Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington, D.C.
The British Embassy, Washington D.C. (alternatively in the US, Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington, D.C.) is the British sovereign's diplomatic mission to the United States of America, representing the interests of the United Kingdom and British Government. It is located at 3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. The embassy compound includes the chancery offices, as well as the British Ambassador's residence.
British Embassy, Washington D.C.
Consulates[edit]
Outside Washington, the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO; often commonly known simply as the Foreign Office) also maintains consulates-general in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, and San Francisco, headed by consuls-general. There are also British Consulates called (instead) the UK Government Offices in Denver, and in Seattle, headed by consuls.
The embassy is situated in a compound that includes the ambassador's residence, as well as the old and new chanceries. The residence was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens to resemble an English country manor, with the old chancery facing the street. By the 1950s, the old chancery was deemed too cramped, and the new chancery, designed by chief architect Eric Bedford was constructed from 1955 to 1961, with Queen Elizabeth II laying the foundation stone on 19 October 1957.[3] 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 nation 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 Sir Winston Churchill. One of the statue's feet is inside the marked 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.[4]
The gardens of the ambassador's residence were planted by Elizabeth Sherman Lindsay. Lady Lindsay was a landscape gardener and wife of Sir Ronald Lindsay, the British ambassador to Washington from 1930 to 1939.[5]
Staff[edit]
The embassy is one of the largest in Washington, employing 210 diplomats and approximately 250 additional staffers. Dame Karen Pierce was appointed on 7 February 2020[1] following the resignation of her predecessor, Sir Kim Darroch, due to a diplomatic row between the US and UK as a result of a leaked memo describing President Donald Trump as "inept".[6] Dame Karen was accredited by the State Department and formally took office on 23 March.[2]
Film depiction[edit]
The embassy was depicted in fiction in the 2006 BBC Television miniseries The State Within.
