Former US Embassy Grosvenor Square

Former US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London

History | Design | Statues & Monuments | Access | London Guide

The US Embassy in London is now south of the River Thames in Nine Elms, Wandsworth. It moved from its former location on the western side of Grosvenor Square, Westminster in 2018.

The embassy was the epicenter of wartime Anglo-American history, and a controversial fortress in its later decades.

The building has been totally redeveloped and is now a luxury, 5-star, Qatari-owned hotel, The Chancery Rosewood.

Statue of Dwight Eisenhower

History

The vast building is the work of renowned Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and dates from 1960. Grosvenor Square was famously known as “Little America” because General Dwight D. Eisenhower had his World War II military headquarters nearby. John Adams (the first U.S. minister to Britain) also lived on the square in 1785. It served as the U.S. Embassy from 1960 to January 2018 (before relocating to Nine Elms). It was a focal point for historic anti-war protests, star-spangled election parties, and long visa lines for decades.

Statue of Ronald Reagan by Chas Fagan

Design

It is a Grade II listed structure featuring pre-cast reinforced concrete faced with Portland stone and gold-anodized aluminum.
The edifice is crowned by a 35-foot-wide (or 35-foot-tall) gilded aluminum American bald eagle sculpture designed by Theodore Roszak. Following increased terror threats following 9/11, heavy perimeter security (blast walls, guard shacks, and concrete barriers) was added in the 2000s, turning the Mayfair neighborhood into a heavily fortified zone until the embassy moved south of the river.

Statues & Monuments

Two bronze statues of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan stand outside the former embassy building.

This plaque marks the World War II headquarters of General Dwight D. Eisenhower at 20 Grosvenor Square

Eisenhower

Eisenhower’s statue is the work of Robert Lee Dean and was unveiled in 1989. The statue portrays Dwight D. Eisenhower in his military uniform as Supreme Allied Commander during World War II, rather than as President of the United States.

It stands at the northwest corner of Grosvenor Square, directly opposite the building that served as Eisenhower’s military headquarters during World War II.

A distinctive feature of the statue is its orientation, with Eisenhower gazing toward the entrance of the former American Embassy.

The large bronze memorial plaque located at the base of the Ronald Reagan Statue: “No arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.” Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, 1981-1989.

Reagan

Unveiled on July 4 (US Independence Day), 2011, to commemorate his centenary, the 10-foot bronze statue of Ronald Reagan honors his pivotal role in ending the Cold War, with an actual piece of the Berlin Wall placed directly in front of its plinth as a symbol of his legacy. Its installation was made possible by a special exception from Westminster City Council, which waived its usual 10-year waiting period after a person’s death before commissioning a public statue. Positioned directly opposite the statue of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the monument also celebrates the enduring Anglo-American “special relationship” and the political alliance between Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Hotel

Following a multi-year transformation led by David Chipperfield Architects and Joseph Dirand, the building reopened in September 2025 as The Chancery Rosewood, an ultra-luxury 5-star hotel. Other nearby hotels include The Beaumont Mayfair, Claridge’s and The Connaught.

Access – Getting There

The Chancery Rosewood
30 Grosvenor Square
London W1K 6AN

The nearest tube stations are Bond Street (Central, Jubilee, and Elizabeth lines) and Marble Arch (Central Line). Green Park Station is also less than 15 minutes on foot to the south.

There are American consulates general in both Belfast in Northern Ireland and Edinburgh in Scotland, a Welsh Affairs Office in Cardiff, Wales, and a contact centre in Glasgow.

Grosvenor Chapel, an Anglican church located on South Audley Street in Mayfair, London.

Grosvenor Chapel on South Audley Street, Mayfair, London

Nearby

South of Grosvenor Square are two more of London’s green spaces: Berkeley Square and Mount Street Gardens. A short walk west is the much larger Hyde Park. Grosvenor Chapel is a 3-minute walk south on South Audley Street. During World War II, the chapel served as a spiritual home and place of worship for American military personnel stationed nearby in “Little America” around Grosvenor Square (including General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters).

In this chapel the Armed Forces of the United States of America held Divine Service during the Great War of 1939 to 1945 and gave thanks to God for the Victory of the Allies