St. Ermin's Hotel

St. Ermin's Hotel
The garden courtyard entrance
Hotel chain	Autograph Collection
General information
Type	Built as a mansion block, then converted to a hotel
Architectural style	Queen Anne revival
Address	2 Caxton Street
Town or city	London
Country	England
Coordinates	51°29′57″N 0°8′5″W / 51.49917°N 0.13472°W / 51.49917; -0.13472
Construction started	1887
Completed	1889 (as a mansion block)
Opened	1899 (as a hotel)
Owner	Tei-Fu Chen and Oi-Lin Chen[1]
Management	St. Ermin's Operating (UK) Limited[2]
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Edwin T. Hall; John Priestley Briggs
Designations	Grade II listed building
Website
www.sterminshotel.co.uk

St. Ermin's Hotel is a four-star central London hotel adjacent to St James's Park Underground station, close to Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and the Houses of Parliament. The Grade II-listed late Victorian building, built as one of the early mansion blocks in the English capital, is thought to be named after an ancient monastery reputed to have occupied the site pre-10th century. Converted to a hotel in 1896–1899, it became during the 1930s, through the Second World War and beyond, a meeting place of the British intelligence services, notably the birthplace of the Special Operations Executive (SOE),^[3] and where notorious Cambridge Five double agents Philby and MacLean met their Russian handlers. St Ermin's is now part of Marriott Hotels' Autograph Collection.^[4] The hotel is owned by the family of Tei-Fu Chen, founder of Sunrider International.