On the occasion of Adrian Caddy’s participation, founder and CEO of Greenspace, in Hotel Experience, which returns for the second consecutive year at the Technopolis City of Athens on the weekend of October 18 & 19, 2025, the following article presents Greenspace’s project “Raffles London at The OWO.”
Hotel Experience is curated by Archisearch, with artistic direction and experience design by Flux-Office, creative direction and production management by Vassilis Bartzokas of Design Ambassador, and co-produced with Aris Marinakis Architectural Editions.
Attend Hotel Experience, free of charge, by booking a seat here!
Licensed to Chill
When atrium sunbeams fall across marble staircases once walked by Churchill and MI6 agents, you sense that a building’s past infuses every corridor.
The Old War Office on Whitehall, reborn as The OWO, presents hospitality and heritage in a single breath.
Through the eight-year restoration, a sensitive yet exacting brand identity conceived by design consultancy Greenspace formed the foundations of a new chapter of this historical building, binding luxury to authenticity across The OWO’s residencies and Raffles London at The OWO’s every bar, restaurant and spa suite.
The OWO, formerly the Old War Office, is a hospitality destination on London’s Whitehall comprising London’s first Raffles hotel along with 85 private residences.
Design consultancy Greenspace was tasked with developing the destination brand strategy, name and identity that would create a fitting legacy for the destination.
Following many site visits, Greenspace’s key insight was to remain as authentic to the building’s history as possible.
A look through The National Archives revealed thousands of letters from the Old War Office: almost always, the typist used the acronym OWO. This provided the inspiration for the new destination name, wordmark, and the foundation of the new brand.
Central to that work was a bespoke Grotesque typeface called 1906, designed with Colophon Foundry to echo early 20th-century British government typography and the year of the building’s inauguration.
Framing The OWO brand identity is a system of typographic patterns designed to echo some of the sensitive work carried out within its walls, including morse code denoting the geographical coordinates of The OWO.
Raffles London at The OWO
Inside the hotel, nine restaurants and three bars share space with London’s first Guerlain Spa and Pillar Wellbeing’s active wellness facilities.
Greenspace, working with the Hinduja Group on The OWO Residences first, and Raffles London at The OWO once the operator came on board, was responsible for defining the branding of seven distinct restaurants and bars: The Spy Bar, The Guards Bar and Lounge, The Drawing Room, Saison, Mauro Colagreco, Mauro’s Table and the Raffles London Wellness brand including Guerlain Spa and Pillar Wellbeing.
In its secret subterranean location, is The Spy Bar. The branding reflects both the real and fictional espionage associations of the building, employing a geometric word-mark typeset in 1906 Bold, paired in black and rose gold in homage to 007’s Vesper Lynd, and menus that unfold like classified dossiers complete with pockets, a blackout-cut front page and martini roulette card invoking Christine Granville, Britain’s longest-serving spy.
The Guards Bar and Lounge sits opposite Horse Guards Parade and Buckingham Palace, its branding tinted in regal red and gold and informed by the trim, medals and silhouette of the Household Cavalry and the Royal Sentry Box; menu design mirrors uniform detailing and the logotype adopts the firm, condensed forms seen in ceremonial lettering.
Saison, nestled beneath the restored glass atrium, presents Mediterranean all-day dining in an indoor garden-style setting where menus evolve with the seasons; each quarter is accompanied by Riviera-inspired illustrations by Edith Carron rendered in bespoke palettes for spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Mauro Colagreco’s presence is embodied in both his namesake restaurant and the intimate Mauro’s Table, where Greenspace created a refined logotype that echoes the chef’s signature and paired classical typography with menus printed on corn-derived seed paper and recycled grass, embossed with a poppy motif. At Mauro’s Table menus are replaced with illustrated botanical keepsake cards to represent each course.
The Drawing Room looks across Whitehall to the Household Cavalry, and its identity takes a restrained, all-day lounge tone offering subtle elegance with branding that remains quiet and refined, allowing the architecture and the view to take precedence.
Raffles London Wellness is anchored by a four-level, 27,000 sq ft spa complex including nine treatment suites, VIP spa rooms, a 20-metre indoor pool, a thermal vitality pool, sauna, steam rooms and a movement studio, complemented by the Pillar Kitchen for curated wellness fare and personal training services on offer.
“Working in The Old War Office and creating The OWO brand has been a wonderful project for us; we like buildings that have a legacy,” Adrian Caddy, Founder and CEO of Greenspace, said.
“So much of life feels quite transient, but some things are worth investing in, because they will have a lasting impact; and this is what Greenspace is all about.”
All images, unless otherwise credited, are courtesy of © Greenspace and Raffles London at The OWO.
Attend Hotel Experience, free of charge, by booking a seat here!
Event Details
Event Title HOTEL EXPERIENCE
Type Conference, Exhibition
Location Technopolis of the Municipality of Athens
Date Saturday 18 & Sunday 19 October 2025
Experience Design & Art Direction by Flux Office / Eva Manidaki & Thanasis Demiri
Production Management & Art Direction Vassilis Bartzokas/Design Ambassador
Co-production and Commercial Management Aris Marinakis / Architectural Editions
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