The High Commission of Australia in London is the diplomatic mission of Australia in the United Kingdom. It is located in Australia House, a Grade II listed building. It is both Australia's first diplomatic mission and the longest continuously occupied diplomatic mission in the United Kingdom.
A major landmark on Strand, London, construction on the building by the Dove Brothers commenced in 1913, but shipping problems caused by World War I delayed completion. It was officially opened by King George V in a ceremony on 3 August 1918 attended by the Australian Prime Minister William Morris Hughes. The cost of the triangular shaped land was £379,756 when purchased by the Commonwealth of Australia in 1912 and building and other associated costs brought total expenditure to about £1 million. The building was designed by Scottish architects, Alexander Marshall Mackenzie and his son, Alexander George Robertson Mackenzie following an architectural competition, the judges of which included Bertram Mackennal, John Longstaff, George Washington Lambert, Fred Leist and Arthur Streeton. The Commonwealth of Australia's chief architect, John Smith Murdoch, travelled to London to work with the Mackenzie firm on the building.
Although an Official Secretary had been appointed to London as early as 1906, the High Commission to London was the first Australian diplomatic mission and one of the most prominent in London.
Much of the building materials used in its construction were imported from Australia. The building is of Portland stone on a base of Australian trachyte. The marbles used include dove-coloured Buchan marble from Victoria, the light and dark Caleula from New South Wales, and white Angaston marble from South Australia. The joinery and flooring timbers include timber varieties from all Australian States but the most prominent of these is black bean, a very hard and dense wood similar to English oak, used principally for panels of the first floor Downer Room where the carvings represent arts and sciences. This work is credited to Messrs Wylie & Lockhead of London and Glasgow.
Government agencies within the High Commission include Austrade, Defence, Materiel (CONDMAT), National Library of Australia and Public Affairs/Media/Cultural. The building's grand interior was used as the setting of Gringotts Wizarding Bank in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Australia House is usually the single largest polling station in Australian federal elections, with more votes being cast at the London polling station than at any polling station in any of the Australian States or Territories.
High Commission offices. 1912-18 by A. Marshall Mackenzie with sculpture by H. Palmer, incorporating the Government of Victoria offices of 1907-09 by Alfred Burr.
Portland stone on steel frame, slate roof. Monumental Beaux Arts - Imperial Baroque on a trapezoidal island site as part of the Aldwych-Kingsway development. 6 storeys including mezzanine and attic storey and 2 tiers of dormers in steep mansard. 6 windows wide on convex Aldwych front and 7 windows wide to Strand with vast single bay entrance front to splayed apex of site and the Government of Victoria Offices incorporated as west terminal pavilion fronting Melbourne Place.
The splayed apex contains main entrance with lofty architraved doorway with cornice on consoles flanked by large pedestals bearing pyramidal groups of over life size allegorial figures carved in stone. The vertically grouped, bronze framed,3 floors of windows above flanked by colossal Roman Doric columns in antis between pilasters, the whole double stepped in advance of channelled flanks. Above the deep main entablature and set in front of the blind attic, framed by dies, is a huge bronze group of Apollo and quadriga rising from the sea.
The return elevations have channelled podium with ground floor and mezzanine arcade. Above rises a colossal order of coupled Roman Doric columns in antis, as above entrance, screening 3 storeys of bronze framed windows. Above the main entablature the grouping of the colossal order is echoed in the pilastered dies advanced from the recessed attic storey. The lower tier of dormers have pilaster-terms and block cornices while the upper tier are treated as oeil de boeuf. Roof ridges metal-cased in the form of be-ribboned fasces stopped with cartouches.
The Government of Victoria Offices have arcaded ground floor and mezzanine with boldly pulvinated banding. Vertically grouped 1st and 2nd floor windows with segmental cornices on consoles, 2 and 3-light 3rd floor windows, the 3 storeys framed by giant order of banded Ionic quoin pilasters. Lofty attic with quoin piers and attic and blocking course. Interior has marble lined principal ground floor rooms along main axis leading to grand staircase.