Take a look inside the new Raffles hotel in London

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987 بار بازدید - 8 ماه پیش - History seeps from the walls
History seeps from the walls of the Old War Office in Whitehall, London, Winston Churchill's former workplace. Once the beating heart of Britain's military empire, the headquarters from which some of the most consequential decisions in modern U. K. history were made, the building is now forging a new future as one of the capital's leading luxury hotels: Raffles London. A painstaking eight-year renovation has seen the Grade II* listed Edwardian Baroque building — located on the site of the Palace of Whitehall and a stone's throw from Downing Street — shake state secrets for mystique of another kind, as the first European location of the iconic Singaporean brand."It's the magic combination: the building, the location and the name, Raffles," Fiona Harris, Raffles London's communications director, told CNBC Travel. The hotel's opening last month marks a full circle moment for the Raffles brand, whose name and original location pay homage to Sir Stamford Raffles, the British diplomat who founded modern Singapore. The building's new owner, the Hinduja Group, which purchased a 250-year lease from the Ministry of Defense in 2016, started as a trading company in colonial India in 1914 and is now a global conglomerate. CNBC Travel took a tour of the £1.4 billion ($1.7 billion) redevelopment — here's a look at its 100-year transition from control center of the British empire to luxury stable for international visitors to the U. K. Originally built for the British Army between 1899 and 1906, the vast OWO building served as an embodiment of imperial influence at its height. At the time, more than 2,500 British army men and women worked within the building's 1,100 rooms and two-and-a-half miles of corridors. That grandeur remains today under an extensive renovation by EPR Architects, through which much of the building's original features have been restored. Inside the grand lobby, an Italian marble imperial staircase and double-tier chandelier do justice to a building that served as the birthplace of the British Secret Service and the inspiration for Ian Fleming's James Bond series. Above it, the first floor features the balcony from which Churchill would address his staff, giving way to the former offices of various political and military heavyweights, including David Lloyd George and Lord Kitchener."This building would have been full of state secrets," Harris said. Churchill's own office — dubbed by Harris as "the room where all the big decisions were made," including the move to join World War II and the decision behind the D-Day landings — is no less grand in its new life as a suite, with a replica desk and bust of the former prime minister. The Churchill suite is just one of the rooms reimaged in tribute to the building's history by the late Thierry Despont, whose architectural accolades include the restoration of New York's Statue of Liberty and the interior redesign of Manhattan's residential skyscraper 220 Central Park South.


All data is taken from the source: http://cnbc.com
Article Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/08/best-...


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8 ماه پیش در تاریخ 1402/08/16 منتشر شده است.
987 بـار بازدید شده
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