US embassy features London’s first new moat since medieval era

High-security fortress cost $1bn

us_embassy_in_loncdon_exterior.jpg
The new US embassy in London is due to open in January
(Image credit: Photo by Stefan Rousseau - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

The design of the new US embassy in London appears to have been inspired by European castles, with its own moat, but behind the six-inch bomb-proof glass, the 12-storey cube is Fortress America.

The 100ft-wide moat (or as Americans say, “pond”) - the first to feature in a new construction in the English capital since the medieval era - is “deep and wide enough to swallow any truck bomb charging toward the building”, CBS News says. A waterfall disguises a defensive wall, while the “impenetrable evergreen hedges camouflage a line of dense black bollards”, adds the Architects’ Journal.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us