An aerial Associated Press photograph taken in October 1930 of the new British Embassy—five months after Lutyens’s final site visit and its first occupancy—captures the complex in its still-unfinished state. The areas for the pool and tennis court are excavated but not built, the terrace rose beds are barren, a construction road leads from W Street, and small trees are planted here and there in turf with bald spots.
This and other aerial shots, a popular form of photography during the period, also shows several brick Georgian homes in a more complete state, two on Observatory Circle by the Embassy’s service entrance, and four on W Street. Four of these represent the work of the two Americans intimately involved with the Embassy project, the architect Frederick H. Brooke and construction magnate Harry Wardman.
