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LondonHouse Chicago, Curio Collection by Hilton
Chicago, Illinois, United States · Curio Collection · Core Luxury
One of four 1920s skyscrapers framing the Michigan Avenue Bridge, Alfred S. Alschuler's 1923 London Guarantee Building rises on the former Fort Dearborn site and has been a Chicago Landmark since 1996. From the 1950s through the early 1970s its ground floor was The London House jazz club, home to Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck, and Cannonball Adderley; Paul Harvey broadcast from upstairs. Oxford Capital reopened it as LondonHouse on 26 May 2016 with a Goettsch Partners glass tower and Chicago's only tri-level rooftop lounge.
- 452 rooms
- Opened 2016
- Neighborhood: The Loop
- Architect: Goettsch Partners
About LondonHouse Chicago, Curio Collection by Hilton
- The tower stands on part of the former Fort Dearborn site and is one of four historic 1920s skyscrapers flanking the Michigan Avenue Bridge, with the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, and 333 North Michigan.
- Alfred S. Alschuler designed the 1923 Beaux-Arts London Guarantee Building; its crown was modeled after Stockholm's Stadshus.
- The jazz club also booked Ramsey Lewis and Bill Evans, on the Wacker Drive ground floor specifically.
- WLS radio studios filled the fifth floor for decades, and Paul Harvey delivered his nationally syndicated show from the fourth.
- That addition specifically added 22 stories and 452 rooms total.
History
The building at 360 North Michigan Avenue stands at one of the most historically charged corners in Chicago. The site originally held Fort Dearborn, the federal military post established in 1803 at the mouth of the Chicago River that served as the nucleus around which the city grew. Fort Dearborn was destroyed and rebuilt twice before being demolished in 1871 in the Great Chicago Fire that consumed most of the city's built fabric. The corner then hosted the Hoyt Building from 1872 until 1921, when it was cleared for a far more ambitious structure.
The London Guarantee and Accident Building was designed by Chicago architect Alfred S. Alschuler and completed in 1923 for the London Guarantee and Accident Company, a British insurance firm that chose the location to anchor its American operations at the foot of North Michigan Avenue where it meets the Chicago River and Wacker Drive. The 21-story Beaux-Arts tower, with its Corinthian columns, classical stone facades, and Roman figures carved into the stone, became one of the four 1920s skyscrapers, alongside the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, and 333 North Michigan Avenue, that defined the Michigan Avenue Bridge as one of the most architecturally concentrated urban set pieces in the country.
The building's twentieth-century tenants spanned insurance, media, and radio: the London Guarantee and Accident Company was followed by the Stone Container Corporation, which gave the building one of its informal names, and Crain Communications, which published trade newspapers here for decades. From the 1950s through the early 1970s, the building's ground floor housed The London House, a jazz nightclub and steakhouse whose roster included Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Sarah Vaughan, Ramsey Lewis, and Frank Sinatra. The WLS-AM radio studios occupied the building from the 1960s through the 1980s, where legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey delivered his nationally syndicated program.
Oxford Capital Group acquired the building in 2013 and undertook one of the most ambitious adaptive reuse projects in recent Chicago history, transforming the largely vacant office tower into a luxury hotel while adding a 22-story glass tower designed by Goettsch Partners on an adjacent parcel. The renovation restored the Beaux-Arts facade, including the 5,000-pound urns that serve as rooftop finials, replaced 1,100 windows with energy-efficient replicas, and converted the building's 23 irregular floor plates into 56 different room types. LondonHouse Chicago opened on May 26, 2016, with 452 rooms and Chicago's only tri-level rooftop lounge. The project won the 2018 Chicago Landmark Award for Preservation Excellence, and the hotel's name honors the jazz club that occupied the building's ground floor during its mid-century heyday. It is now part of the Curio Collection by Hilton.
The setting
LondonHouse Chicago occupies the landmark 1923 London Guarantee & Accident Building at the corner of North Michigan Avenue and East Wacker Drive, one of four historic skyscrapers flanking the Michigan Avenue Bridge over the Chicago River. Designed in Beaux Arts style by Alfred S. Alschuler on the former site of Fort Dearborn, the building hosted the celebrated London House jazz club through the 1970s, drawing Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck, and Ramsey Lewis. The Chicago Riverwalk is four minutes on foot, Millennium Park ten, and the Art Institute fifteen, placing guests at the architectural and cultural threshold where Chicago's storied past meets its most vibrant public spaces.
Restaurants and bars
- LH Rooftop — Restaurant
- Bridges Lobby Grill at London House — Restaurant
Amenities
- Spa
- Fitness center
- Rooftop bar
Awards
- AAA Four Diamond (2026)
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