As noted above, you cannot walk on Downing Street as a member of the general public. [154], Number 10 is filled with fine paintings, sculptures, busts and furniture. The Green State Drawing Room contains mostly Chippendale furniture including a card table that belonged to Clive of India and a mahogany desk that is thought to have belonged to William Pitt the Younger and used by him during the Napoleonic Wars. The room therefore has a unique architectural feature: over the fireplace there is a window instead of the usual chimney breast. 10 Downing Street 5.3K views4 months ago CC Leaders Visit 10 Downing Street Play all President Duda of Poland visits Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Downing Street 10 Downing. Couse's elegant, understated doorstark black, framed in cream white with a bold white "10" clearly visiblewas the perfect backdrop to record such events. The agreement in principle reached by the UK and EU regarding the Windsor Framework. If you are not a member of the media, please use the public correspondence contact form. Upon Inquiry, however, it appeared that the House was attached to the Treasury as a Part of the Office. The No. Emails can be sent to the Prime Ministers Office using the link above. [125], With its flat unadorned ceiling, simple mouldings and deep window seats, the Small Dining Room is intimate and comfortable. Suffragettes posed in front of the door when they petitioned H. H. Asquith for women's rights in 1913, a picture that became famous and was circulated around the world. [60], Nevertheless, for 70 years following Pitt's death in 1806, Number 10 was rarely used as the First Lord's residence. Most are included in a number of tourist attraction discount passes available to you in London. The Cabinet Office press office only deals with enquiries from the media. Paris . Many rooms and sections of the new building were reconstructed exactly as they were in the old Number 10. You have rejected additional cookies. [21], George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, the general responsible for the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, lived there from 1660 until his death in 1671. To them, Number 10 was unimpressive. This structure can be seen today as the rear section of Number 10. It also houses the Prime Minister's Executive Office, which deals with logistics and diplomacy concerning the government of the United Kingdom. No longer "fitted with variety Walle fruit and diverse fruit trees" as it was in the 17th century, there is now a centrally located flower bed around a holly tree surrounded by seats. . 604.536.3353 No. Letters patent issued in April 1736 state that: "a piece of garden ground situated in his Majesty's park of St James's, & belonging & adjoining to the house now inhabited by the Right Honourable the Chancellor of His Majesty's Exchequer, hath been lately made & fitted up at the Charge of the Crown". Dry rot was widespread throughout. "[57] (See Plan of the Design for Number 10 c1781. Robert Taylor, the architect who executed this concept, was knighted on its completion. She said this needed to be addressed as a priority, and Boris Johnson agreed to the Office of the Prime Minister becoming a Government department. UK Prime Minister - Facebook It presently houses the UK Cabinet Room in which Cabinet meetings in the UK take place, chaired by the current Prime Minister, Sunak. History of the "House at the Back" before 1733, First politician and "head of government" in the house, 10 Downing Street and Kent's Treasury Building, Current positions within the Office of the Prime Minister. The upper floors were modernised and the third floor extended over Numbers 11 and 12 to allow more living space. That has changed, and now security is very tight, as one would expect for the home of a country's head of government. I had called them asking if they could add a toner to my hair over the phone . Along with the adjoining Cabinet Office at 70 Whitehall, it is the headquarters of the Government of the United Kingdom. We stopped by while listening to our free Rick Steves' audio tour of Westminster on our iPods. This was a formidable undertaking: the three buildings contained over 200 rooms spread out over five floors. Albemarle is the first treasury minister to have lived in what became the home of the First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister. 10 Downing Street Bhopal. However, the Prime Minister at the time, Harold Wilson, overturned the idea. [170] Since Number 10 is formally part of the Cabinet Office, it reports directly to the Cabinet Secretary, who is currently[update] Simon Case. So much has this extraordinary edifice cost the country For one moiety of the sum a much better dwelling might have been purchased! After Prime Minister Robert Peel "gave up" being Chancellor in 1841, and this separation of positions gradually became a convention of the constitution, a locked door was installed between the buildings limiting the Prime Minister's access to the Treasury and its staff. They are rearranged slightly to make room for a photograph of each new Prime Minister. MS. 38292, f. 11) from Lord Liverpool to Charles Ellis, dated 22 January 1823, is of interest. Free. ", "QI: Quite interesting facts about 10 Downing Street", Plate 126: No. In the reconstruction during the late 1980s, Quinlan Terry used Corinthian columns and added ornate Baroque-style central ceiling mouldings and corner mouldings of the four national flowers of the United Kingdom: rose (England), thistle (Scotland), daffodil (Wales) and shamrock (Northern Ireland). Stanley Baldwin used the Cabinet Room as his office. [42], Shortly after moving in, Walpole ordered that a portion of the land outside his study be converted into a terrace and garden. When Margaret Thatcher arrived in 1979 she insisted that the artwork had to be British and that it celebrate "British achievers". When you spoke to me some time ago upon the subject of the House in Downing Street, I was under the impression, as you were yourself, that the house was the King's & that he might dispose of it in any manner he might think proper. Their possession of the house, albeit temporary, was a perquisite they could bestow as a political reward. With an area in No. [94] (See The Entrance Door c1930: As seen from inside showing the black and white marble floor and the door providing access to Number 11)[103][104], When William Kent rebuilt the interior between 1732 and 1734, his craftsmen created a stone triple staircase. [43], The same document confirmed that Number 10 Downing Street was: "meant to be annexed & united to the Office of his Majesty's Treasury & to be & to remain for the Use & Habitation of the first Commissioner of his Majesty's Treasury for the time being". [153] It was also the location of the first press conference announcing the Coalition Government between David Cameron's Conservatives and Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats. Most lent it to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, others to lesser officials or to friends and relatives. in the No 10 press office area to say goodbye to a special adviser . Please note, if you have a media query concerning the Prime Minister or media access to Downing Street - please call the press office for No10 Downing Street. 10. Clickhere to get exact directions from your point of departure. 10 from the Cabinet Office, was passed through with such frequency that its meaning was lost. Carved into the plasterwork above the door leading to the Pillared Room is a tribute to Margaret Thatcher: a straw-carrying 'thatcher'. He felt thatit was not right that the public should be prevented from walking down the street and taking photographs outside Number 10. the locked door, symbolically and physically dividing No. [125], In the restoration conducted in the late 1980s, Quinlan Terry restored the fireplace. Today, there is a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I over the fireplace; during the Thatcher, Major and Blair Ministries, a portrait of William Pitt by Romney was hung there. Pictures of prime ministers with distinguished guests at the door became commonplace. Boston This became the subject of public controversy, and an Electoral Commission inquiry took place into the financing of the refurbishment. The town house, from which the modern building gets its name, was one of several built by George Downing between 1682 and 1684. You are mistaken in supposing that Mr. Vansittart is the only Chancellor of the Exchequer who, without being first Lord of the Treasury, occupied it. The terrace, extending across the back, provides a full view of St James's Park. [147] (See the Small Dining or Breakfast Room c1927. In 1924 when Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald took office, he did not own nor have the means to buy an extensive art collection. San Francisco Walpole commissioned William Kent to join the three houses and it is this larger house that is known as Number 10 Downing Street. Number 10 media team, 10 September 2020 - Uncategorized. Los Angeles Regional Offices around the world | BRP 10 Downing Street? Number 10 switchboard. One theory is that this is in fact a capital 'O' as found in the Roman's Trajan alphabet that was used by the Ministry of Works at the time. The office helps the Prime Minister to establish and deliver the governments overall strategy and policy priorities, and to communicate the governments policies to Parliament, the public and international audiences. [61][62] (See Numbers 10, 11, and 12 Downing Street First Floor Plan[63] and Ground Floor Plan. In 1787 Number 5 became "Number 10". The work of a slave of the holy place, Maqsud of Kashan in the year 926" (the Islamic year corresponding to 1520). One of the largest rooms was a study measuring forty feet by twenty with enormous windows overlooking St James's Park. To celebrate, Thatcher hosted a grand dinner in the State Dining Room for her living predecessors: Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath and James Callaghan. Blick, Andrew and Jones, George (2010). It will take only 2 minutes to fill in. [39] The cost of conversion is unknown. These included: the garden floor, the door and entrance foyer, the stairway, the hallway to the Cabinet Room, the Cabinet Room, the garden and terrace, the Small and Large State Rooms and the three reception rooms. This system was used until November 1897 when the Treasury assumed responsibility for purchasing and maintaining almost all of the furnishings in both the public and private areas except decorating the walls with art work.