Construction progress at the Old War Office is well underway, with Ardmore working to create a new Five Star Raffles Hotel.
The building at 57 Whitehall, which previously served as a government building, was constructed between 1901 and 1906 and was called the War Office. It continued to be used by the government until 1964 when it was vacated. However it then continued to be used by the Ministry of Defence and was from there forward called the Old War Office.
The building was put up for sale in 2013 and sold in December of the same year, prior to being resold again in 2016 for £350m. The Contract to restore and convert the building was awarded to Ardmore for a further £460m.
The Neo-Baroque building contains in excess of 1,000 rooms, spread across it's seven floors within it's huge footprint. Plans for the Raffles hotel include the renovation of the Grade II listed structure to provide 125 bedrooms, a 600 person ballroom, nine restaurants & bars, boutique retail shops, meeting room, rooftop bar, spa, pool, 88 serviced apartments ranging from studios to five bedroom apartments and 68 parking spaces across the basement levels. In addition there will be a wine cellar, cinema, children's club and a club lounge.
To give an indication of the scale of the project, the 580,000 square foot building will receive a further two basement levels, excavated to a formation level 16 metres below ground level which will extend the development to 760,000 square foot. The refurbishment will include 2.5 miles of terrazzo flooring to the corridors, 57 chimneys require delicate work and 31 fire places will need to be carefully restored and incorporated into the design.