UK: Robert Tchenquiz has lodged plans with Westminster Council to convert Leconfield House in Curzon Street, Mayfair, into a 78-room hotel and private members club.
Proposals for its redevelopment include a health club and spa, restaurant and bar, retail units and a screening room.
A “rooftop dining venue and lounge area, with the impression of being outdoors under a bright and airy glass domed enclosure” is also planned.
The guest rooms will be set across the first to fifth floors, with 13 rooms on each level. Each will be around 500 square feet and will include a dressing room.
Tchenguiz purchased the building in 2004 for his Rotch property business for £140 million.
The property served as MI5’s headquarters from 1945 to 1976.
Machine-gun turrets were mounted on the roof during the war, pointed toward Hyde Park to defend against possible attack from German paratroopers. MI5 kept them in place in case the building was stormed by mobs.
A private bar for the secret service, the Pig and Eye club, used to be located on the top floor.
