Embassy of Poland in London - London, England, UK - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

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"The Embassy of Poland in London (Polish: Ambasada Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w Londynie) is the diplomatic mission of Poland in the United Kingdom. It is located on Portland Place next to the High Commission of Kenya.

Main chancery building

Shortly after the Second Polish Republic gained independence in 1919, there seemed to be a general feeling of ambivalence to Britain demonstrated by most Polish statesmen. Believing that good relations with traditional ally France, and neighbour Germany, were of more importance, the Polish government largely neglected relations with the United Kingdom and it was not until 1929 that the first Polish legation was sent to establish a permanent embassy in London.
Since 1929, the Polish embassy in London has played an important role in Polish history. With the realisation in the late 1930s that war with Germany was inevitable, the Polish government set about requesting military aid from the British government; the government also signed a three-way mutual defence pact with the United Kingdom and France in order to make sure Poland would never have to stand alone against a German invasion. Thus, much of the bureaucracy surrounding these pre-war pacts found itself centred in the halls and corridors of number 47, Portland Place.
As the war progressed and with the transfer of the Polish government-in-exile to London, Portland Place again became not only the nerve centre of Polish relations with the United Kingdom, but of the entire Polish Foreign Office. The embassy soon had to acquire a number of other buildings throughout the city in order to house the large number of diplomats and politicians required to make the government in exile work. For a long time, the building represented a democratic Poland, fighting for its freedom and its territorial integrity. However, in the post-war world (in which the People's Republic of Poland became a satellite state of the Soviet Union) the British government refused any longer to recognise the government in exile[3] and thus the London Poles (Officials of the Polish government in exile) had to vacate the Polish embassy on Portland Place and were left only with the exile-president's private residence at 43 Eaton Place, whilst in the meantime officials of the new communist regime moved into the Georgian-era embassy building.
Since the fall of the Polish United Workers' Party in 1989 and the re-establishment of democratic rule in 1990 under President Lech Walesa, the embassy at 47 Portland Place has again been the seat of the primary diplomatic legation of the Polish Republic to the United Kingdom. It was here that the initial process to repatriate the official presidential seal and symbols of office (they had previously been evacuated to London with the government in exile at the beginning and for the duration of the war) to the Polish people was begun."

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