The Royal Horseguards

The lady of Room 333

The hotel's best-known legend tells of a young woman in love with a soldier her father refused to accept. In one version the couple tried to elope and the soldier was executed; in all of them she took her own life in Room 333, the same number as the Langham's famous haunted room. Guests and staff describe a lady in white, unexplained noises and objects that move.

The soldier in the corridors

A man in an old-fashioned uniform has also been reported walking the corridors, and the story makes him the soldier, still looking for her.

These accounts come from recent online guides, and we haven't found older or first-hand reports yet. If you've stayed in Room 333, we'd like to hear from you.

Whitehall Court was designed by Archer and Green and built between 1884 and 1887 as grand mansion flats in the style of a French château. Its residents included George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells. Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the first chief of the Secret Service Bureau, the forerunner of MI6, ran the service from a top-floor flat at 2 Whitehall Court during the First World War, and signed himself simply "C". Part of the building is now the Royal Horseguards hotel.

• The hotel is beside Whitehall Gardens on the Embankment, a short walk from Embankment and Charing Cross stations.
• Ask for Room 333 if you want the legend.
• The terrace and restaurant are open to non-residents.