It takes only the flimsiest pretext to get me on a plane back to London. Oh, The Stafford put a new cocktail on its bar menu? Well, better head over right away and give it a try! It doesn’t matter the season. I took a long weekend there this past February to see the John Singer Sargent show at the Tate Britain. We had mostly fine weather, and when we did get caught in the rain one evening, we took refuge in a cozy pub that happened to have live Irish music.

London aids my goal of returning as often as possible by continuing to add to its impressive roster of luxury hotels. This time, I had the Travel Office book two new properties that exemplify the two sides of the city: one in a monumental neo-baroque edifice saturated with history, and one occupying a sleek building that’s only a year old. As always, my traveling companion and I stayed undercover as Harper members, paying full rate for both.

Raffles London at The OWO

Positioned opposite the ever-present, stone-faced mounted cavalry in front of Horse Guards on Whitehall, the 120-room Raffles London at The OWO opened last September in the grandiose Old War Office, a cupola-topped landmark completed in 1906. Winston Churchill had his office here when he was secretary of state for war, and he regularly returned for meetings when he was prime minister during World War II. The OWO was also the birthplace of British spy agencies. Opulence infuses the hotel, Raffles’ first in the country, and we were consistently impressed by the warm staff and sense of place. As a receptionist escorted us up the grand marble staircase cloaked in plush red carpet and illuminated by an imposing Venetian-crystal chandelier, she shared amusing anecdotes: Churchill would rub the nose of the lion on the right balustrade for good luck, and he would boom out his daily briefings from a Juliet balcony nearby.