Churchill’s Old War Office hotel plans pulled leaving 700 guests in the lurch

By Jacob Phillips, Local Democracy Reporter

A £1,000 a night hotel set to open in Churchill’s Old War Office has had a major setback just two weeks before opening.

Nearly 700 guests could have to put their plans on hold after Westminster City council asked the hotel’s lawyers to come back with a clearer plan showing where they will serve alcohol and play music.

The Raffles Hotel is set to open at the Old War Office in Whitehall following a £1bn regeneration this month and it will become one of London’s finest hotels, according to an application made to Westminster City council.

But the hotel’s team was left furious after the council shot down seven licensing applications which it needs to open.

A hotel representative said: “Nearly 700 people were meant to be going into this building. We are going to have to put all these plans on hold until we sort this out. This is a real big concern, a serious concern.”

The hotel’s team has now demanded the council set up a special meeting in the coming days to try and allow the hotel to open its doors as planned.

Giving the verdict to the hotel’s team, Westminster’s licensing committee chairman Aziz Toki said: “We would encourage the applicant to provide clearer plans which comply with the licensing act.

“We want this development to succeed but our duty is to ensure that these seven licenses promote the licensing objectives.”

Councillors had started the two-hour licensing meeting on Thursday by saying they had a number of issues with the application.

The plans presented by the hotel did not show where drinks would be sold and plans did not show where toilets or fire exits were. They were also confused about how each of its restaurants would operate.

Councillors added that they were concerned that there was a 200,000-square-foot building with little detail on its application.

But the hotel insisted it had colour coded its plans to make it as easy as possible for the politicians to see what license was linked to which area.

Despite their best efforts to explain the plans councillors still asked the hotel to submit clearer plans.

The old war rooms were used as Churchill’s headquarters during the second world war. At this time there were 1,000 rooms in the building and around 2.5 miles of corridors.

The building has been transformed into a five-star spot with five restaurants, including one on the roof complete with spectacular views across London, but it can not open without a license from the council.

Pictured top: Churchill’s Old War Office under refurbishment (Picture: Google Street View)