Joe Biden’s slow motion vanquishing of Donald Trump has had many fellow Londoners glued to CNN, willing the veteran Democrat on. This city cared little for Trump. The launching of a blimp in his dishonour in 2018, portraying him as a man of infantile petulance, summed up Londoners’ view of him – a recent poll found us to be among the most anti-Trump people in the country. And it is not the first time the capital has been a hotspot of hostility to White House regimes.
Until recently, the US Embassy was a mighty edifice filling the west side of Grosvenor Square. On 17 March 1968, it attracted a large demonstration against the Vietnam War, complete with Mick Jagger, Vanessa Redgrave, Tariq Ali and violent clashes between demonstrators and police. Here’s some (misdated) newsreel coverage:
There’s also a World in Action documentary available about that day, featuring chaps from the Monday Club. Lots of gripping London footage in there too. The US Embassy is now in a new building in Nine Elms. Meanwhile, CNN reports the sale of the top floor of 1 Grosvenor Square, where the Embassy was before it moved to its more famous spot in 1960. It features a replica of the Oval Office.
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