This week Texans all over the world commemorate the Battle of San Jacinto, which occurred on April 21, 1836 near present-day Deer Park.

Thousands of miles from where General Sam Houston accepted the surrender of Mexican General Santa Ana after a one-sided firefight between their two forces, there is a unique piece of history from the state’s early days as an independent country.

HIDDEN HISTORY: See the last remaining international boundary marker for the Republic of Texas

In London, England at 4 St James’s Street sits the building which at one time served as the site of the Embassy of Texas.

From 1842 until 1845, when Texas became a state, this spot near St James's Palace was where the Republic of Texas did business in England.

Texas President Sam Houston sent Dr. Ashbel Smith, the republic’s secretary of state, to begin working on Texas’ international relationships as a sovereign country.

(Technically it’s known as a legation, which is smaller than an embassy.)

As Atlas Obscura’s Luke Spencer notes, an embassy in Paris was also established later in 1842. There was also one in Washington, D.C.

Spencer shared his photos of the London location with Chron.com this week. You can check out his piece on this small slice of Texas at the Atlas Obscura website.

Texas’ British embassy was located above a wine shop, Berry Brothers & Rudd, which we hope was expert tactical planning on the part of the Texans. The wine shop owners were also the team behind Cutty Sark Scotch.

This was a cushy job for Ambassador Smith, who was a tight friend and onetime roommate of Houston. Smith is known as the "father of Texas medicine" and the "father of the University of Texas" among many other things.

FAR EAST TEXAS: What does a Texas-themed bar look like in Tokyo?

Once Texas became a state in 1845 the site was abandoned, leaving a rent bill of 160 British pounds.

A small gold plaque installed in 1963 down an adjacent alleyway marks the spot where the infant country’s overseas HQ once stood.

“Texas Legation in this building was the legation for the ministers from the Republic of Texas to the Court of St. James 1842 – 1845” reads the plaque. Physically it’s rather small, so locals might have been missing it all these years.

In 1986 a group of Texans came by to settle the outstanding debt with the wine shop, after all those years. It was only right that the Texans settled up during the state’s sesquicentennial.