🏨 St. Ermin's Hotel

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 a noted haunt of the British intelligence services from the 1930s onward, notably being the birthplace of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), and the liaison point between Cambridge Five double agents Philby and MacLean and their Soviet handlers. St Ermin's is now part of Marriott Hotels' Autograph Collection.