How a corner of Whitehall – once the cockpit of the world – became a playground for the super-rich

The great and the not so good, from Churchill to Profumo, have walked its halls. Now the Old War Office has been turned into London’s newest super-luxe ‘billion pound’ hotel, a five-star reminder of just how much real power Westminster and Whitehall have lost, writes Harry Mount

These halls once symbolised Britain’s global power but now they’re selling our history (Raffles London)

When the Old War Office was bombed on 8 October 1940, the visiting American ambassador to Britain said the only sign of alarm was that the doorman wasn’t wearing his top hat. Today, the building still stands as a symbol of Britain at its mightiest. A uniformed doorman remains, albeit now wearing a different kind of “hat”, part of a welcome party for the opening of what is being dubbed Britain’s newest “billion-pound hotel”.

Tuesday night saw the glamorous launch party of Raffles London at the OWO – after the Hinduja brothers paid £350m to buy the building from the Ministry of Defence on a 250-year lease. Seven years and a billion-pound refit later, the hotel was officially declared open by the Princess Royal, who was joined by her niece Princess Beatrice and an A-list guest list that included Andrew Lloyd Webber and Andrea Bocelli.

When the War Office was built by the Scottish architect William Young and his son Clyde in 1906, the empire was at its height, and Westminster and Whitehall were the cockpit of the world. However, the starry launch this week signals a significant power shift in modern Britain and its place on the global stage today.