The consular office and defence attache are housed in two buildings known as Miranda House and Bolivar Hall.
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The historic House of Miranda, situated in the heart of London at 58 Grafton Way, was the residence of Francisco de Miranda , the Precursor of Venezuelan and Latin American independence, during the last years he spent in London before he set out on his second attempt to liberate Venezuela from Spanish rule. The site has been referred to as "the most historic Venezuelan site outside Venezuela".
There, Miranda, entertained practically all the great figures of the Latin American independence era as well as many of the top names in London society and politics. In 1810, he welcomed three guests of the utmost importance for Venezuelan and Latin American history: Simón Bolívar, Andrés Bello and Luis López Méndez, the three Venezuelan commissioners that integrated the first Latin American diplomatic mission ever to be officially received by a European authority. It was then when at that time that Miranda communicated his fellow countrymen his passion for the ideal of America as a cause, an object and goal.
Since that memorable time, this site became the true crucible of Americanism. In a lapidary sentence Miranda himself expressed the unquestionable significance of that abode, writing: "My house in this city is and always will be the fixed point for the independence and freedoms of the Colombian Continent". Names from Buenos Aires, and México, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Guatemala, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Bogotá and Caracas, from Lima and the Antilles, nurture that immense and glorious list of characters, that made this house an epicentre a deep historic change.
After Miranda's death, the house was still inhabited by his wife, Sara Andrews, and her two sons. It continued to serve as headquarters and recruiting centre, from which English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh legionaries enlisted to fight for the freedom of America.
In 1942, a commemorative plaque was placed on 58 Grafton Way, and later, the house was designated "Historical Monument, Class A" by the British Government.
The Government of Venezuela acquired the house and adjacent properties in 1978, in order to convert the complex into an active cultural centre at the service of the highest interest of Venezuela and Latin America. Valuable co-operation in restoring and furnishing the House of Miranda was tendered by architect Boyd Auger and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Only where absolutely necessary were items replaced to match as closely as possible the house as built in 1792. All the plaster cornices are the original from when the houses were built. Likewise, all the joinery, doors, window frames, shutters, fireplaces and the staircase. The kitchen range had been replaced about 1900 and was reconstructed to the period.
The house extends to the rear of the main block with Miranda's dressing room at ground floor level and a scullery at basement level. In about 1870 a tenant who was a Brass Beader built himself a workshop on the rear of the house behind the dressing room and scullery and this has been retained and transformed into the Venezuelan Embassy library, which was named Biblioteca Latinoamericana Andrés Bello in 1994, after the illustrious Venezuelan diplomat and jurist. The Embassy's Cultural Section currently functions in the Miranda House, which, along with the Andrés Bello Library, are opened to the public by scheduled appointments only.
Two houses away from the Miranda House is the Bolívar Hall, named after the "Liberator" Simón Bolívar, leader of the South American independence. A unique multi-media cultural centre, which opened its doors to the public in 1986, offers a programme of art exhibitions, and music, film, theatre as well as literary and academic events.
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