St Ermin’s: London’s Hotel Of Spies

Tucked away down a quiet backstreet in Westminster you’ll find one of London’s most prestigious hotels.

St Ermin’s has a fascinating history, most notably due to its use during World War Two by the Special Operations Executive and by double agents during the Cold War.

A Historic Building

St Ermin’s Hotel was built in 1890 as a mansion block, designed by Edwin T Hall, who was also responsible for Liberty’s.

It was built on the site of a chapel dedicated to St Ermin, likely demolished in the 16th century.

It was then converted into a hotel in 1899 and redecorated with amazing Art Nouveau and Rococo plasterwork by the theatre designer J P Briggs. The design in the communal areas such as the lobby is reminiscent of theatre boxes and today the building is Grade II listed.

Its proximity to the Houses of Parliament mean that is has long been a favourite of politicians and, in fact, there is a division bell in the lobby, which would alert any MP’s they must vote.

Churchill was apparently a regular in the Caxton Bar in the hotel, where he often enjoyed a glass of Pol Roger.

A Base For Spies

From the 1920s the headquarters of MI6 (or the Secret Intelligence Service) were based at 54 Broadway, just around the corner. The hotel and 2 Caxton Street next door were therefore regularly used to meet agents.

I point out 54 Broadway on my Westminster’s Backstreets: Saints and Scoundrels walking tour.

The hotel was also used by MI6 to run guerrilla warfare classes. In attendance was Noël Coward and future double agent and art dealer Anthony Blunt.

From 1938 the hotel was used as the headquarters of MI6’s Section D. In the build up to the Second World War, this division’s aim was ‘to plan, prepare and when necessary carry out sabotage and other clandestine operations, as opposed to the gathering of intelligence.’

Churchill’s Secret Army

After the start of war, on Churchill’s behest, Section D merged with two other departments to form the secret Special Operations Executive, nicknamed ‘Churchill’s Secret Army’ or, my personal favourite, the ‘Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’.

They took over a whole floor of the hotel at the beginning of the war and operated under the guise of the ‘Statistical Research Department’.

The SOE’s mission was to carry out espionage, subversion and sabotage behind enemy lines in occupied countries in Europe and assist resistance movements. Churchill, according to Hugh Dalton, the minster of economic warfare, ordered them to ‘set Europe ablaze’.

It was made up of volunteers, often with a soldiering background, but many were also civilians. Women were also allowed to join the SOE, the only women allowed a combat role in the Second World War.

SOE parachutists were involved in the raid on the Vemork water plant in Norway in 1943, delaying the Nazi’s atomic bomb programme. They also assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, the Deputy Chief of the SS, in Czechoslovakia in 1942.

They were also crucially involved in Operation Jedburgh. Agents were parachuted into France before and after D-Day and led local resistance movements to delay German troop deployments. For example, they siphoned off oil from the 2nd SS Panzer Division and replaced it with abrasive grease. The division therefore did not arrive in Normandy on time.

The SOE was dissolved, after the war, in 1946.

A James Bond-Esque Cabinet Of Gadgets

SOE agents were often parachuted into to occupied countries armed with fake papers and gadgets to carry out their activities. Inside the lobby of the hotel is a small exhibition of some of these items.

These include…

RAF pilot boots with a hidden knife inside. If the pilot was shot down they could use the knife to turn the boots into a pair of ordinary brogues.

Many of these were devised by Charles Fraser-Smith whilst working for the Ministry of Supply. He is widely credited as being the inspiration for Q in Ian Fleming’s Bond novels. Ian Fleming would have also been familiar with the hotel of course as part of Britain’s Naval Intelligence Division.

You’ll also find an original SOE silk, used by agents to send secret coded messages.

It was sent to the hotel, with the below letter, by Barbara O’Connell who worked in the SOE during the war at their headquarters on Baker Street. She says she ‘spent the war years as a coder both at home and abroad’.

The letter says, ‘they were printed on silk so that they could be sewn into a jacket and be invisible’.

A Meeting Place For Double Agents

During the Cold War the hotel continued to be used by agents.

It is thought it was used by the infamous Cambridge Five Spy Ring, including Guy Burgess and Kim Philby, double agents secretly feeding information back to the Soviet Union.

The hotel fell out of use by spies and agents after the MI6 headquarters moved to Lambeth in 1964.

You can find out more about the hotel and information about staying here on their website here.

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