On the Russian Ambassador's residence

The Residence of the Russian Ambassador in London occupies a picturesque mansion on land that once formed part of the Kensington Palace estate and belonged to the Royal Family. In 1841, a section of the palace gardens was released for private development, giving rise to what would become one of London’s most prestigious addresses — Kensington Palace Gardens.

In 1852, the 5th Earl of Harrington, Leicester Stanhope, built a neo-Gothic mansion on the site. The residence is still informally known as Harrington House. Following the Earl’s death, the property changed hands several times until, in 1924, it was acquired by the South African businessman Sir Lewis Richardson, who carried out an extensive reconstruction.

When diplomatic relations between the USSR and Britain were restored in 1929, Soviet diplomats began searching for new premises for their embassy: the lease on the previous building had expired in 1928, during the break in relations. At that point, the owner of Harrington House — apparently facing financial difficulties — agreed to lease his London estate to the Soviet Union for £36,000, with the lease running until 1990. It was at the same time that the location of the British Ambassador’s residence in Moscow was also settled: it remains to this day in the Kharitonenko Mansion on Sofiyskaya Embankment in Moscow, built by Fyodor Shekhtel at the end of the 19th century.

The diaries of Ivan Maisky, Soviet Ambassador to Britain from 1932 to 1943, preserve a vivid description of the house and its interiors:

“The house was beautifully situated. It stood within a small green plot of about a quarter of a hectare, with its façade facing Kensington Palace Gardens. Behind the house lay a delightful garden with a conservatory, a fountain, a sundial and a tennis court. There were no large trees, but roses were in bloom, and the hedge was thick with tall shrubs. Beyond it stretched an enclosed field where football was played on Sundays, and beyond that lay the famous Kensington Gardens — surely one of the finest parks in London […]

Inside, the house bore little resemblance to an ordinary English home. At its centre was a large double-height hall panelled in dark carved oak. A broad oak staircase led to a matching balustrade running around the hall. Adjoining the oak hall below was a white ballroom, followed by a small grey drawing room and a handsome winter garden with palms and sculptural decoration. These reception rooms were filled with antique furniture, marble tables, artistic vases and other adornments brought from palaces in St Petersburg. On the ground floor, during my time, were also the Ambassador’s study overlooking the garden, as well as the offices of the counsellor and the first secretary.”

Notably, in 1991 Russia and the United Kingdom agreed to extend the lease for a further 99 years: Russia pays one pound sterling per year for a house on one of London’s most expensive streets, while Britain pays one rouble for its residence in a Moscow mansion overlooking the Kremlin.

Over the years, the residence has welcomed prominent political, public and cultural figures, including British prime ministers Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan, the ballerina Maya Plisetskaya and the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

From the earliest years of the Soviet Embassy’s work, our museums transferred works of art to the residence, many of which remain there today. These include paintings by leading 19th- and 20th-century artists — Ivan Aivazovsky, Abram Arkhipov, Igor Grabar, Boris Kustodiev, Arkady Rylov, Vasily Rozhdestvensky, Lidiya Brodskaya, Vasily Kurmanaevsky and others — as well as bronze sculptures by Vasily Grachev and rare exhibition vases from the Imperial Porcelain Factory, including two vases with reproductions of Aivazovsky’s paintings acquired by Nicholas I.

Today, Harrington House stands as a unique place where Victorian architecture is closely intertwined with imperial Russian and Soviet cultural heritage.