Raffles London at the OWO ranks #33 on our 2026 list of the best anniversary hotels in the world. The case below explains why — the hotel itself, what it does specifically for milestone celebrations, and the alternatives we measured it against.
“Winston Churchill once worked here. The corridors remember. Eleven restaurants. The most dramatic address in London hospitality.”
The hotel itself
Raffles London at The OWO opened in 2023 in a building that had been, since 1906, the Old War Office: the Edwardian baroque headquarters from which British military strategy was directed through two world wars. The building at 57 Whitehall — designed by William Young and his son Clyde, its 1,100 rooms now reduced to 120 hotel rooms and 85 private residences — is one of the most historically significant addresses in London hospitality. Winston Churchill worked here. Ian Fleming worked here. Decisions were taken in these corridors that changed the shape of the twentieth century. The hotel is aware of this and does not waste it.
The 120 rooms and suites are arranged around the building's original corridors — some of them the actual corridors through which Cabinet ministers walked — and furnished with a restrained opulence that matches the building's weight without competing with it. The architecture does the heavy lifting: coffered ceilings, deep window embrasures, rooms with proportions that the private sector rarely builds anymore. The suites, particularly those facing Horse Guards Parade, offer a view of a royal procession route and a perspective on London's governmental centre that is available at no other hotel address in the city. Natural light, on the south and west sides, runs deep into the afternoon.
The food and beverage programme runs to nine venues — a number that initially sounds like a marketing claim until you consider the building's internal geography, which provides a ballroom, multiple dining rooms, and the kind of spatial variety that a single large restaurant cannot accommodate. Saison, the flagship fine-dining restaurant, occupies a vaulted room and focuses on seasonal British ingredients with French technical precision. The Churchill Bar, in the former War Secretary's room, serves cocktails named for the building's historical associations and maintains a level of hospitality that the room demands. Mahaniyom, the Thai restaurant, occupies a former boardroom and represents the most unexpected dining decision in the hotel's portfolio — and one of the best Thai restaurants in London.
Why it works for an anniversary
Anniversary trips to great cities live or die on the dinner of the trip. The hotel must do the celebration without the city having to do the work — a private room in a Michelin restaurant inside the building, a bar where the right toast is poured, a turn-down service that knows tonight is the one. The cities that do this best — Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, Vienna — have grand-dame hotels measured in centuries, not decades.
Raffles is the Singapore grande-dame whose Accor parent has expanded it into a small global portfolio. For anniversaries the new Raffles London at the OWO is one of the best heritage opportunities in current luxury: an Edwardian War Office building turned hotel, opened 2023, with the kind of suite count and butler programme that anniversary trips reward.
The Guerlain Spa, across the lower floors, is the first Guerlain spa in the United Kingdom: ten treatment rooms, a swimming pool, and a programme anchored in the house's cosmetics philosophy. The proximity to St James's Park — directly across the road — means that mornings can begin with one of the most pleasant walks available in central London. The Thames Embankment is five minutes on foot; Trafalgar Square is the same distance in the other direction. The position, between the political centre and the cultural centre of London, is one that no other hotel in the city can claim.
A proposal at Raffles OWO has the advantage of genuine historical gravity — not the aspiration to history that newer hotels manufacture, but the actual thing. The Churchill Bar's private room can be arranged for a proposal with the kind of discretion that the building's intelligence heritage seems to have embedded in the staff. Horse Guards Parade at dusk, visible from the upper-floor suites, provides a backdrop against which a question of permanence feels appropriate. The hotel's events team has handled proposals with a consistency that the Raffles brand maintains across its portfolio.
Where it ranks against rivals
For a 2026 milestone anniversary at this level, the most direct comparisons are Rosewood Villa Magna in Madrid (#32 on this list), Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon in Lisbon (#34 on this list), Park Hyatt Kyoto in Kyoto (#31 on this list). Raffles London at the OWO earns the higher rank for one or two specific reasons covered in the verdict above. The other properties are not lesser hotels — in some cases the answer for your particular celebration is the runner-up. The city-specific page below has the full local ranking.
Practical: getting in
Address: 57 Whitehall, London SW1A 2BX, UK. Anniversary-suited categories — the upgraded suites, the rooms with the morning view — book six to twelve months ahead. The full review at the hotel page has current rates, the room categories worth paying up for, and the dining and spa programmes worth booking pre-arrival. Use our anniversary occasion page for the broader context, or the London city guide for what else to do while you’re there.