the largest embassy in Europe for the Chinese government has attracted no small amount of coverage in the media. If I were to express an opinion it would be against allowing it to go forward and maybe the local residents will be successful in their legal challenge.
However whatever happens there should be in the basement not just the much publicised Secret Room but another feature of interest to people like myself and the readers of this blog. Under the design proposed for the new Embassy there will be in the basement access to and interpretation of the surviving foundations of the Cistercian abbey of St Mary Graces. This was founded in the mid-fourteenth century by King Edward III in the aftermath of the Black Death and was the last house of the Order to be founded in the country before the suppression of the monasteries in the reign of King Henry VIII.
There is an online article about the proposal from the very helpful ianvisits.co.uk which can be seen at London’s new Chinese embassy will include a free museum displaying the ruins of a medieval abbey
Presumably, if they Embassy plans fail to materialise whoever ends up managing the site will open it as a portion of the heritage of London, and particularly of the area around The Tower.
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