The present day Residence at No 5 Bagatela Street dates form the time when Sir George Clutton was Ambassador (1960-66). The superintending architect and project manager was John Kay, who worked for the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works. The design was completed in 1961 and the building completed (by Polish local labour) in 1965. Kay also designed the British Ambassador’s residence in Mexico City.

The Bagatela house was built on a 0.46 hectare site gifted for 80 years from 1960, with an option to extend for a future 20 years.

The Bagatela house, a dark grey cube of polished granite, is built around a large reception and dining area on the first floor. It was described by former Ambassador Sir Nicholas Henderson (1969-72) in his diaries: “It was often referred to by the Poles as a Tutenkhamun`s tomb. … the reception area on the first floor was aptly described by my predecessor as a cross between an airport lounge and the ground floor at Heal`s.”

The garden is the best feature of the house.  It is designed around a large square lawn, which is ideal for summer functions such as the annual Queen’s Birthday Party with 1,000 guests dancing to live music. There is a grass tennis court, claimed at one time to be the only grass tennis court behind the Iron Curtain.

The garden was largely designed by Tom Brimelow, ‘who left behind notebooks that attested the detailed, scholarly care he paid to that task as he had to the others of a less horticultural nature’. 

There is a fine lime tree in the shade of which to take coffee or drinks; silver birches, fruit trees and shrubs, a mixed border which provides an astonishing display and a good rose bed. Plants have been added by successive Ambassadors and their wives, including some fine clematises by Alison Barrett.

Princess Alexandra planted a plum tree by the kitchen wall in 1977 to mark the Queen’s Silver Jubilee [mysteriously, the plaque recording this calls it an apricot tree]. Prince Charles planted a magnolia in 1993. A swimming pool was installed on the north side in 1994-5, replacing an ornamental pool which had long ceased to function.

The house has welcomed many distinguished visitors over the years, including Mrs Margaret Thatcher during her historic visit of 1988; the Princess Royal in 1991; the Prime Minister, John Major in 1992; the Prince of Wales in 1993; and John Major again on 1 August 1994, the 50^th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.

In 1991 the house underwent a major refurbishment and refit of the heating and electrical systems. All the pictures were re-hung under the personal supervision of Dr Wendy Baron, the Curator of the Government Art Collection. The interior therefore probably looks better now than at any time in the past including – to judge by early photographs – when it was new.

The Residence provokes mixed feelings in those who live in it. It has odd and inconvenient features and it is not a beautiful object.

It has neither the grace of the new French residence nor the solid, spacious practicality of the Swedish residence at the bottom of the garden. But it serves its representational purpose well and successive Ambassadors and their wives make it a welcoming house, which Poles like to visit.