The Embassy of the United States of America in London is the diplomatic mission of the United States in the United Kingdom. It is located in Nine Elms and is the largest American embassy in Western Europe and the focal point for events relating to the United States held in the United Kingdom.
There has been an American legation in London since John Adams was appointed the first minister in 1785. The embassy building in Nine Elms overlooks the River Thames and has been opened to the public since 13 December 2017, and was formally opened in January 2018. For much of the 20th century and into the 21st, the chancery was in Grosvenor Square, Westminster, London.
Since 1955, Winfield House in Regents Park has served as the ambassador's official residence.
History
The American legation in London was first situated in Great Cumberland Place, later moving to Piccadilly, 98 Portland Place (1863–1866), and 123 Victoria Street in Westminster (1883–1893). The legation was upgraded to an embassy in 1893 and remained at Victoria Street until 1912, when it moved to 4 Grosvenor Gardens.
In 1938, the embassy was moved to 1 Grosvenor Square (which later housed part of the Canadian High Commission). During this time, Grosvenor Square began to accommodate several U.S. government offices, including the headquarters of Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the European headquarters of the United States Navy. Following World War II, the Duke of Westminster donated land for a memorial to wartime President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Several additional statues and memorials related to the American and British relationship remain in Grosvenor Square.
The next chancery, also on Grosvenor Square, was designed by Finnish American modernist architect Eero Saarinen and constructed in the late 1950s, opening in 1960. The United States paid only a symbolic peppercorn rent to the Duke of Westminster for use of the land. In response to an American offer to buy the site outright, the duke's trustee requested the return of ancestral lands confiscated following the American Revolutionary War, namely the city of Miami. The chancery had nine storeys, three of which are below ground. A large gilded aluminum bald eagle by Theodore Roszak, with a wingspan of over 11 metres (35 feet), is situated on the roof of the Chancery Building, making it a recognizable London landmark. In October 2009, the building was granted Grade II listed status. The building served as the chancery until 2017, and has been described as a modernist classic and architectural gem. The building will reopen in 2025 after substantial interior alterations as a hotel.
Demonstrations
In March 1968, a crowd of some 10,000 demonstrated at Trafalgar Square against US involvement in the Vietnam War, before marching to Grosvenor Square. The Metropolitan Police had attempted to cordon off part of the square nearest to the embassy and there was violence as the crowd broke through the police line. Police horses were used to regain control. 200 demonstrators were arrested and 50 people needed hospital treatment including 25 police officers, one of them with a serious spinal injury. In October of the same year, during a demonstration organised by the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, a splinter group of 6,000 demonstrators returned to the square. A thousand police officers formed a cordon that the protesters failed to breach and remained relatively peaceful until the crowd began to disperse when there was disorder in the neighbouring streets.
Thousands of protesters marched on the embassy as part of a worldwide anti-racism demonstration following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
Security concerns
Security at the Grosvenor Square embassy was tightened in the 1980s and 1990s following successive terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide. It was further increased after the September 11 attacks in 2001. A massive security operation at the embassy saw one side of Grosvenor Square closed to public access by car, and armed roadblocks were stationed outside the building. On 29 August 2002, Kerim Chatty, a Swedish citizen of Tunisian descent, was arrested at Stockholm-Västerås Airport trying to board a Ryanair Flight 685 destined for London Stansted Airport with a loaded gun in his luggage. Anonymous intelligence sources cited in the media claimed that the man was planning to hijack the aircraft and crash it into the United States embassy in London, using the rooftop eagle to identify it from the air. Sweden's Security Service, Säpo, denied the claims and called the reports "false information". The man was subsequently cleared of all terrorism-related charges.