Our place in Washington: the inside story of the British embassy

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/14/our-place-in-washington-inside-story-british-embassy

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It is the place where an obsessed fan used nail scissors to cut off Ringo Starr's hair; where John F Kennedy's children were schooled; and it has played host to countless fireside chats between presidents and prime ministers, witnessing the ebb and flow of Britain's treasured "special relationship".

The British ambassador's residence, at 3100 Massachusetts Ave, NW, is one the most storied diplomatic addresses in Washington, DC, if not the world. It has been the backdrop to lavish royal parties in the English garden; strained meetings between president Lyndon B Johnson and Harold Wilson; and even more awkward encounters between Barack Obama and Gordon Brown.

A new book, The Architecture of Diplomacy, casts a revealing light on the building, and the Anglo-American relationship it has nurtured over the years. Over tea in the drawing room, the book's author – historian and biographer Dr Anthony Seldon – lavishes praise on the building before a gathering of mostly American guests, arguing that it is "simply the greatest ambassadorial residence of any country, in any capital city".

Not everyone would agree – not even, it seems, the current occupant, ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott. Showing little of the diplomatic skill for which he is renowned, Westmacott displays more enthusiasm for his previous residence in France. "Paris has the history, you know," he says, recounting his posting at the palatial Hotel de Charost in the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. "Seventeen-twenties. Mucked about a bit after that. But its real claim to fame was because it was the Duke of Wellington who bought it from Napoleon's sister with all the stuff that was in it."

His wife, Lady Susie Westmacott, the driving force behind the book, concurs but adds, diplomatically, that unlike the Washington building, the French residence was "architecturally not a gem".

Britain's outpost in Washington opened in 1930 and was designed by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, who was also responsible for the Cenotaph in London and planned much of New Delhi. Seldon, who co-authored the book with Daniel Collings, hails Lutyens' only building in the US as a "tremendous piece of three-dimensional art" and a seamless blending of grand English country home and the American colonial period.

Seldon, often referred to as Downing Street's official historian, has written three prime ministerial biographies – of John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – and is currently working on a fourth, of David Cameron. It is perhaps no surprise that The Architecture of Diplomacy, a heavily illustrated coffee-table book sponsored by a global private equity firm, does more to promote than analyse Britain's relationship with the US. It is a gift, the kind that Westmacott will hand out to senators and congressmen, a gentle reminder of the link the ambassador works to foster.

Lutyens designed the building in the late 1920s, during what was, ironically, a low point in Anglo-American relations, when the two nations were engaged in such economic competition that one British official suggested that war between the two countries was "not unthinkable". Both, at that time, were great powers, and Britain needed a suitably impressive embassy in the US, one heralded by the Washington Post in 1929 as "the finest in the world".

It is questionable whether it remains the most impressive in Washington – or even the most important. It is well known in diplomatic circles that the Obama administration has limited enthusiasm for Britain, the one-time colonial power in Kenya, a place central to the president's personal story. On a practical level, Obama is seeking to recalibrate foreign policy toward Asia and away from Europe. The latter remains a hugely important ally, but is increasingly treated as a single block represented by German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Neither is the British residence the most suited for providing Washington powerbrokers with the Ferrero Rocher treatment. A chancery built next door to Lutyens' building looks – everyone admits – like a 1960s high school, detracting from the glamour of the residence, which is now solely occupied by the ambassador's family.

And there are plenty of diplomatic missions in town that have become important to the social scene – often wielding influence disproportionate to the country's economic or military clout. "Used well, a residence can be a huge help to advancing a country's interests," says Garrett Graff, editor of the Washingtonian Magazine.

Rima Al-Sabah, wife of the Kuwaiti ambassador, is famed for hosting parties for key figures in the city. "It's very difficult to say no to Rima," a former chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush once said, "and it's unwise if you do." Similarly, Yemeni ambassador Abdulwahab Abdulla Al-Hajjri, Washington's playboy diplomat, was for a long time known for holding dance parties in a red-walled basement.

The Finns, too, punch above their weight, gaining access to some of Washington's most influential players through invitations to exclusive sauna parties in the basement of their embassy. The Turkish embassy hosts frequent jazz concerts in honour of Nesuhi and Ahmet Ertegün, the sons of a former Turkish ambassador, who grew up to found Atlantic Records and cultivate the careers of John Coltrane, Ray Charles, Roberta Flack and Led Zeppelin, among many others.

The French ambassador's residence is traditionally the venue of Vanity Fair's annual afterparty for the White House Correspondents' Dinner – the pinnacle of Washington's social calendar. (Renovations meant this year's event had to be moved to the Italian residence, which was considered a huge coup for Rome.)

But it is Japan, which in 1912 had the foresight to donate thousands of cherry trees to the US, that wields the greatest cultural influence in Washington through its embassy. Each spring, the arrival of the cherry blossom brings in hundreds of thousands of tourists, and the Japanese are careful not to let America's capital forget where the trees came from, with lantern-lighting ceremonies and an exquisite reception at the ambassador's residence.

Seldon insists that Britain and the US's shared history, along with their cultural and linguistic ties, preserve a unique relationship. "I cannot see the president suddenly forming a very close buddy-bond with the head of, you know, a 'Bric' country," he says, referring to the rising powers of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

In 1939, the residence hosted the first visit to the US by a British head of state, King George VI. The book hints at a sense of British superiority over its former colony. After a furore over the guestlist, the then-ambassador, Sir Ronald Lindsay, was forced to call a press conference at which he was asked why more "average Americans" were not invited. "There's such an awful lot of them," he replied. During the garden party, most guests curtsied and bowed, although one Texan congressman apparently shouted at the monarch: "Hi-ya, Cousin George!"

Relations improved significantly with the US entry into the second world war and the prime ministership of Sir Winston Churchill – a figure lionised in America, then as now. Churchill visited the residence 13 times, developing his famously close rapport with Franklin D Roosevelt. The cold war also forced Britain and the US together – although there were bumps along the road, most notably the 1956 Suez crisis which, Seldon writes, left much of Washington "virtually not speaking to their British contacts".

The healing process was aided by what must surely rate as one of the most astute foreign postings in diplomatic history: Harold Macmillan's appointment of Sir David Ormsby-Gore as his man in Washington. Ormsby-Gore was an obvious choice, principally because President Kennedy had been pleading for his appointment.

The two men were already close friends, and their relationship flourished when Ormsby-Gore moved to Washington. Their families socialised together at the White House, the British residence or on boating trips in Chesapeake Bay. The residence hosted private dance parties and book club evenings, events the Kennedy clan often attended.

Ormsby-Gore became an éminence grise to Kennedy, closer to him even than some White House advisors. When the president was assassinated in 1963, Ormsby-Gore lost not just a friend, but also his unrivalled access to the administration. Not even a masked ball in honour of a visit from the Beatles the following year – the event at which Ringo lost his hair – could rekindle the closeness Ormsby-Gore enjoyed under Kennedy's brief tenure.

Other highwater marks in the special relationship have followed, although those have flowed not from ambassadorships but the close relations fostered between presidents and prime ministers: Thatcher and Reagan in the 1980s, Tony Blair's friendships with both Bill Clinton and George W Bush.

Yet no British politician or diplomat, before or since, can boast the access of Ormsby-Gore during Kennedy's administration. A fact omitted from the book is that after the president's assassination, Kennedy's children, who could no longer be schooled at the White House, were taken under the wing of the residence's in-house tutors.

"There has probably never been an ambassador or head of ligation of any country that has come so close to any of the 44 presidents," says Seldon.

• The Architecture of Diplomacy: The British Ambassador's Residence in Washington, by Anthony Seldon and Daniel Collings, is published by Flammarion (£45).