New Iranian embassy shelved by council

Documents seen by the Evening Standard show that the council decided to end the saga in December.

The decision means that the site, which has been a surface car park for more than 20 years, is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. There is no Iranian embassy or consulate in the UK after William Hague expelled diplomats in 2011, in response to an attack on the UK embassy in Tehran.

It was previously in nearby Prince’s Gate — scene of the 1980 siege and subsequent hostage rescue. The Queen’s Gate site, within a conservation area, was subject to a decades-long saga that began in 1974, when what was then the Imperial Hotel was acquired for the Shah of Iran for a reported £2.25 million.

The following year planning permission was granted for a new Iranian embassy there, that would retain the existing listed facades, but it did not go ahead. Four years later the Shah and his wife were ousted from power and the new government took over the Queen’s Gate site.

The new regime first put the Imperial Hotel up for sale, but did not actually sell it. In June 1983, a mysterious fire gutted the building. The council had to step in with emergency measures costing £250,000 — for which the Iranians refused to pay.

Nine years later the Iranians applied to demolish the entire site and replace it with a new consulate. They were allowed to do so on condition that the new complex would be built behind replicas of the listed facades.

The Iranians knocked down all the buildings but built nothing. The site became a “temporary car park” surrounded by hoardings.

In January 2010 a planning application for the site was finally submitted but with no replicated Victorian facades. Instead, it proposed a massive modernist building. The council moved to process the plans but a decision on the scheme was then deferred.

Residents are now concerned that the “temporary” car park will remain forever. Caryl Harris, chairwoman of the South Kensington residents’ association, said: “The council must chose a developer, acquire the site from the Iranians and get it built on behind restored facades, as it ruled in 1991.”