London, Nov 24 (CTK) – The building of the Czech embassy at the junction of Kensington Palace Gardens and Bayswater Road in London officially reopened Friday after being under reconstruction for nearly two years.
The building’s front was cleaned but remained unchanged, also because the brutalist-style construction by Czech architect Jan Sramek from 1970 has been listed among architectonic heritage. In 1971, the building won the award for the best building in the country created by foreign architects from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
After the split of Czechoslovakia, the original embassy seat turned into the Slovak embassy, while the adjacent flats of the embassy staff were converted into the offices of the Czech embassy.
Since the technical condition of the Czech part of the building was bad and did not meet the embassy’s needs, a reconstruction started in September 2015. Apart from the embassy, the reconstructed building will host offices of the Czech Centre and the CzechTourism, CzechInvest and CzechTrade agencies.
Czech Ambassador in London Libor Secka said the building now made an elegant and very positive impression.
During the official reopening on Friday, works of contemporary Czech artists were presented, a concert and a theatre performance were held.
