Posted on 08/16/2003 4:49:39 PM PDT by Pokey78
The Queen's officials have rejected an extraordinary request from American diplomats to move the US embassy into Kensington Palace, the former home of Diana, Princess of Wales.
The bid to take over the building was made because the embassy's current location, in Grosvenor Square, in Mayfair, is considered highly vulnerable to terrorist attack despite the extra security measures which were put in place after September 11.
James Lane, the US minister-counsellor for administrative affairs at the London embassy, approached Alan Reid, the Royal Treasurer and Keeper of the Privy Purse, earlier this month to make the request.
Kensington Palace was considered by embassy officials to offer an ideal solution to their security worries. Situated in Kensington Gardens and set well back from Kensington High Street, it can only be approached via a guarded cul-de-sac. The well-protected Israeli and Russian embassies are in an adjacent, gated road.
The Royal Household considered the US approach seriously before rejecting it. Mr Lane was told that the palace was deemed to be unsuitable for use as the US embassy.
It is thought that the idea was turned down largely because it is home to several royal "sitting tenants", including the Dukes and Duchesses of Kent and Gloucester, Princess Alice Duchess of Gloucester, and Prince and Princess Michael.
However, all the royal tenants are expected to move elsewhere during the next decade and royal officials have been discreetly exploring new commercial uses for the building, which costs £489,000 a year to maintain. The US proposal, though, was considered to have come too soon.
A spokesman for the US embassy said yesterday: "There was some research into moving premises [to Kensington Palace]. We were looking at the cost of renovating instead of moving as well and were exploring other possibilities."
Another US diplomat said: "The Buckingham Palace response essentially foreclosed any further discussion on our potential occupation of the building." However, other officials at the embassy remain highly interested in the site and remain hopeful that they may be able to get the decision reversed.
They feel the palace, which consists of 70 apartments and was built during the 17th century, offers a perfect blend of a central London location and the isolation necessary for added security, and they are hopeful that the Royal Family may have a change of heart on the matter.
The suggestion to approach the Royal Household came after discussions between US diplomats and Glenys Roberts, a Conservative councillor on Westminster city council.
The councillor, who is keen for the embassy to vacate its Mayfair address because of fears that it is a magnet for terrorists, said yesterday: "I believe that I am the person who originated the idea to approach the Royal Household, while in talks with the US minister in London.
"I do not know the outcome but I am clear that it is an ideal long-term solution for our American friends and a long-term solution for Kensington Palace. It is virtually a gated community already with the Russian and Israeli embassies.
"It is much easier to secure the Americans down there where there is already a lot of security. We cannot have a 'castle' under military attack in the centre of a crowded capital city."
During the past two years the US embassy, which has been situated in Grosvenor Square since 1783, has been increasingly fortified with wire and concrete barriers, road closures and checkpoints manned by security officers armed with sub-machineguns.
Local residents, who have formed a protest group called "Ground Zero", have opposed plans put forward by the embassy to make such fortifications permanent.
A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said yesterday that the embassy had not formally approached them with a view to occupying Kensington Palace and declined to comment on the reasons why the plan had been dropped.
We never got to hear the real story of his "touristic" swing through East Europe during the height of the cold war....
Just like to point out that this is some of the most expensive real estate in the world, despite some moves made by the Major government which essentially expropriated a number of the landlords. (The RE didn't get any cheaper; just who was making the money is all that changed).
Like most people who have a lot of money, the abutters are accustomed to getting what they want.
That State finds it impossible to harden the building without making it look like the Berlin Wall is indicative of how little imagination those clowns have got.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
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