Metropole Hotel Commissioned by the
Gordon Hotels company, construction was started in 1883. The hotel opened in 1885, with an 88-page brochure which claimed: The hotel was the venue for the annual dinners of the
Aero Club and the
Alpine Club for several years, and acted as the gathering point for competitors in the first
London to Brighton run in 1896. The
Prince of Wales, later
King Edward VII entertained guests at the hotel on various occasions,
Inter-war years Reopening as a hotel after World War I, the "
Midnight Follies" became a well-known cabaret fixture. In 1921
Bert Firman got a job as a violinist with the Midnight Follies Orchestra at the hotel. Shortly after beginning the job, the current
band leader an alcoholic American
saxophone player was indisposed, and Firman was offered the job. Only sixteen, he would thereafter claim to have been the youngest bandleader in the world. After Firman left residence in 1924, other band leaders that played the hotel in the inter-war years included
Mantovani. On 4 January 1936 the
England Rugby Union team, thanks to three try tries by Russian
Prince Alexander Obolensky, beat the touring New Zealand
All Blacks 13–0, the first time England had beaten New Zealand. Aided by
Pathé News footage of the game, Obolensky's name entered into legend, since the first try, beating several All Blacks in a run of three-quarters of the length of the field, was widely regarded as the greatest try of the time, and one of the greatest tries ever scored by England. The England team retired that night to the Metropole, where they found that the opposing New Zealand team also happened to be staying. When the government redeveloped buildings at
Whitehall Gardens in mid-1936, they leased the entire hotel for £300,000pa, later for the
Air Ministry and the Ministry of Defence. and later the holding point for one of the model planning beaches for
Operation Overlord. Metropole building Purchased from Gordon Hotels after World War II, it was transferred to the
Crown Estate portfolio. Controlled by the Ministry of Defence, who used it as an overflow building to its main Whitehall complex, by 1951 the Air Ministry was again a major occupant. From the mid-60s until 1992 it housed the bulk of the
Defence Intelligence Staff, the remainder of the analysts and the DIS central staff being sited in the MoD Main Building. In the
James Bond comic strip in the
Daily Express the artist
Yaroslav Horak quite often depicted the Metropole Building as MI6 HQ. Subsequently, the MoD used the building during various refurbishments, when the mirrored ballroom provided the setting for Press Conferences and other major events. In September 2008
City of Westminster council approved development of the two buildings as a hotel and residential complex. The building reopened in 2011 managed by
Corinthia Hotels International. 10 Whitehall Place has been converted to 12 residences, and a spa run by Espa. In a nod to its past, the official announcement of the James Bond movie
Skyfall was made at a press conference held at the Corinthia Hotel in November 2011. A lengthy sequence in the 2018 thriller
Red Sparrow was filmed both inside and outside the hotel. The film's press junket and photocall were also later held at the hotel, with star
Jennifer Lawrence dressed in a
Versace gown that attracted media attention. ==Artist in residence==