Blue Plaque

Local residents in Pimlico have been raising eyebrows at the latest commemorative blue plaque to have been put up by English Heritage in Winchester St.. The plaque commemorates the short stay in Pimlico of the Civil Engineer Salem bin Mohammed bin ‘Awad bin Laden whilst studying Civil Engineering at London’s Imperial College. The plaque describes him as a Civil Engineer, whilst in fact he never completed his studies leaving to manage the family business on the unexpected death of his father Mohammed bin Laden in 1967. The controversy starts because Salem bin Mohammed bin ‘Awad bin Laden was in fact the half-brother and cousin of the infamous Osama bin Laden architect of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

As if local distaste wasn’t enough US/UK relations took an ominous turn as the UK ambassador to Washington was summoned to a dressing down over the affair which threatens to have widespread ramifications. The Guardian has reported that the idea for the plaque came from London Mayor Boris Johnson (who was born in New York) seeking for a way of sending a clear signal to Washington of his displeasure at plans for the new American Embassy . Mrs Hilary Clinton, the US Secretary of State yesterday referred to his action as “petulant and childish” and “the vengeful actions of a beaten man”.

With the support of Jenny Jones, the Green party chairwoman of the London Assembly‘s planning committee, the Mayor has been opposing granting planning permission for the new embassy, hoping to trade a go ahead for the new building for the US to pay £3M in unpaid congestion charges, and a £2.5million contribution for the proposed Crossrail train link.

New US Embassy

However a recent Law Lords ruling in favour of the US Government means that the international agreements known as the Vienna Conventions which codify the rules and agreements, providing standards and privileges to all states, do indeed grant the US diplomatic immunity from local planning regulations. The US has declared it’s intentions to unilaterally proceed with major changes to the south London landscape without UK permission, or even consultation, and these include (but are not limited to):

• The new 12-storey building, which will be able to house 1,000 staff, covers 45,000 square metres will have it’s site extended.
• The new site would be protected by a 200-metre “blast zone” and a detachment of US marines, complete with a corps of tanks sited at Battersea Power Station.
• A branch of the underground system solely for the use of the US military to be built from Kennington Tube station to Battersea Power Station via the embassy site at Nine Elms, where a station would be built.
• Chelsea Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge will form a one way Gyratory system with traffic lights controlled by a computer system within the US Embassy. At certain times of day normal traffic will be halted to allow Embassy staff secure and easy access to and from the Embassy and their homes.
• Battersea will be renamed to give the Embassy a more prestigious sounding location. Barack Obama is expected to give his decision on the new name next week, but favourites appear to be either “South Pimlico” or “Westminster-on-Sea”.

The US Embassy has announced a Press Conference to discuss these plans at their existing embassy at 11:59 on April 1st.