Embassy of the United Kingdom, Reykjavík first British Embassy was Höfði (best known as the location for the 1986 Reykjavík Summit meeting of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev). In the 1950s the Embassy was moved to its current location on Laufásvegur street. In 1968, the British Government bought Laufásvegur 31 and the old farmhouse which was there was donated to the Reykjavik Museum and moved to the heritage site at Árbæjarsafn. When the Embassy was redeveloped in the 1990s, it was decided that the location was too large for Britain's needs and so it looked for another partner to share it with. At the same time
Washington Summit many supporters of both leaders, Reagan and Gorbachev began putting resources into INF Treaty negotiations. This, in addition to various troubles foreign and domestic in both countries led to a tense time preceding the Washington Summit. For Reagan, trouble with the stock market, failure to win approval for Supreme-Court-nominee Robert Bork, and the Iran-Contra scandal were all generating political pressure. Also, criticism from an uncharacteristically large number of notable conservatives including former President Richard Nixon, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, commentator William Buckley, as well as members of his own administration resulted in a contentious political atmosphere around the