flanneruk

Unfortunately, US Embassies aren't desirable neighbours, which is why people living round the current one are trying to get them to move. Nothing personal, BTW: just security demands that are incompatible with a residential area.

So stories keep on appearing about the embassy trying to move elsewhere. Chances of anywhere else getting planning permission (though it might have been a way of using the Greenwich Dome) must be zero. But expect the debate to rumble on.

Runnymede's in the Green Belt (and probably an SSSI, and a conservation area). Nothing can get built there, unless you can squeeze the embassy into a conservatory.

Which must be possible with modern nanotechnology. Now there's a job for Bill Gates, who's coming up for retirement, the papers said today.

stokebailey

A Solomon-like suggestion, PalQ. This would avoid the unpleasantness about our refusing to pay congestion fees.

PalenQ

and Red Ken calling the American Ambassador a 'chiseling little crook' or some such bluster

tony Blair would have allowed us to build the Embassy anywhere - even on the grounds of buckingham palace i think.

The old eyesore of the Battersea Power Plant could be a swell Embassy site as well

hetismij

Runnymede is owned by the National Trust.

PalenQ

they can be bought - they have their price

Cholmondley_Warner

Watch this space - there are moves afoot to move the yanks to Chelsea Barracks as the Guards have been moved out to Woolwich (Thanks for that BTW - it's just what we needed. more pissed beligerent blokes).

Most of the security is already in place and the neighbours are used to the disruption of a high security building.

flanneruk

Blair most certainly wouldn't have intervened in the planning system to get the Americans a new embassy.

Sending our troops into a pointless and bloody war to keep some bunch of foreigners happy is one thing (we've been doing it for centuries, and look how many people we sent to their deaths just to keep the Belgians happy). But no politician crosses the National Trust and lives to tell the tale.

PatrickLondon

Mind you, flanner, there's probably a subterranean wave of voters waiting to applaud anyone who sticks it to the Duke of Westminster.

PalenQ

<You should have continued our hike through the Great Park and visited the pagoda, Saville Gardens and Virginia Water with it's mock ruins whilst you were there.>

hetismij

thanks for reminding me of that - was on my list but forgot about it so recently in London i took the train out to Virginia Water station and then walked down, Station Rd perhaps, thru what could be one of the richest areas in England - palatial houses gated off in a sylvan setting. Really neat

Then to Virginia Water - a large artifical lake built by King George III or some king of that era

visiting the Cascades and seeing the 'ruins' which were roped off for renovation and restoration

then walked to Saville Gardens but didn't care to pay the $15 for a winter visit but many were

and then did a very long walk down thru lower Great Windsor Park on the Long Walk, thru the deer park with several herds of grazing deer, i think indeed the path is called The Long Walk, beelining to the castle gloriously crowning a hill

It was a Monday and sunny and about 60 degrees - mums and prams were everywhere by Virginia Water - joggers, mountain bikers, etc. Seemed like spring.

Then took train from Windsor Riverside back to Waterloo.

Thanks for reminding me - was a great if rather long walk - several miles all told

but it would be a more manageable walk if you take the train to Victoria Water station and then just walk to the Virginia Water, Totem Pole and Saville Gardens area and back - or else it's a long long walk down to Windsor town.

hetismij

Oh! I am so glad you did that walk. It was always a favourite Sunday walk for us.
Yes, there is some serious money lurking in homes around that area none of it was ours though