Embassy of the United Kingdom in Washington, D.C.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| British Embassy in Washington, D.C. | |
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| Location: | Washington, D.C. |
| Address: | 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW |
| Ambassador: | Sir Nigel Sheinwald |
| Coordinates: | |
The British Embassy in Washington, D.C. is the United Kingdom's embassy to the United States. It is located on Massachusetts Avenue (marking the northern end of Embassy Row) in Washington, D.C.. The embassy also operates consulates general in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco as well as consulates in Dallas, Denver, Miami, and Seattle.
The embassy is contained in a compound that is home to both the ambassador's residence and the old and new chanceries. The ambassador's residence was built in 1929 and was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens to resemble an English country manor, with the old chancery facing the street. By the 1960s, the old chancery was deemed too cramped, and the new chancery, designed by chief architect Eric Bedford, was built. Part of the old chancery was converted into staff quarters, and the rest is currently occupied by the offices of the British Council. The British Government was the first to build an embassy in the area that would later become known as Embassy Row.
Outside the British ambassador's residence stands a statue of Winston Churchill. One of the statue's feet is inside embassy grounds; the other is within the District of Columbia. The embassy's website states that this symbolizes Churchill's Anglo-American parentage (his father was British, his mother American) and his status as an honorary citizen of the United States.
The embassy is one of the largest in Washington employing 250 diplomats and over 600 other staffers. The current ambassador is Sir Nigel Sheinwald.
On July 8, 2005, the US Army band played God Save the Queen outside the embassy in remembrance of the victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings. This mirrored the British remembrance service to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks when The Star-Spangled Banner was played outside Buckingham Palace.
The embassy was depicted in fiction in the 2006 BBC television miniseries The State Within.
