Raffles London at The OWO, Whitehall | Case Study

At a glance

Client / brand: Raffles London at The OWO
Location: The Old War Office, Whitehall, London
Years: 2020–2023
Role: Wallcovering installation
Wallcoverings: a bespoke Vescom wallcovering made for the hotel; Vescom Alcantara in selected suites
Scope: Installation to bedrooms and several other areas, including walls and parts of the joinery

The building

Designed by William Young and completed in 1906 to the Edwardian Baroque, the Old War Office rose on Whitehall from 26,000 tons of Portland stone and some 25 million bricks. Young died before it was finished; his son Clyde Young and Sir John Taylor completed the design.

For almost six decades it was the seat of Britain’s military administration. Lord Haldane, Lord Kitchener, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill all held office here as Secretary of State for War, and Douglas Haig served at the War Office as Director of Military Training and then Director of Staff Duties. In October 1914 a young T. E. Lawrence joined its Geographical Section. In 1960 John Profumo arrived as Secretary of State for War; his affair with Christine Keeler, and his resignation in 1963, nearly toppled the government.

Its secrets run deeper still. Britain’s Secret Service Bureau, the forerunner of MI5 and MI6, was created in meetings at the War Office in 1909. Ian Fleming, a wartime naval intelligence officer, would have known the building, and its air of espionage helped inspire James Bond; the building has since appeared as MI6 in Bond films. After a comprehensive eight-year restoration under the Hinduja Group and ONEX Holding, the building opened on 29 September 2023 as The OWO, home to Raffles London, the brand’s first hotel in the United Kingdom.

The brief

To install the hotel’s wallcoverings in the bedrooms and several other areas: a bespoke Vescom wallcovering created for the hotel, and Vescom Alcantara in some of the suites, applied to walls and, in places, to joinery. The rooms, designed by the late Thierry Despont, call for a calm, light-filled backdrop to Edwardian proportions.

Our approach

Preparation and priming. Plain and finely textured wallcoverings forgive nothing. Every wall was prepared and primed to a true, even surface before installation, so that the light falling through tall Whitehall windows reveals texture, not substrate.

Setting out. Rooms were set out from their windows, doorcases and joinery, with seams planned to disappear in raking light. Where the wallcovering continued onto joinery, it was set out with the same discipline as the walls.

Seam and shade control. With a bespoke production run, consistency from roll to roll and room to room is paramount. Batches were checked and managed so that corridors of rooms read as one.

Coordination. Work was sequenced alongside the other trades and the main contractor within one of London’s most complex heritage restorations.

Materials

Vescom, bespoke: a wallcovering made specifically for the hotel. Vescom produces custom wallcoverings through its Customise service (Custom Colour and Wallcovering+Print); the exact base product and reference are not recorded here.
Vescom Alcantara: the Italian material Alcantara, known for its soft, suede-like hand, used in selected suites.

Outcome

Our team installed the wallcoverings for the bedrooms and several other areas of this remarkable building. Raffles notes that its rooms and suites feature customised carpets, fabrics and wallcoverings; it is a quiet satisfaction to have hung some of them.