{"id":207143,"date":"2026-04-23T12:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/207143\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:33:10","slug":"british-embassy-in-washington-prepares-for-king-and-queens-us-state-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/207143\/","title":{"rendered":"British embassy in Washington prepares for King and Queen\u2019s US state visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The King and Queen would be “just fine” walking barefoot on the lawn of the British embassy in Washington<\/a> during their state visit, according to the head gardener, who confirmed the grounds are pesticide-free.<\/p>\n

John Sonnier said the extensive grounds of the official residence in the US capital are managed with the same sustainable and organic principles as Charles\u2019s private country home, Highgrove, in Gloucestershire.<\/p>\n

The detail emerged in a video posted on social media ahead of Charles and Camilla\u2019s trip<\/a> to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe maintain our gardens every day of the year as if the King is going to be here the next day,\u201d Mr Sonnier said.<\/p>\n

He joked: \u201cWe prepare for important dignitaries every day of the year, so I guess my biggest concern about the state visit is all the people in my garden. I think it will be lovely.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the one thing that we do that\u2019s very similar to what they do at Highgrove is that we are a sustainable garden, pesticide-free, completely organic.<\/p>\n

\"Statue<\/p>\n

Statue of Winston Churchill at the British embassy (PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really try and live in the spirit of what we say.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think the King and the Queen will be pleasantly surprised that if they wanted to go barefoot on the lawn, it would be just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Details of the full itinerary for the state visit have not yet been released, so it remains to be seen if the royal couple will get the chance to visit the garden.<\/p>\n

During their four-day stay, the couple are due to meet US President Donald Trump<\/a> and be the guests of honour at a White House banquet.<\/p>\n

Charles has also been invited to address a joint meeting of the US Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The visit will be even more closely watched than usual coming against the backdrop of transatlantic tensions over the Iran conflict, which had led to calls for the event to be called off.<\/p>\n

The strained relations have seen Mr Trump direct a series of barbed comments at the UK, including derogatory comments about His Majesty\u2019s Royal Navy.<\/p>\n

However, the president has previously hailed the visit as a \u201cmomentous occasion\u201d and said he was looking forward to spending time with the King, whom he \u201cgreatly respects\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ongoing scandal over the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has also threatened to cast a shadow over the trip, given former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s friendship with the late sex offender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The King and Queen would be “just fine” walking barefoot on the lawn of the British embassy in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[82114,73613,82116,82113,9,24,63,82118,122,124,123,70676,82115,82117],"class_list":["post-207143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-british-embassy","tag-charles-and-camilla","tag-highgrove","tag-john-sonnier","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-organic-principles","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-state-visit","tag-sustainable-garden","tag-the-british-embassy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}