[2] It was previously a high commission and became an embassy after Zimbabwe's departure from the Commonwealth on 7 December 2003 in protest of international criticism of Robert Mugabe's regime's human rights record and its policies.

The building was designed by architect Charles Holden in 1907–08 as the headquarters of the British Medical Association and featured a series of sculptures by Jacob Epstein representing the development of science and the Ages of Man, his first major commission in London.

The newspaper claimed, that Epstein had erected "a form of statuary which no careful father would wish his daughter, or no discriminating young man, his fiancée, to see".

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 departed on 12 November 1965 before being declared persona non-grata by the British Government and ordered to leave the country.