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The Guardian
7 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
The super-rich have done what protesters never could: taken over the US embassy in London
Until seven years ago, one of the key centres of American power in Europe was a few minutes' walk from the consumer frenzy of Oxford Street in London. Reassuring or enraging, depending on your view of American hegemony, for more than half a century the enormous US embassy, by far the largest in the capital, provided diplomatic, immigration and intelligence services – and an irresistible target for protesters. Its strikingly skeletal grey building on Grosvenor Square, which opened in 1960, became steadily more surrounded by fences, concrete blocks, bollards and other defences: signs of the increasing effort required to maintain the US's worldwide ascendancy. So it's strange to visit the square and find that all the defences have gone. You can walk right up to the building, as protesters never managed to in large numbers, on to pavements once menacingly guarded by the embassy's detachment of US marines, and peer through the rows of windows at an interior eerily transformed. Like the exterior, it has been almost entirely dismantled and then reconstructed over several years, its grey bones warmed and softened with a lavish new colour scheme based on gold. The signal being sent to visitors and passersby is not subtle. The building's new role is to serve those around whose needs and wishes the centres of London and other prestigious cities are increasingly being reshaped: the 1%. Staying at the Chancery Rosewood, as the former embassy is now known, will cost between £1,520 and £24,102 a night – the latter half the annual median salary in London – when the hotel's first guests arrive on 1 September. Among other amenities, they will have an 'immersive wellness area', 'courtesy Bentley cars' and a 'curated art exhibition with art concierge'. The combination of material ostentation, health micromanagement and exclusive cultural opportunities required by the very wealthy these days will be provided by a formerly American hospitality chain, now owned by a conglomerate based in Hong Kong. The building itself is owned by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. As so often in Britain, the ambition of some non-western countries to reverse their relationship with the old imperial powers is hiding in plain sight. Enclaves for ultra-wealthy guests are proliferating across a widening swathe of central London. Some of these hotels, such as Raffles London at the OWO (Old War Office) and the Waldorf Astoria London Admiralty Arch, follow a similar formula to the Chancery. Famous, well-located properties sold off by the state – the Old War Office and Admiralty Arch disposed of during the deep spending cuts by David Cameron's government – are having their history and faded grandeur commodified into something glitzier. By its final years, parts of the Grosvenor Square embassy were actually quite shabby, with worn carpets and frayed office furniture. Maintaining large government premises in expensive city-centre locations, exposed to protests or potential terrorist attack, can ultimately become unappealing for the state, not least because its revenues are limited by the reluctance of many of the 1% to pay their taxes. So the London boom in luxurious office-to-hotel conversions may have been partly prompted, in an indirect way, by the self-interest of some of those who now stay in them. As so often in the 21st century, the behaviour of the 1% feels impervious to satire or condemnation. Fifty-seven years ago, at the height of protests against the Vietnam war, Grosvenor Square filled with demonstrators, among them the leading activist Tariq Ali. In his memoir of the 1960s, Street Fighting Years, he recalls that he and his more excitable comrades 'dreamed' of forcing their way into the building, and 'using the embassy telex to cable the US embassy in Saigon and inform them that pro-Vietcong forces had seized the premises in Grosvenor Square'. Only mounted police charges and mass arrests saved the London embassy from invasion. Yet now luxury capitalism has managed to do what protesters could not, and take over the building from the spooks and diplomats. With Donald Trump transparently running the US for the benefit of the rich, it feels fitting that the building has become a place for them, rather than Americans in general. The hotel will be open just in time for his September state visit. Perhaps some of his wealthier supporters will take the opportunity to stay. For any guest who worries about the potential provocation of yet another elite hotel, operating at a traditional protest site, in a country in which most people are struggling with a seemingly endless cost of living crisis, the Chancery does have some discreet security. Cameras cover the hotel's perimeter, and guards circle the building after dark. Meanwhile a couple of miles to the south, in a new London landscape of residential towers and windswept roads at Nine Elms, the successor to the Grosvenor Square embassy stands in the middle of its own, far more extensive security zone, including a partial moat and a defensive wall disguised as a waterfall. The huge pale cube of the current US embassy dominates its neighbourhood even more than its predecessor did. It's also much further away from the usual routes of London political marches. Some protesters have already adjusted. Thousands of people supporting Palestine walked to the embassy in February, to show their fury at Trump's backing for Israel. The symbolic contrast between their defiant flags and flimsy placards and the fortress-like building did not work in the US's favour. The Grosvenor Square embassy may be gone, but the business of challenging the US goes on. Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist
The Guardian
22-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The super-rich have done what protesters never could: taken over the US embassy in London
Until seven years ago, one of the key centres of American power in Europe was a few minutes' walk from the consumer frenzy of Oxford Street in London. Reassuring or enraging, depending on your view of American hegemony, for more than half a century the enormous US embassy, by far the largest in the capital, provided diplomatic, immigration and intelligence services – and an irresistible target for protesters. Its strikingly skeletal grey building on Grosvenor Square, which opened in 1960, became steadily more surrounded by fences, concrete blocks, bollards and other defences: signs of the increasing effort required to maintain the US's worldwide ascendancy. So it's strange to visit the square and find that all the defences have gone. You can walk right up to the building, as protesters never managed to in large numbers, on to pavements once menacingly guarded by the embassy's detachment of US marines, and peer through the rows of windows at an interior eerily transformed. Like the exterior, it has been almost entirely dismantled and then reconstructed over several years, its grey bones warmed and softened with a lavish new colour scheme based on gold. The signal being sent to visitors and passersby is not subtle. The building's new role is to serve those around whose needs and wishes the centres of London and other prestigious cities are increasingly being reshaped: the 1%. Staying at the Chancery Rosewood, as the former embassy is now known, will cost between £1,520 and £24,102 a night – the latter half the annual median salary in London – when the hotel's first guests arrive on 1 September. Among other amenities, they will have an 'immersive wellness area', 'courtesy Bentley cars' and a 'curated art exhibition with art concierge'. The combination of material ostentation, health micromanagement and exclusive cultural opportunities required by the very wealthy these days will be provided by a formerly American hospitality chain, now owned by a conglomerate based in Hong Kong. The building itself is owned by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. As so often in Britain, the ambition of some non-western countries to reverse their relationship with the old imperial powers is hiding in plain sight. Enclaves for ultra-wealthy guests are proliferating across a widening swathe of central London. Some of these hotels, such as Raffles London at the OWO (Old War Office) and the Waldorf Astoria London Admiralty Arch, follow a similar formula to the Chancery. Famous, well-located properties sold off by the state – the Old War Office and Admiralty Arch disposed of during the deep spending cuts by David Cameron's government – are having their history and faded grandeur commodified into something glitzier. By its final years, parts of the Grosvenor Square embassy were actually quite shabby, with worn carpets and frayed office furniture. Maintaining large government premises in expensive city-centre locations, exposed to protests or potential terrorist attack, can ultimately become unappealing for the state, not least because its revenues are limited by the reluctance of many of the 1% to pay their taxes. So the London boom in luxurious office-to-hotel conversions may have been partly prompted, in an indirect way, by the self-interest of some of those who now stay in them. As so often in the 21st century, the behaviour of the 1% feels impervious to satire or condemnation. Fifty-seven years ago, at the height of protests against the Vietnam war, Grosvenor Square filled with demonstrators, among them the leading activist Tariq Ali. In his memoir of the 1960s, Street Fighting Years, he recalls that he and his more excitable comrades 'dreamed' of forcing their way into the building, and 'using the embassy telex to cable the US embassy in Saigon and inform them that pro-Vietcong forces had seized the premises in Grosvenor Square'. Only mounted police charges and mass arrests saved the London embassy from invasion. Yet now luxury capitalism has managed to do what protesters could not, and take over the building from the spooks and diplomats. With Donald Trump transparently running the US for the benefit of the rich, it feels fitting that the building has become a place for them, rather than Americans in general. The hotel will be open just in time for his September state visit. Perhaps some of his wealthier supporters will take the opportunity to stay. For any guest who worries about the potential provocation of yet another elite hotel, operating at a traditional protest site, in a country in which most people are struggling with a seemingly endless cost of living crisis, the Chancery does have some discreet security. Cameras cover the hotel's perimeter, and guards circle the building after dark. Meanwhile a couple of miles to the south, in a new London landscape of residential towers and windswept roads at Nine Elms, the successor to the Grosvenor Square embassy stands in the middle of its own, far more extensive security zone, including a partial moat and a defensive wall disguised as a waterfall. The huge pale cube of the current US embassy dominates its neighbourhood even more than its predecessor did. It's also much further away from the usual routes of London political marches. Some protesters have already adjusted. Thousands of people supporting Palestine walked to the embassy in February, to show their fury at Trump's backing for Israel. The symbolic contrast between their defiant flags and flimsy placards and the fortress-like building did not work in the US's favour. The Grosvenor Square embassy may be gone, but the business of challenging the US goes on. Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist
Times
21-06-2025
- Business
- Times
The Chinese are opening London's priciest hotel – with a US twist
Donald Trump presents himself as the great dealmaker, a man who gets the best properties at the best locations for the best price, especially when it comes to opening hotels, like his Washington hotel. Radha Arora is about to put one over on him — in his own embassy. 'This is the best hotel, with the best address, in the No 1 city on the planet,' the president of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts said last week as he walked into the former US embassy on Grosvenor Square in London's Mayfair — soon to be the Chancery Rosewood hotel. The hotel, which will open in August, is the most expensive to be built in London: the £1 billion budget works out at £7 million for each of the 144 suites, which come with butler service. The 'cheapest' suite is £1,500 a night, and the two penthouse suites — named after British monarchs so loved by Trump, Elizabeth and Charles — will go for about £60,000 a night. Trump can only dream of such regal connections and rates.
Time Out
17-06-2025
- Business
- Time Out
One of the world's best sushi restaurants is coming to London
Sushi heads, you're in for a treat. Chef Masayoshi Takayama – the man who launched one of New York's most influential sushi restaurants, Masa – is set to open his first ever proper London restaurant. Tobi Masa will open at Mayfair's Chancery Rosewood hotel – aka the former US Embassy – in September. It'll be serving up some of Masa's signature dishes such as Masa toro tartare and peking duck tacos, as well as a host of brand new dishes, unique to the London opening. You can currently get a little taste of things to come at Sushi by MASA in the Harrods dining hall, but this outpost is set to close in the autumn. Masa opened in New York in 2004 and is one of the most expensive restaurants in America, with the omakase offering set at $750 (£553) per person (and that's before drinks, tax and tip!). It also offers a chef's table experience for $950 (£701) per person. Oof. Masa has held three Michelin stars since 2009, which maybe justifies the cost. Maybe?! Prices for Tobi Masa have yet to be confirmed, but we can't imagine it'll be cheap. 'I'm so proud to be partnering with a creative and innovative brand like Rosewood. We are very excited to embark on this new adventure together, and especially in such a historic landmark building in the middle of Mayfair,' said Takayama of the new opening. Tobi means 'to fly' and draws its inspiration from the 10-foot high, 30-foot wide eagle on top of the building, which has been there since the site, built by architect Eero Saarinen, opened in 1960. The Chancery Rosewood hotel is set to open on September 1. It'll feature 139 rooms, five retail spaces and a 750-guest ballroom. It's also set to be home to a London edition of legendary New York dining spot Carbone. The best sushi restaurants in London, according to Time Out.
NDTV
09-06-2025
- Business
- NDTV
London's Newest Luxury Hotel Was Once The US Embassy. A Night In Its Penthouse Costs Rs 28 Lakh
Quick Read Summary is AI generated, newsroom reviewed. London's newest luxury hotel is The Chancery Rosewood. The building served as the US Embassy from 1960 until 2017 before the Embassy moved to Nine Elms. Qatari Diar converted the building into the Chancery Rosewood, a luxury hotel opening this September. When Finnish-American modernist architect Eero Saarinen won a design competition to create a new Chancery for London, little did he know that it would one day be turned into a lavish luxury hotel in the heart of the city. When Saarinen won the competition, the brief was simple: "a building to house all the major sections of the Embassy under one roof in a style to blend with existing architecture of Grosvenor Square". So, the architect got to work. The result was a building that could provide working space for 750 people, with 600 rooms on nine floors, out of which three were under the ground. A Fortified Embassy From 1960 to 2017, the Chancery at Grosvenor Square served as the US Embassy in London. In 2018, it moved to a new building in Nine Elms. The Chancery, one of the most fortified and secure buildings in London, is now gearing up to welcome guests from all over the world. The coldness of the former Embassy building is now being warmed with cascading chandeliers, suites that scream luxury, and penthouses that would set you back by about 20,000 pounds a night. The former US Embassy will be the Rosewood's newest hotel in the world, come September. A Qatar Company At The Helm The Chancery Rosewood is expected to host guests from September 1 this year. Converting a former embassy, that too one as secure as America's, was a gargantuan challenge for a Qatari real-estate company. It was an engineering test as well. But trust the Qataris to do it all and do it well. So, Qatari Diar, the real-estate company backed by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, turned it around. Qatari Diar got Rosewood Hotels in in to do the deed. The Hong Kong-conglomerate owned luxury hotel chain retained the Chancery's American elements while giving the building a modern makeover fit for millionaires from the Middle East. The Eagle Of 'Little America' What stays intact is a gilded aluminium eagle atop the building. The eagle, with its 35-foot wingspan, was created by Polish-American sculptor and painter Theodore Roszak. Statues of former US Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan that once graced the square, have been reinstalled. The square itself is popularly known as 'Little America'. While the architectural restoration was done by British architect Sir David Chipperfield, the Chancery Rosewood's suites and communal spaces were designed by French interiors architect Joseph Dirand. The hotel will have eight restaurants and bars once open, including New York's famous Carbone and an Asian concept restaurant. A subterranean wellness facility with a 25-metre-long swimming pool, on one of its three underground floors, is also part of the hotel's highlights. All Suites And Penthouses The Rosewood will be an all-suite property. Its suites come in four categories: Junior Suites, Suites, Signature Suites, and Houses. Charles House and Elizabeth House, named after the English monarchs, are the biggest penthouses at the Rosewood. A night at one of the penthouses at The Chancery Rosewood start at 17,000 pounds or Rs 20 lakh, and go up to 24,000 pounds or Rs 28 lakh, subject to change. The lowest rate at the hotel is a junior suite. You'll need to shell out 1,520 pounds or Rs 1.76 lakh a night.
