The land on which the British Embassy stands was gifted to Her Majesty's Government in 1931 by the late Amir of Kuwait, HH Sheikh Ahmad al Jabir Al-Sabah. The plot was originally sited next to the beach but later land reclamation, in part to allow the construction of Arabian Gulf Street, put the area further inland. The building was completed as the new Political Agency in 1935 (which had until then been sited in what is now the Dickson House Centre for Culture, formerly the home of the late British Political Agent, Colonel Harold Dickson and his wife Dame Violet Dickson). It is a two-storey building featuring an attractive colonnaded terrace and balcony and is typical of colonial buildings of British India during this period. The main rooms were much wider than those typical of traditionally constructed Kuwaiti houses and the ceilings had to be supported by steel girders specially imported for the purpose. Elsewhere traditional wooden ceiling beams are found. The cost of construction was met by the British Indian Government.

The building remained in use as the British Political Agency until Kuwait's independence in 1961 when it became the British Embassy. In early 2003 the exterior of the building underwent a major renovation including re-pointing of the brickwork. The gardens are home to the grave of Colonel Harold Dickson, British Political Agent from 1929-1936. Former Prime Ministers, Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven and the Rt Hon John Major, planted a tree in the gardens on 25 February 2001 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Kuwait's liberation.

On the Embassy compound, adjacent to the original building, HRH The Prince of Wales laid the foundation stone of a modern two-storey building in 1989. This now houses the public areas of the Embassy including the Visa, Consular and Trade and Investment Sections.