I Spy: secrets of the hotel

When Corinthia London moved into the grand building on the corner of Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall Place, we inherited an equally unique heritage.

Since opening, stories and secrets about illustrious former residents, guests and visitors have been uncovered. The building’s history has proven endlessly fascinating and elicits a frisson of intrigue about what these rooms and corridors have seen. If only walls could talk…

In the beginning 

It's the 1880s and the capital is experiencing an influx of international travellers through Charing Cross Station. To accommodate, four new hotels are commissioned to be built along the newly developed Northumberland Avenue. In 1885, the building we now know as Corinthia London opened its doors as the Metropole Hotel. The builder, Frederick Gordon, was renowned in the hospitality industry for his elegant restaurants and grand hotels.

In its first prospectus, it was noted that the hotel was "particularly recommended to ladies and families visiting the West End during the Season; to travellers from Paris and the Continent, arriving from Dover and Folkestone at the Charing Cross Terminus."

Ministry of Defence

During World War II, the building provided office accommodation for the Air Ministry and Ministry of Defense. It is the MoD's former presence that earned the building its reputation of 'spy HQ' for the British Secret Service. Records state that Room 424 was the first home of MI9 and its sub-division, the Special Operations Executive. It also became the holding point for one of the model planning beaches for the Battle of Normandy.

 Befitting of a building with this heritage, there are a number of tunnels and passageways under the road which lead to and from the hotel. These would take officials to the neighbouring government offices. Today, they are locked up and remain top secret.

Unidentified flying rumours

After World War II, the building continued as a government office for the Ministry of Defense. The imminent threat of war may have abated, but there were many other alleged activities including a special office that, up until the early 2000s, was dedicated to monitoring UFO sightings.

Elementary

Our building was also a source of inspiration for fictional spies. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, was a regular guest at the Metropole Hotel, and the nearby Sherlock Holmes pub contains many images and souvenirs of Holmes, his companion Dr. Watson and adversary Moriarty. The Metropole is referenced in Sherlock Holmes’ famous mystery The Hound of the Baskervilles, among others.

007

Even James Bond visited the building, when Daily Express artist Yaroslav Horak depicted it as the MI6 headquarters in his Bond comic strips. In a nod to this fictional legacy, the James Bond movie Skyfall hosted its press conference here in 2011.