Review: Raffles London at The OWO

Why book?

Because this is the most dazzling, patrician and talked-about hotel to have opened in London this century—with great bones, spirit, heritage, and style; not to mention sybaritic restaurants, bars, and wellness spaces.

Set the scene

Facing the mounted cavalry troopers of The King’s LifeGuard, the Old War Office is not the Old War Office anymore. This portion of London’s Imperial skyline has been reborn as The OWO, which now includes Raffles London at The OWO. The hotel takes up about half the building (the non-Whitehall-facing component comprises lavish private residences and restaurants). Within it are 120 rooms and suites, nine restaurants (across the entire OWO), three bars, a 27,000-square-foot Guerlain spa and a subterranean pool. Raffles London at The OWO’s interiors impresario Thierry Despont sadly died this summer, before the final unveiling of his oeuvre. In his lifetime (during which he helped refurbish the Statue of Liberty and the Ritz in Paris) Martha Stewart described him as “designing for a king.” The OWO certainly exudes regal masculinity, its leading color the blazing red of the Household Cavalry. Whilst London descends on The OWO to see what the fuss is about, the hydrangea-draped lobby is busy with arrivals. The Guard’s Bar heaves with media, civil servants and politicians (who look like extras from The Thick Of It, down to the double-breasted bespectacled youth with slicked-back hair and a certain thrusting air). French MD Philippe Leboeuf, self-professed Churchillphile and with a GM-ing CV that includes Claridge’s, the Caryle, and the Hotel de Crillon, presides over it all with a soave efficiency.

The backstory

In 1906, snagging was tied up on a trapezium-shaped behemoth in Portland stone—a “War Office” on Whitehall. It was an exercise in Edwardian Baroque grandiosity, created as the new administrative headquarters of the British army. Edward VII was on the throne, and the British Empire was at its apex. In the years that followed—‘til 1964 when army HQ decamped to the Ministry of Defence across the way—between 2500 and 3000 army and civil service personnel surged the two and a half miles of corridors on a daily basis.

It’s hard not to over-emphasize just how little other London hotels can touch what Raffles has been lucky enough to tap into here. Historically, the building has been at the very hub of establishment. Ian Fleming, author of the Bond novels, worked here from time to time for Britain’s Naval Intelligence Division during WWII as liaison with the Secret Intelligence Services of the War Office. The spooks had their own, more obscure, entrance on Whitehall Court, still known as “Spies Entrance.”

I first visited this hotel during its hard-hat stage, when the grandiose, wraparound Grand Staircase (constructed from Piastraccia marble and topped with a cupola bearing the crown and Tudor Rose in stucco plaster) was coated with a thick layer of dust. Nothing could dent its beauty then, but now the gleamingly restored centrepiece is crowned by an iDOGI chandelier of two globes suspended one on top of the other, a glittering remembrance of two empires defunct—the Venetian and British Empires. Back in the day, only high ranking officers could ascend the staircase. From its Juliet balcony, Winston Churchill boomed out his morning briefings while Secretary of State for War between 1919 and 1921.

In 2016, the Empire struck back when the building’s lease was purchased from the MOD—for 250 years—for $440 million by the global conglomerate The Hinduja Group, founded in Shikarpur and Bombay in 1914 and led by Gopichand Hinduja, an Indian billionaire. In 2020, Raffles came on board, and three years later, here we are.

Hinduja's hefty two billion dollar restoration investment, over eight years, has included a 25-meter downward excavation to create the wellness levels of the hotel. Nine restaurants and three bars join the 27,000-square-foot Goddard Littlefair-designed Guerlain spa (with three subterranean levels) and 20-meter pool.

The rooms

State offices and grander State rooms have become the plum suites. The Haldane Suite—with leather-topped tables beautified with posies of velvety red roses and red damask upholstered walls—still feels much like what David Lloyd George called “the tranquil sanctuary of the God of War.” The suite can be opened up to the six adjoining, creating The Whitehall Wing, the biggest in London, which sleeps 12. The Churchill Suite peers over the Ministry of Defence (where Henry VIII’s wine cellar still lurks) and was the locus of military strategising. D-Day was planned in this room, and most of the battles of World War One. It was then a flag-draped room of ferocious seriousness at best, and flaming rows at worst, with chairs being thrown at times. The testosterone having mainly departed, it’s now a haven of original English oak, French polished and 12 meters high; and rich green Damask wall upholstery—what Thierry Despont referred to as the “Givenchy Style” of classic elegance. Rates start at $1,384 per night for a Classic Room.

Other heritage suites are less intimidatingly ministerial. The Granville Suite, once military reception rooms, is named after Christine Granville, rumored lover of Ian Fleming and apparently Churchill’s favorite spy. Its softer and more feminine guise includes floral upholstery in lemony shades. Granville’s exploits included skiing over the Carpathian mountains during the war to deliver microfilms with cyanide sewed into her skirts and a hunting knife tucked into her trousers. But I guess she would also have enjoyed the copper bath, which glows against the rich wood panelling. In total there are 120 rooms and suites, and even the most compact exude a sense of space because of their triple-height ceilings.

The area

Whitehall is not a traditional street for top hotels, but it’s fun to be in the hub of establishment, mudslinging distance from Downing Street.

The service

All seeing, all-knowing, omnipresent and all-competent, with a twinkle in its eye.

Food and drink

While there are nine restaurants and three bars at The OWO (the best for a Martini being the buzzy Guard’s Bar) the commitment to Argentine chef Mauro Colagreco by Raffles—he of Mirazur on the Côte d’Azur—is resolute. Mauro Colagreco at Raffles London at The OWO is the signature fine-dining vemue; alternatively, Mauro’s Table offers private dining for 20 in a curved corner room; there’s also Saison, the all-dining space (and cooked-breakfast option) coated with fretwork and a vast tree mural.

Opt for the fine-dining option to sink into a quieter atmosphere. The pastel-peachy carpeted domain of soft tablecloths and low lamps departs from the masculine norm. Colagreco’s hero restaurant espouses a sustainable gastronomy—in this case, elevating the humble British vegetable. Dishes range across land and sea, always centering a fruit or vegetable hero, arriving with a beautifully illustrated card describing on its reverse the history of the ingredient. The surreptitious and tiny Spy Bar, which occupies a former interrogation room in the basement, is a good bookend to an evening, with red-velvet banquettes, and half a DB5 Bond car (as seen in No Time to Die) mounted on the wall.

The spa

Set over 27,000 square feet and four floors; the elegant Guerlain Spa and Pillar Wellbeing was created by the studio Goddard Littlefair. It’s as pretty as a starlet’s dressing room with touches including delicate ceiling stucco of butterflies and flowers. This is the first serious outpost for the heritage French brand, which curates the body and face treatments available in the nine treatment rooms and three VIP rooms with bathtubs. Treatments include the Royal Glow Tech Facial, which folds in microdermabrasion, photobiomodulation and a Guerlain facial massage. (Beauty treatments are split between here and the light-filled L’Atelier Guerlain on the ground floor, which also blends Guerlain perfumes.) Further into the depths of the hotel, the spa includes Pillar Wellbeing, a grand 20-meter pool, thermal vitality pool, sauna, steam room, and experience showers. There’s a state-of-the art movement studio and yoga sessions, swimming lessons and personal training are on offer. Pillar Wellbeing offers recovery physio spaces and holistic approach to wellness that includes in-depth nutrition coaching. The hotel also has a Lifestyle Suite with its own gym, virtual PT, and a private space for physiotherapy and massage. Pillar Kitchen, in the main wellbeing space, has a nutrition-focused menu designed by globe-trotting chef Jason Atherton.

For families

Little children are catered to with cots, high chairs, roll-away beds, family swimming time in the pool, and the guest relations team offers movie nights for children in the room, soft toys, games and baby-sitting.

Accessibility

Staff are trained in basic access awareness, which encourages the use of the social model of disability. There is vehicle access via the courtyard with 10 disabled bays. All areas and entrances are accessible, most restaurants and bars are ground-level and all floors are lift-accessed. Disabled bathrooms come fitted with handrails and assistance alarms. Six rooms are designated as accessible, fitted with basins and beds at an accessible height. All dining, bar space and counters are accessible height. There is an accessible treatment room in the spa and a disabled changing room and bathroom. There are disabled changing rooms, showers and bathrooms in the gym.

Eco effort

The vast restoration of The Old War Office adhered to a set of architectural, construction, environmental and adaptive reuse of materials guidelines, employing thousands of skilled workers and craftspeople, from stonemasons and marble restorers to master plasterers and chandelier specialists. The project was green-certified by BREEAM. The hotel has set waste and water reduction targets, including plastic and food waste prevention.