EN
Using classical results of infinite-dimensional geometry, we show that the isometry group of the Urysohn space, endowed with its usual Polish group topology, is homeomorphic to the separable Hilbert space ℓ²(ℕ). The proof is based on a lemma about extensions of metric spaces by finite metric spaces, which we also use to investigate (answering a question of I. Goldbring) the relationship, when A,B are finite subsets of the Urysohn space, between the group of isometries fixing A pointwise, the group of isometries fixing B pointwise, and the group of isometries fixing A ∩ B pointwise.