used the basement for interview and interrogation rooms – now the location of the Spy Bar
• 📜 The Profumo Affair had its central characters walking these corridors

The Hinduja Group acquired the building on a 250-year lease from the Ministry of Defense in 2016 and spent six years restoring it. The architect for the interiors was Thierry Despont – the American designer who also led the restoration of the Statue of Liberty and The Carlyle in New York. The brief was historical accuracy paired with contemporary luxury: every original floor, staircase, marble, woodwork and plasterwork painstakingly preserved; non-historic walls removed to reconfigure the space; three additional basement floors excavated to create the spa, pool and ballroom.

The result was 120 guest rooms and suites plus 85 private residences, nine restaurants and bars, a ballroom for 600 guests (the only five-star hotel in London with a ballroom of this scale), London’s first Guerlain Spa, and the Spy Bar. The Grand Staircase alone – steps in Piastraccia marble, balusters in English alabaster, handrails in Brescia marble – is worth a dedicated visit from anyone who appreciates 20th century institutional architecture done at the highest level. Churchill touched the carved lions at the foot of the handrails for good luck. They are still there.

The rooms and suites – 120 spaces, no two identical

Because the OWO was an office building rather than a purpose-built hotel, every room is different. The architects worked with the existing room configurations and quirks of the original building, which means genuinely varied spaces rather than uniform boxes. The video covers three categories across a wide range of scale and character.

🛏️ Corner Suite – 96 sqm

The corner suite format features a circular living space – the round room design is a distinctive feature of the corner configurations – with a large bedroom adjacent. Dark wood paneling in the living room, red sofa, a six-seat dining table, fully stocked minibar with Nespresso. The bedroom is notably calmer in palette – creams and neutrals, a very large bed, dressing table. The bathroom has marble tiles and contemporary finishes, a sharp contrast to the heritage public spaces outside. Suite guests receive 24-hour Raffles butler service, complimentary two-way airport transfer, curated British minibar, and bathroom products by London perfumer Azzi Glasser specifically created for The OWO. Room control is via iPad throughout.

👑 The Granville Suite – 162 sqm

Named for Christine Granville – Churchill’s favourite spy, a Special Operations Executive operative who parachuted behind enemy lines and skied through enemy territory, and who Ian Fleming used as the inspiration for Vesper Lynd. This is the suite the hotel describes as the most sought-after among guests who know the building’s history.

162 sqm. Intricate plasterwork that took artisans months to restore. Antique fireplaces. Elaborate wood paneling with the original OWO detailing. And the piece de resistance: a theatrical bathroom with a copper soaking tub, draped with floor-to-ceiling fabric curtains that enclose separate spaces for bathing and dressing. The bathroom is the kind of thing that gets photographed and then no photograph adequately captures. At this price point in London you’re getting a room with genuine historical and aesthetic weight behind every surface.

🎖️ The Churchill Suite

More than 139 sqm of wood paneling, antique fireplaces and Horse Guards Avenue views. This is the suite Churchill actually used. The drawing room overlooks the parade ground where the Household Cavalry still mounts the daily guard. The suite is a symphony of the original OWO aesthetic – darker, more commanding than other categories, the kind of room that makes you sit differently in your chair. The video covers this room as part of the heritage suite tour and the footage says more than any description can.

Other room categories:

• Classic – from 31 sqm, entry point, same heritage aesthetic scaled down
• Executive – around 45 sqm
• Deluxe – around 40 sqm
• Westminster Suite – starting from ~$2,215/night per TPG
• Haldane Suite – named for War Secretary Lord Haldane, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Horse Guards Parade

Rates start from around $1,000 per night for base rooms. Suites are significantly higher. London luxury hotel pricing is what it is. The heritage suites specifically are priced for what they are – not just a room but a specific piece of 20th century British history that you sleep inside.

The dining – nine restaurants and three bars, run by a three-Michelin-star chef

Mauro Colagreco – the Argentine chef behind Mirazur in France, which held the No.1 spot on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2019 and carries three Michelin stars – made his London debut at Raffles OWO. He runs three of the nine venues. That is not a normal situation for any hotel anywhere.

🍽️ Mauro Colagreco at Raffles London

The flagship fine dining restaurant. Tasting menus focused on British seasonal produce – Colagreco’s sustainable sourcing philosophy applied to UK suppliers and ingredients. The food is presented in jewel-like boxes, as floral arrangements, with theatrical elements at the table. One reviewer who’d had strong meals at comparable London restaurants called this the single best dining experience of their London trip. Michelin-star worthy, though not yet awarded – this will not stay that way for long given the kitchen’s trajectory.

🌿 Saison by Mauro Colagreco

The all-day Mediterranean restaurant. More accessible price point than the flagship, set beneath the restored glass atrium that brings natural light into the dining room. Breakfast here – guests are fed beneath the atrium with a continental spread plus à la carte options including a full English and a smoked trout version of eggs benedict. This is the restaurant covered in the video for breakfast and the setting is genuinely beautiful for a morning meal. Sunday brunch merges British traditions with Mediterranean flavours in a dedicated service that’s different from the rest of the week.

🗼 Kioku by Endo

The rooftop Japanese restaurant by Michelin-starred sushi chef Endo Kazutoshi, opened in 2024. Japanese-inspired fine dining with views over Whitehall. A sake bar operates at ground floor level. The contrast between the Edwardian building and the precision of Japanese omakase on the roof is one of those OWO combinations that shouldn’t work on paper and clearly does in practice.

🍕 Paper Moon

Milanese cuisine in the courtyard, classic aperitivi and traditional Italian cocktails. A completely different atmosphere from the heritage grandeur of the rest of the building – lighter, more convivial, the piazza energy transposed into a Whitehall courtyard.

🍹 The Guards Bar and Lounge

Named for the Household Cavalry’s long connection with the OWO, this is the main hotel bar with a sophisticated drinks program. The crimson of the Horse Guards’ uniforms inspired the bar’s color scheme. Creative takes on the Singapore Sling – Raffles’ signature cocktail, a nod to its flagship Singapore property – are the signature drinks here alongside the full cocktail and spirits menu. The atmosphere is more relaxed than the fine dining venues while maintaining the heritage setting.

🔐 The Spy Bar – hotel guests only

This is the one everyone asks about and the hotel handles it perfectly by maintaining genuine secrecy around the location within the building. Accessible only to hotel guests. Located in the former interview and interrogation rooms of the Special Operations Executive in the basement. The bar counter has half of the actual Aston Martin DB5 from the 2021 Bond film “No Time to Die” suspended above it. No photography allowed. The speakeasy atmosphere is earned rather than manufactured – these rooms genuinely were used for purposes that cannot be fully disclosed. The Singapore Slings and 007-inspired martinis here are, by multiple accounts, exceptional. The rhubarb martini variation specifically gets mentions.

The Drawing Room and heritage spaces

The video covers the Drawing Room as a specific venue and it’s worth explaining what makes the OWO’s public spaces fundamentally different from a purpose-built hotel. The corridors, stairways and gathering rooms were designed for the administration of the British Empire’s military – the scale, the ceilings, the materials, the light – everything reflects institutional power from 1906. Artworks hang throughout the corridors: field drawings of WWI tanks, portraits of female workers in WWII industries. The carpet pattern is an homage to the original cast-iron floor grilles over the building’s telephone lines. The chandelier in the entrance hall is the iDogi chandelier of Venetian crystal, commissioned specifically for the restoration. A 20-foot sculpture commissioned at Frieze art fair stands in the concierge area. The hotel has a dedicated History Concierge – an actual position on the staff – available to answer questions and conduct tours of the building’s history.

The Guerlain Spa – London’s first, four floors underground

27,000 square feet across four subterranean floors, excavated specifically for the hotel’s restoration. Guerlain operates its first London spa here, in partnership with Pillar Wellbeing who provide the fitness and movement programming. This is not a small hotel spa squeezed into available space – it was purpose-built at enormous expense as part of the overall transformation.

• 🏊 65-foot (20m) heated indoor swimming pool under a double-height vaulted ceiling with luxuriant loungers
• 💆 Nine treatment rooms including three VIP Spa Suites and L’Atelier Guerlain, a private beauty and hair salon space
• 🧖 Thermal spa suite with sauna, steam room, experience showers and vitality pool
• 💪 Gym with dedicated Pilates studio overlooking the pool
• 🌸 Signature treatment: Spirit of London – a 90-minute massage incorporating LED light therapy ($385)
• ✨ Royal Glow Tech Facial – developed exclusively for Raffles London, combining microdermabrasion and photobiomodulation light therapy with Guerlain facial technique ($447-547)

The spa experience begins before the treatment room: guests are given lemon-lemongrass tea and a lavender hot towel, and invited to select from Guerlain’s fragrance range so the treatment can be tailored to their chosen scent. The nine treatment rooms are described as cocoon-like rather than clinical. The pool, however, is the one that generates the most consistent responses across accounts – the double-height vaulted ceiling gives it a genuinely monumental feel while remaining a functional swimming space.

What’s outside – Whitehall, Horse Guards, St James’s Park

The OWO’s address on Whitehall is one of the great London hotel locations precisely because it puts you at the center of constitutional London rather than tourist London. The video covers walks to Whitehall Gardens, Horse Guards Parade and St James’s Park and these are genuinely among the best urban walks in any capital city.

Horse Guards Parade – directly behind the OWO, the Churchill Suite overlooks it. The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment performs the daily Changing of the Guard at Horse Guards at 11am (10am Sundays) and this is significantly less crowded than the Buckingham Palace version while being arguably more atmospheric.

Whitehall – Downing Street is 2 minutes walk. The Cenotaph is on Whitehall. The Banqueting House (the only remaining part of Whitehall Palace, where Charles I was executed) is adjacent. This is the most historically dense street in Britain.

St James’s Park – across Horse Guards Parade, one of the Royal Parks, with the famous pelicans, a lake, and a view back toward Buckingham Palace. A 15-minute morning walk around the park from the OWO and back is a genuinely excellent way to start a London day.

Trafalgar Square and Westminster – both under 15 minutes on foot. The National Gallery, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the South Bank – all walkable in under 30 minutes from Whitehall.

Loyalty situation and how to book smarter

Raffles London is part of the Accor ALL loyalty program – the same program as Sofitel, Fairmont and other Accor brands. You earn points on stays and can redeem them toward future bookings across the Accor portfolio. For context: unlike the Peninsula which has no major loyalty program, the Accor ALL connection means there is a points pathway here, particularly valuable for frequent travelers within the Accor ecosystem.

Additional booking routes worth knowing:

• Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts – daily breakfast, $100 property credit, room upgrade and late checkout for Amex Platinum cardholders
• Chase Sapphire Reserve – The Edit – same benefits structure: daily breakfast, $100 property credit, early check-in, late checkout and upgrade
• Book direct at raffles.com/london for best cancellation flexibility

The breakfast at Saison under the glass atrium specifically is called out as excellent across multiple accounts – the $100 F&B credit comfortably covers a two-person breakfast with room to spare toward lunch or a cocktail at the Guards Bar.

Frequently asked questions

📹 Video by Luxury Hotels