Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
America's tower block embassy has been tucked away in relative obscurity in a quiet part of London since it opened six years ago, but this weekend it will be thrust into the spotlight during the city's pro-Palestinian protest.
The latest weekly demonstration in the UK capital is expected to draw up to half a million protesters, making it the biggest crowd yet to assemble in the enclave of luxury apartment buildings south of the Thames.
Built at a cost of $1 billion, the modern glass building is meant to resemble a crystalline cube, which Americans say embodies the "core democratic values of transparency, openness and equality".
-
The newly opened US embassy in January 2018. The building is nearly twice the size of the old Grosvenor Square base. Getty Images -
US Vice President Kamala Harris giving a speech on artificial intelligence at the embassy in November 2023. Getty Images -
A still from The Diplomat depicting Winfield House, the official residence of the US ambassador in London. The scene was actually shot at Wrotham Park, in Hertfordshire. Photo: Netflix -
Keri Russell plays Kate Wyler, US ambassador to the UK, in the Netflix series The Diplomat. Photo: Netflix -
People swim in the Sky Pool, suspended 35 metres above the ground between two apartment buildings next to the US embassy, in 2021. Getty Images -
Fog shrouds the embassy in Nine Elms, designed by Philadelphia architecture firm Kieran Timberlake, in 2020. Getty Images -
Police guard the US Embassy during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. Getty Images -
A soldier salutes as the American flag is raised at the Nine Elms embassy building for the first time in January 2018. Getty Images -
A huge US Government crest adorns the main lobby to the embassy in Nine Elms. Getty Images -
Robert 'Woody' Johnson, US Ambassador to the UK, speaks at the unveiling of the embassy building in Nine Elms in December 2017. Getty Images -
Protesters, one wearing a Donald Trump mask, demonstrate against the president outside the embassy in Grosvenor Square in 2017. Getty Images -
Construction workers being building a new US Embassy in Nine Elms, on the south bank of the Thames, in 2013. Getty Images -
Protesters gather at the embassy to march to Trafalgar Square in 2009, demanding action on poverty, climate change and jobs, as world leaders arrived in London for the G20 summit. Getty Images -
A newspaper vendor outside the embassy selling The Times featuring Barack Obama on the cover after he was elected US President in November 2008. Getty Images -
Amnesty International supporters hold a night-long vigil in a cage outside the embassy in 2008, to mark the six-year anniversary of the first prisoners being transported to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Getty Images -
The US flag flying over the embassy in 2004. Getty Images -
A New York Fire Department officer kneels beside flowers and tributes left outside the embassy on September 11, 2003, the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the US. Getty Images -
Former US President Jimmy Carter holds a press conference at the embassy in 1986. Getty Images -
American actor, dancer and singer Sammy Davis Jr signs the book of condolences for Senator Robert Kennedy at the embassy in 1968. Getty Images -
Mounted police clash with demonstrators at an anti-Vietnam War protest outside the embassy in 1968. Getty Images -
The Eero Saarinen-designed US Embassy opened in 1960. Getty Images -
The sculpture of an American eagle is worked on at Pickford Sheds in Tower Bridge Road before being installed on the US Embassy building. Getty Images -
The embassy building under construction in Grosvenor Square, central London, in 1958. Getty Images -
Architect Eero Saarinen with the model for his new US Embassy building in London, in 1956. Getty Images
Once derided as "off location” by former president Donald Trump, who refused to take part in its opening ceremony, the embassy in Nine Elms will finally grab the world's attention as the culmination of the most controversial protest march yet against the Israel-Gaza war.
Organisers have been working on the plans for a month even though the date coincides with Armistice Day, the official commemoration of the end of the First World War.
Throughout that weekend the UK remembers its war dead, but police have said the legal threshold for banning the pro-Palestine march cannot be met. The UK government disputes this.
A compromise has been offered whereby the marchers avoid the Cenotaph war memorial, the focal point of commemorations, and instead make their way across the Thames to the US Embassy.
The march will be the fourth one held in London on consecutive weekends since the Israel-Gaza war broke out and the events have become increasingly controversial.
Given the close ties between the US and the UK, the embassy has huge symbolic status and London's Metropolitan Police will be aware that any confrontation with demonstrators will be beamed across the world.
Graham Wettone, a former Met officer and expert in public order policing, told the The National that the force will have carefully planned the route the marchers will take to the embassy and will be helped by it being an “island site” that can be ringed with officers.
“The difficulties you have is no event organiser can ever guarantee that everybody on their march is actually going to behave and abide by whatever conditions the police impose,” he said.
Nine Elms, where the embassy is located, is an area just south the river that has been extensively redeveloped in recent years, with tall buildings now dominating the skyline.
The Americans moved there in 2017 from an imposing building in Grosvenor Square, central London.
A moat, the first built in London since medieval times, sits at the front of the current embassy, doubling up as protection from a terrorist attack and a pleasing visual feature.
There has yet to be a repeat of the scenes outside the Grosvenor Square embassy in 1968 when protests against the Vietnam War descended into running battles with police.
A demonstration by the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 featured some pushing and shoving, but feelings aroused by the situation in Gaza and America’s long-standing support for Israel mean Saturday’s protest presents the biggest challenge for the Met since 1968.
Mr Wettone said police preparations will have been extensive. “The US embassy is a target that will have to be secured," he said.
"When there are public events, you go through various scenarios asking ‘what if someone does [or] tries this’ but it’s a very well-protected premises.
“They have their own internal security and are more than capable of locking their building down and securing it properly, as they did at Grosvenor Square. So potentially there could be disorder but the police are well-versed in working with the US Embassy.”
Ahead of the march, US Ambassador Jane Hartley said Israel had a right to defend itself, in accordance with international law, while reinforcing calls by Secretary of State Antony Blinken for “pauses” to allow aid to enter Gaza.
“We’ve made it very clear we care deeply about one, humanitarian aid getting in, two, the release of the hostages, and three, Israel obviously has a right to defend itself,” she told CNN.
“This was a terrible, horrific terrorist attack but what Secretary Blinken has also said, that how they defend themselves, is also very, very important and that means in accordance with humanitarian law and the rules of war.”
Ms Hartley said she believed concern was mounting over the humanitarian situation in Gaza and said the US was “working very closely with our allies” to get more aid in.
Britain prepares for Armistice Day - in pictures
-
Normandy veteran Ken Hay poses with an art installation of life-sized silhouettes of servicemen, by community project Standing with Giants, at Kensington Gardens in London. AP -
A Metropolitan Police officer on duty beside the Cenotaph in Whitehall, central London. PA -
City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London. PA -
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan joins representatives of Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Jewish faiths at the City Hall Remembrance Day Service in London. PA -
Queen Camilla during a visit to the Field of Remembrance, in its 95th year, at Westminster Abbey in London. PA -
The fenced-off Cenotaph war memorial at Whitehall in London. EPA -
A woman walks past an installation made out of knitted poppies at the entrance to Christ Church in Burbage. Reuters -
Chelsea pensioners at the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey in London. PA -
The RRS Discovery and Discovery Point in Dundee are illuminated in red light for the Light Up Red campaign. PA -
Akshata Murty, wife of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, poses with a group of Chelsea Pensioners in Downing Street, London. PA -
Memorial crosses at the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey in London. PA -
Players, staff and Chelsea Pensioners participate in a minute silence in honour of Armistice Day prior to the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. Getty Images -
'Tommy', a war statue by artist Ray Lonsdale, is seen during sunrise ahead of Remembrance Day in Seaham. Reuters
