Britain and Ethiopia former Abyssinia had had intermittent, and occasionally rather dramatic, dealings with each other since relations were first formally established in , and a British consul was appointed at Massowah in Permanent representation was not established at Addis Ababa until , soon after Emperor Menelik II overthrew an Italian Protectorate of his country.
He allotted one gasha of land a variable measure, but approaching acres for a British agency at the foot of the Entoto Hills, 2, metres above sea level, just north-east of what was then the new-ish and still-tented town of Addis Ababa.
The boundaries of this land were defined by natural objects: a spring at the north corner, a prominent rock at the east corner, a stone wall along the south-east side down to the road at the south corner, along the road to the west corner and up the creek to the spring.
The lower, flatter part of the site, almost treeless, was no more than thick grass. This allocation of land was not and, despite significant British efforts, has never been consolidated by the issue of title deeds. In recognition of its receipt, however, the British government has always exempted, and uniquely continues to exempt, the Ethiopian Embassy in London from rates and successor charges [still? A small tented encampment was apparently established on the site in , before the first consul-general and agent, John Harrington arrived in The agency became a legation, and Harrington its minister, in December His successor, in , was Wilfred Thesiger, whose son, another Wilfred and the explorer and travel writer, was born in one of the tukuls in The compound had separate areas for the Sudanese and their households; the Abyssinian servants and their wives; stables for 30 horses and other tukuls for harness room, fodder stores, and quarters for men of the Aden troop.
A clutch of tukuls for the native interpreters was built in the south-west corner, close to the entrance to the compound. The first non-indigenous buildings to be erected, in , were for escort quarters and stables towards the north corner, and elsewhere two small houses, followed by a courthouse, prison and dispensary. Plans for a more European type of legation buildings, with residential accommodation for minister, secretary of legation and vice-consul, and their offices, were prepared in London in by the architect Thrift Reavell in the Office of Works.
