New US Embassy unveiled ahead of Trump's state visit

A new billion dollar US Embassy has been unveiled on the banks of the River Thames.

A key part in the rejuvenation of Nine Elms, in Wandsworth, the US Embassy replaces its former offices in Grosvenor Square with a distinctive cube building, surrounded by a pond and topped with solar panels.

The building, which will be a workplace for diplomats and home to a contingent of US Marines from January, cost around £750m ($1bn).

Unusually, there is no perimeter fence around the new building. Instead, public benches give people access to the banks of the River Thames, while a pond, not a moat, stops unauthorised persons getting too close to the building.

US Ambassador Robert "Woody" Johnson, who opened the building, said he hoped President Donald Trump would come to London for its official dedication.

He also batted away concerns about the safety of the building if protests go ahead when the President comes to the UK.

"The great thing about being in London and the great thing about being in the US is the ability to express your point of view," said Ambassador Johnson, when asked about potential anti-Trump protests that would be staged during Mr Turmp's visit.

"So that's something that we live with every day and it's an important part of who we are," he added.

President Trump has accepted an invitation of a state visit, but no date has been set. There have been threats of protest and many have said the divisive leader should not be able to come to London on a state visit.

According to officials, it would have been "prohibitively" expensive to renovate the former offices, which were sold to Qatar and converted into a hotel.

The new building is twice the size of the previous offices, at 518,000 sq ft, and is spread over 12 storeys. Every floor has a garden, each representing a different landscape in the US, like the Canyonlands, the Gulf Coast, the Midwest and the Pacific forests.

The embassy has a Faraday cage, a mesh of conductive material to prevent electronic eavesdropping, and the walls are triple-glazed and blast-proof. They are hidden behind plastic sails, originally intended to act as solar shading and provide energy from photovoltaic cells in the skin, but the technology proved too complicated to integrate.