Zimbabwe House

As my halloween review of scratching Fanny of Cock Lane caused amusement and disbelief I thought this HAD to be reviewed!
Read down to see why.
Zimbabwe House at 429 Strand in central London is the Zimbabwean Embassy.
The building was built by architect Charles Holden in 1907 – 8 as the headquarters of the British Medical Association and featured a series of sculptures by Jacob Epstein representing the Ages of Man, his first major commission in London.
The nakedness of many of these male sculptures was initially shocking to Edwardian sensibilities and provoked considerable controversy at the time.
Father Bernhard Vaughn, a member of the National Vigilance Society raged in the paper that:
As a Christian in a Christian City, I claim the right to say that I object most emphatically to such indecent statuary being thrust upon my view.
In the 1930’s a gentleman pedestrian was struck on the head by a falling stone phallus from one of the statues, and the other statues were also rendered eunuch’s to prevent similar mishaps.
As Rhodesia House, it served as the High Commission of Southern Rhodesia from 1923 until the Rhodesian UDI on November 11, 1965. Rhodesia was unique in being the only British colony to have a High Commission, as only dominions (and later, independent Commonwealth members) were represented by such legations.
After the UDI, Rhodesia’s High Commissioner, Brigadier Andrew Skeen was declared persona non grata by the British Government and ordered to leave the country. However, because of concerns over diplomatic property under
international law, Rhodesia House was not seized by the British Government. It simply became a Representative Office with no official diplomatic status, until the colony gained independence as Zimbabwe in 1980