If Walls Could Talk… A Look Inside The Old War Office

For over 100 years, this impressive building on Whitehall was at the heart of the country’s history. It was home to the War Office from 1906-1964 and then used by the Ministry of Defence from 1964-2016.

Inside its walls some of the most momentous decisions in British military history were taken and many of the most famous political figures of the last century walked its corridors. 

In 2016 the ‘Old War Office’ was sold by the Government for £350 million on a 250 year lease to become a luxury hotel. It opened in September 2023 as Raffles London after an over £1 billion refurbishment. 

As part of that the hotel has put on free public heritage tours, meaning the building is available to be seen by the public for the first time ever. Unfortunately, the tours are all sold out for 2024, but you can keep an eye on their Eventbrite page here. 

Let’s get into the history. 

Origins Of The War Office

The War Office as a department has a complicated history but it has its origins in around 1645, during the Civil War, when the future King Charles II, created a war council of royalist military commanders. He then, when restored to the throne, created the position of ‘Secretary at War’, responsible for administration and organisation of the army. Their department was known as the ‘War Office’ from as early as 1694.

Over the next two centuries the responsibility for the army and military decisions was split between a number of different people, such as the Commander in Chief of the Forces, the Secretary at War and Secretaries of State. Lots of the powers they held were combined under the ‘Secretary of State for War’ in 1794 and nearly all powers then given to a new War Office or War Department in 1855. 

A Fitting Headquarters

From around 1722 the ‘War Office’ was based at Horse Guards, on the other side of Whitehall.

In 1858 it moved to Cumberland House on Pall Mall.

Cumberland House was so unsuitable and unsanitary that it was said being employed there was about as dangerous as actually being a soldier on campaign. 

There were proposals almost immediately, in the 1850s, for a new building, but it took until 1896 for a new site to be decided upon to the East of Whitehall. 

The new building, designed in a neo-Baroque style by William Young, was completed in 1906.

It has over 1000 rooms, 2.5 miles of corridors and also used 25 million bricks and 26,000 tonnes of Portland stone in its construction. At the time it was the most modern office block in the country. 

Features

Churchill And A Lucky Lion: The Grand Staircase

Pictured below is the Grand Staircase, that greets you on arrival into the building.

At the base you can see this little lion sculpture.

Urban legend says that Winston Churchill, when working here as Secretary of State for War, would rub the lion’s nose for good luck when heading up the stairs. 

Churchill was Secretary of State for War from 1919-1921 and would deliver daily morning briefings to his assembled staff from the balcony shown below. 

The decoration of the building is very impressive. For example, there are over 50 acres of plastered ceiling. Cleaning off the stains from over 100 years of cigar smoke, was one of the toughest parts of the restoration.

The War Office At Its Peak: The Corridors

The building is so large that the corridors were wide enough for messengers to cycle along to deliver their messages.

At the height of the building’s use in World War One, there were around 3000 people working here, many with desks in the corridors themselves. There were even wooden huts built on the roof to accommodate more people. It was known as the ‘Zeppelin Terrace’ due its exposure to German zeppelin air raids. 

It was at this time that T E Lawrence, or Lawrence of Arabia, was employed here as a second Lieutenant.

He was commissioned to produce a map of Sinai for the Geographical Section, spending two months here before being posted to Cairo. 

Power and Scandal

This grand set of rooms was once the office for the Secretary of State for War. Four future Prime Ministers including Churchill and David Lloyd-George worked from here.

It was also the office of John Profumo, Secretary of State for War from 1960-1963. He famously nearly brought down the Government when a scandal erupted after his affair with 19 year old Christine Keeler was uncovered. He would apparently sneak Christine into his office here. 

When it was also found out that she was having relations with a Soviet naval attaché, public interest in the issue heightened and he ended up resigning. It massively damaged the credibility of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and he also stepped down in 1963.

Churchill’s Secret Army

The room above was once the office of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff.

This is said to be where the SOE, the Special Operations Executive, was formed in 1940.

The SOE was created, as part of MI6, to go behind enemy lines and carry out sabotage missions, reconnaissance and work with resistance movements. Churchill’s instructions upon its formation were to ‘set Europe ablaze’. 

They were nicknamed ‘Churchill’s Secret Army’ or ‘The Department Of Ungentlemanly Warfare’. I have written about them in a previous blog here.

The rooms are called the Granville Suite today after Christine Granville, or Krystyna Skarbek, a Polish agent of the SOE.

The women of the SOE were the only women allowed a combat role in WW2. Christine was the first to serve in the field and the longest serving of Britain’s female agents. Another SOE spymaster Vera Atkins described Skarbek as “very brave, very attractive, but a loner and a law unto herself.”

She risked her life many times during the war before tragically being stabbed to death in London in 1952 by an obsessed spurned suitor. 

The Secret Intelligence Services And D-Day

This is the Army Council meeting room. 

Pretty much every major military decision of the 20th century was made in this room. It was around the table here that the formation of MI5, MI6 and the SAS were approved. 

It is also where Operation Overlord, better known as the D-Day Landings, were planned. 

Bond And Double-Agents

In the basement of the building, one of the corridors has been left as it was. 

In the basement you will also find the Spy Bar, in rooms once used by MI5 and as interrogation rooms. 

Ian Fleming would have regularly visited the building in World War Two as a naval intelligence officer. He was inspired by the building and those working there when writing the James Bond novels.

Double-agents Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess, members of the Cambridge Five spy ring, also worked down here, passing secrets on to the Soviets. 

It is an incredible building, if walls could talk, this place would be bursting with tales to tell.

It is a shame there is no availability for public tours currently, as it is so interesting and so much a part of our national story. I am hoping they will put more on soon. You can see their Eventbrite page here. 

Thank you for reading, more of London’s incredible history below!