A Grade II-listed Eero Saarinen building reborn as Rosewood's most ambitious London property — a design landmark, a culinary destination, a wellness sanctuary and a living gallery.
Grosvenor Square · Mayfair · London W1K 6JP
This isn't a hotel that simply happens to occupy a beautiful building. The Chancery Rosewood is inseparable from its architecture, its history, and the extraordinary convergence of talent that shaped its transformation.
Developed by Qatari Diar Europe, The Chancery Rosewood represents one of the most ambitious adaptive reuse projects in London's recent hospitality history — the former US Embassy, meticulously restored by David Chipperfield Architects with interiors by Joseph Dirand and a subterranean spa by Yabu Pushelberg.
'A property that is simultaneously a design landmark, a culinary destination, a wellness sanctuary, and a living gallery.'
Rosewood's 'Sense of Place' philosophy asks each property to reflect and amplify its location rather than impose a uniform brand template. The Chancery Rosewood may well be its most compelling expression yet. This guide covers everything — the architectural history, accommodation categories, every dining venue, the wellness offering, the art programme, events facilities, practical visitor information, and how The Chancery Rosewood compares with its Mayfair neighbours.
Some buildings carry their history lightly. The Chancery Rosewood wears its past as a defining feature — and that past is genuinely extraordinary.
Completed in 1960 and among Saarinen's final major works, the Portland stone-clad structure was elevated on a podium with a pronounced projecting roof slab and a defining diagrid facade — a design that looks immediately purposeful: not showy, but unmistakably significant. The Finnish-American architect whose portfolio reads like a greatest-hits of mid-century modernism died in 1961, just a year after the embassy opened.
The nine-tonne aluminium eagle with a 35-foot wingspan, sculpted by American artist Theodore Roszak, became one of the most recognisable diplomatic symbols in London — and continues to preside over the entrance today. The projecting roof slab and the diagrid facade work together to create a building that rewards sustained attention — which, as it turns out, is a quality it shares with the hotel that now inhabits it.
Grade II listing conferred by Historic England placed significant constraints on how the building could be adapted. Every intervention had to be justified, documented and designed to respect the existing fabric. Luxury hotel guests in 2024 expect amenities — spa facilities, high-spec suites, modern infrastructure — that a 1960 embassy building simply wasn't designed to accommodate. The challenge was threading that needle without compromising the architectural integrity that makes the building worth preserving.
The practice behind the Neues Museum in Berlin and the Royal Academy in London led the project with characteristic rigour: restore what could be restored, introduce new interventions in clear dialogue with the original, and resist overwhelming Saarinen's architecture with contemporary additions. The most substantial new addition is the rooftop structure, which introduces a penthouse level with private terraces while respecting the building's established silhouette.
Retaining and restoring rather than demolishing preserves the significant embodied carbon locked into the original fabric — an act of cultural stewardship and an environmentally responsible choice. In an era when the construction industry accounts for a significant share of global carbon emissions, adaptive reuse of this quality carries significance beyond the merely architectural.
The real estate development arm of the Qatar Investment Authority has a track record in London of significant adaptive reuse and luxury hospitality investment — the Chelsea Barracks development being another high-profile example. Their involvement here signals the scale of ambition behind the project: this is not a modest refurbishment but a landmark investment in one of London's most prestigious addresses.
Every guest, regardless of category, arrives in a suite. That's a fundamentally different proposition from even the most decorated traditional luxury hotel.
Entry-level Suites typically start from around £1,500–£2,000 per night. Signature Suites range from approximately £3,000–£5,000 per night depending on floor, aspect and season — many command particularly strong views across Grosvenor Square.
A luminous Mayfair sanctuary designed for quiet reflection — the accommodation category that most directly honours the building's architectural heritage.
References the first US Ambassador to the Court of St James's — symbolic of the Anglo-American relationship the building was designed to embody.
Named for President Kennedy and the post-war transatlantic relationship the embassy represented — a private-apartment format within the hotel.
Named for the building's official designation — the chancery being the administrative centre of an embassy.
Photo by Robbie Duncan on Unsplash
Designed with entertaining in mind as much as private retreat, with living rooms in the aesthetic of a Mayfair private residence and views across Grosvenor Square. For guests who intend to host private dinners, meetings, or receptions within their accommodation, these suites are the natural choice.
Rates vary by season — peak periods align with Fashion Week, the summer season and major art fairs. Seasonal packages and curated experiences are bookable via rosewoodhotels.com.
Eight restaurants and bars is an unusual number for even a large luxury hotel. At The Chancery Rosewood, it reflects a clear ambition: to be a culinary destination in its own right.
The London debut of a culinary vision backed by two Michelin-starred master Chef Masa Takayama. Omakase menus typically comprise 15–20 courses, seasonal and ingredient-led, from approximately £300–£400 per person excluding drinks.
Photo by Jakub Dziubak on Unsplash
Southern Mediterranean family-style dining — shared plates, seasonal ingredients and the pleasure of eating together. A private dining room seats up to 12.
A reimagined British afternoon tea with a curated collection of over 100 distinctive teas — a programme treated with the same seriousness a top restaurant applies to its wine list.
The all-day café and social destination — walk-in, with an expansive outdoor terrace onto Grosvenor Square's garden. The hotel's public living room.
The rooftop cocktail bars and curated music venue, named for Theodore Roszak's eagle below. Music curated by a London-based collective; views across Mayfair.
Both Serra and Tobi Masa offer private dining for up to 12 guests, with floor-to-ceiling windows maintaining the visual connection to the building's architecture.
A 1,119 sq m subterranean sanctuary designed by Yabu Pushelberg, with a 25-metre pool, sauna, steam room and hydrozone. Treatment partners include EviDenS de Beauté, Moods aromatherapy and Dr Wassim Taktouk.
The Artis Luxury range from TechnoGym alongside London's first reformer bed by TechnoGym, plus a dedicated movement studio for curated fitness programming.
The grand ballroom accommodates up to 750 guests — one of the largest hotel ballrooms in Mayfair — alongside flexible meeting rooms, a pavilion bar and breakout areas. The historic context adds a dimension that purpose-built event venues simply can't replicate. Enquiries via rosewoodhotels.com.
The bespoke art programme was assembled by Cramer & Bell and comprises more than 700 works — a number that makes the hotel less a property with art and more an institution with accommodation. Works are placed throughout public areas, restaurants, bars and guest suites; you don't visit the art at The Chancery Rosewood, you live with it.
Among the commissioned works: Sir Christopher Le Brun — President of the Royal Academy of Arts from 2011 to 2017; Sussy Cazalet, whose practice explores memory, landscape and material culture; and Anthony Grace, known for large-scale works that engage with light and surface.
'These aren't decorative acquisitions; they're works created in response to the building, its history, and its new purpose.'
The cultural dimension extends beyond the visual. Eagle Bar's rooftop music programme — curated by a London-based collective — treats music as a genuine curatorial discipline rather than background noise.
A guest can spend an evening moving from a Tobi Masa omakase dinner to Eagle Bar's curated music programme to their suite — surrounded throughout by a 700-piece art collection — and experience something no amount of thread count or marble specification can replicate.
Comparing The Chancery Rosewood with its Mayfair neighbours requires some care. Claridge's, The Connaught and The Dorchester have decades of reputation and guest loyalty behind them. The question isn't whether The Chancery Rosewood is better; it's whether it's different, and in what ways those differences might matter.
| The Chancery Rosewood | Claridge's | The Connaught | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Format | All-suite (144 suites, no standard rooms) | Mixed rooms and suites | Mixed rooms and suites |
| Architecture | Grade II-listed, Eero Saarinen (1960), restored by David Chipperfield Architects | Grade II-listed, Art Deco (1930s) | Georgian townhouse |
| Dining | 8 restaurants and bars | Multiple venues incl. Fera at Claridge's | Hélène Darroze at The Connaught (3 Michelin stars) |
| Spa | Asaya Spa — 1,119 sq m, 25-metre pool | No full spa | The Connaught Spa |
| Price (entry) | From ~£1,500–£2,000/night | From ~£800–£1,200/night | From ~£900–£1,400/night |
All rates are indicative and subject to seasonal variation. Check rosewoodhotels.com for current availability.
The combination of the all-suite format, the Grade II-listed architectural heritage, a 700-piece art collection, and eight dining venues — including Tobi Masa — is unmatched in the city. Each of these elements individually would be noteworthy; together, they create a proposition that addresses multiple guest profiles simultaneously.
The Chancery Rosewood targets ultra-high-net-worth travellers, design and architecture enthusiasts, culinary tourists drawn by Tobi Masa, and corporate event planners seeking a venue with genuine prestige. When measured on a per-square-metre basis, the value proposition is more competitive than the headline nightly rate suggests.
Mayfair Hotel Guide
Bond Street is a five-minute walk; Hyde Park ten minutes on foot. Nearest tube: Bond Street (Central/Jubilee) and Green Park (Jubilee/Victoria/Piccadilly). Heathrow to Green Park via the Piccadilly line takes approximately 45 minutes.
The questions below address the most common pre-booking queries about The Chancery Rosewood. For anything not covered here, the hotel's team can be reached directly via rosewoodhotels.com.
Reservations for Tobi Masa can be made directly through rosewoodhotels.com or via the hotel's reservations team. Given the restaurant's intimate format and high demand — and its Michelin Guide recognition — booking several weeks in advance is strongly recommended, particularly for weekend evenings and during London's peak seasons.
The Chancery Rosewood is more than a hotel — and that's not a phrase deployed lightly. It genuinely is the convergence of several things that rarely occupy the same building: architectural history of genuine national significance, design excellence at the highest level, culinary ambition backed by two Michelin-starred credentials, cultural programming that would be at home in a major institution, and wellness facilities that rival dedicated spa destinations.
The numbers, when assembled, are remarkable: 144 all-suite rooms, eight dining venues, 1,119 square metres of Asaya Spa, a 25-metre pool, 700-plus artworks, a 750-capacity grand ballroom — all within a Grade II-listed Eero Saarinen building on Grosvenor Square, Mayfair.
For those whose idea of the perfect London stay involves sleeping in a Saarinen building, eating omakase in Mayfair, and waking up to Grosvenor Square through floor-to-ceiling windows — there is simply nowhere else.
