A few of us received invitations to attend the 4th of July reception at the Ambassador's residence in London, the Winfield House. As the Ambassador has not yet been confirmed by Congress, the position is being held by the Charge d'Affairs who greeted us in the reception line.
We weren't allowed to take cameras into the house so I pulled a few photos from the Internet. The house sits on the edge of Regent's Park. In my humble opinion, the exterior of the house wasn't that impressive (at least the front entrance wasn't, the side facing the park was nice), it was just a large brick house. The gardens were beautiful and very well done. But the inside was just absolutely amazing. It was sort of what you would think an 18th century aristocrat's house would have looked like at it's prime. Most the furniture was from the 18th century and there were some amazing and famous works of art. The reception only lasted for a couple hours, most of which we spent checking out the house and trying to spot celebrities. Apparently there were quite a few on the guest list (Kevin Spacey, Venus and Serena Williams, Ewan McGregor, Sandra Bullock, Jerry Springer, etc.) but I didn't see any. We did see Buzz Aldrin, who was the guest of honor, which was probably more interesting than any of the others anyways.
Everything felt a little hectic to me as we had to race to Winfield House from work, then I had to race home to grab my bags before heading to the train station. But Winfield House if definitely worth seeing if you ever have the chance. The below photos are of the Winfield House (Regent's Park side), the street side foyer, and my favorite room in the house, the Green Room, which is hung with 18th century, hand-painted Chinese wallpaper.
UPDATE: I just received the below photo. It was taken while we were in the reception line, being greeted by the Charge d'Affairs.
ouch - this will give your Mom some decorating ideas...
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