The Texas Embassy
C.A. Asbrey
A small plaque in an alley in London declares that the Republic of Texas had a small embassy over a wine shop in London from 1842 to 1845. It’s at the entrance a small alley in Pickering Place off St. James’s Street and reminds us, that for a very short time, The Republic of Texas (declared in 1836) quickly tried to establish international relations. A number of Texas Legations were established in Washington, D.C., London, and Paris in 1836. The Paris Embassy is in The Place Vendôme in the 1st arrondissement, and is known as Hôtel Bataille de Francès. These diplomatic missions were designed to promote the new republic, but the one in London is notable due to a few quirks in the tale.
Even at the time of opening, the Texas Embassy in London was above a wine merchant’s premises in London. It’s still there today, having opened over three hundred years ago on land where Henry VIII used to enjoy hunting parties with Anne Boleyn. Patrons to Berry Bros and Rudd included Lord Byron, and it was on their scales that he unveiled his famous weight loss after dieting, having gone from thirteen stone twelve pounds in boots, hat, and all his clothes (194lbs) to ten stone (140lbs). The business was founded in 1698 as high-end grocers, but they didn’t become wine merchants until the late eighteenth century, with the present premises being built in 1730. Apart from Bryon, famous clients included Beau Brummell, William Pitt the Younger, and the Aga Khan, so you can see that Texas was in a good area. In fact, it is very close to St. James’s Palace.
Under the shop, there are two acres of wine cellars and caves, and the buildings were home to a high end Georgian brothel and gambling den, and the courtyard at the back was previously used for cock-fighting.
Houston sent Secretary of State Dr. Ashbel Smith to serve as the Texas Legation representative, and Britain welcomed the Texas Legation. Goods were traded and there was even an offer from the UK to help protect the Texan borders from the USA. The then Prime Minister, George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, had talks aimed at funding the abolition of slavery in Texas, but Smith informed him that it was “impossible for Texas to accept any sort of a British subsidy for the abolition of slavery without a greater sacrifice of national dignity than she was willing to make.”
That decision has led historians to speculate that it hastened the end of Texan independence, reducing support from European nations, and making it harder to resist annexation. Britain wanted a tactical counterweight to the USA, but there is also little doubt that the Conservative government was reluctant to spend money in areas where they had few political vested interests, and a reluctance to engage with America or Mexico in border disputes. Britain was certainly not squeamish enough about slavery to refuse Texan cotton.
The Texan Embassy closed in 1845, but not before a now-legendary party in which much wine and liquor was consumed. The Texans went home, but left behind a debt of £160 in unpaid rent, a massive £16,198.75 today ($20,330.73). That bill remained unpaid for over a century until Texas’s sesquicentennial year. 26 Texans dressed in Texas buckskin settled the bill with Berry Brothers & Rudd in Republic of Texas bank notes. Berry Brothers & Rudd honoured the relationship by launching a new brand of whiskey named “Tex Leg Bourbon Whiskey.” The visit was arranged by the Anglo-Texan Society, of whom the author Graham Greene was a founding member. The society was founded after Greene and actor-producer John Sutro when they heard some visiting Texans complain about British reserve. It was that society who installed the plaque marking the premises in 1963. It disbanded in 1979.
