Longstanding rumours suggested Cold War bunkers and escape tunnels beneath the Grosvenor Square embassy. The site is now owned by the Qatar royal family and operated through an offshore company linked to a Hong Kong dynasty. The building has been converted into the Chancery Rosewood hotel featuring a lavish subterranean complex: a marble-lined four-storey antechamber, a gigantic ballroom with its own car elevator, and a spa complex with pool, saunas and therapy rooms dug 20 metres below ground. Entry is limited by wealth, with junior suites starting at £1,400 per night, while architects aimed to open the previously sealed building and remove barriers to access.
Owned by the royal family of Qatar, and operated by an offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands, belonging to one of Hong Kong's wealthiest dynasties, this former outpost of US imperialism has become a gilded temple to the new global order. Reborn as the Chancery Rosewood, it is a beacon of luxury designed to attract the cream of the world's ultra-high net worth individuals, so it is only fitting that it should boast the mega-basement to end all mega-basements.
Descending a grand ceremonial staircase, you find yourself in a colossal marble-lined antechamber, a four-storey volume dripping with chandeliers and veneers, reflected in a mirror-polished black ceiling. It feels like the entrance to Kim Il Sung's mausoleum, but it is the prelude to a gigantic ballroom (serviced by its own car elevator) which sits atop a subterranean spa complex, with swimming pool, saunas and therapy rooms, dug 20 metres below the ground.
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