10 Downing Street

10 Downing Street is the residence and office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, situated on Downing Street in the City of Westminster, central London. It is actually the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, but in modern times this post has always been held simultaneously with the office of Prime Minister.

With its unassuming stone front step and plain black entrance door, Number 10, as it is affectionately known, is perhaps the most famous address in London and one of the most widely recognized houses in the world.

Situated in the City of Westminster in London, Number 10 is the centre of the British government, physically and politically. Not only is Number 10 the Prime Minister's home, it is also his place of work. It has offices for himself, his secretaries, assistants and advisors, and numerous conference rooms and dining rooms where he meets with and entertains other British leaders and foreign dignitaries. The building is near the Palace of Westminster, the home of Parliament and Buckingham Palace, the residence of the Queen.

The building now known as Number Ten was originally three houses: the "house at the back", Number 10 itself, and a small house next to it. The "house at the back" was a mansion built sometime around 1530; the original Number 10 was a modest townhouse built in 1685.

In 1732 King George II offered 10 Downing Street and the "house at the back" to Robert Walpole (often called the first Prime Minister) in gratitude for his services to the nation. Walpole accepted only on the condition that they would be a gift to the office of First Lord of the Treasury rather than to himself personally. The King agreed and "ownership" has passed ever since to each incoming First Lord. Between 1732 and 1735, Walpole commissioned William Kent to join the houses together. It is this larger house that is known today as Number 10 Downing Street.

As generous as the gift may seem in hindsight, the arrangement was not an immediate success. Despite its impressive size and convenient location, Number 10 was not an attractive place to live. Partly, this was due to its poor construction on boggy soil and to chronic neglect in maintaining it. More importantly, Walpole set an example not a rule and the position of Prime Minister did not become an established part of the British constitution until early in the nineteenth century; it was not invariably linked to the office of First Lord of the Treasury until the twentieth. Some Prime Ministers lived there, many did not. Costly to maintain, neglected, and run-down, the house was close to being razed several times.

Nevertheless, Number 10 Downing Street survived and became linked with many of the great statesmen and events of recent British history, and the people came to appreciate its historic value. As Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said in 1985, Number Ten had become "one of the most precious jewels in the national heritage".

The "house at the back" was built around 1530 next to Whitehall Palace, the primary residence of monarchs at the time. It was one of several buildings that made up the "Cockpit Lodgings", so-called because they were attached to a cock-fighting ring, housed inside an unusual octagonal structure. Early in seventeenth century, it was converted to a concert hall and theatre but retained its old name. After the Restoration, some of the first Cabinet meetings were secretly held in the Cockpit.

During Tudor times, the “house at the back” was the home of the Keeper of Whitehall Palace, responsible for maintaining the palace including the Cockpit. For many years, it was occupied by Thomas Knevett (or Knyvet), famous for capturing Guy Fawkes in 1605 and foiling his plot to assassinate James I. The previous year, Knevett vacated the house at the back and occupied a house next door, standing where Number Ten is today.

From this time, members of the royal family and government officials lived in the house at the back. In 1604, James I’s four-year-old son Prince Charles (the future Charles I) lived there briefly. After the property was extended to include the Little Close Tennis Court where Henry VIII played his favourite game, and a kitchen and rooms for domestic staff were built, eight-year-old Princess Elizabeth moved in. Elizabeth lived in the house at the back until 1613 when she married the Elector Palatine and moved to Hanover. There she became the grandmother of George, the Elector of Hanover, who became King of England in 1714, and the great-grandmother of King George II, who offered the house to Walpole in 1732. Thus over a period of one hundred years the house at the back symbolically links the English Houses of Stuart and Hanover.

Oliver Cromwell lived in the house at the back between 1650 and 1654; his widow, for a year in 1659. George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, the general who made possible the Restoration of the monarchy, lived there from 1660 until his death in 1671. Albemarle was First Commissioner of the Great Treasury Commission of 1667-1672 that transformed royal accounting and allowed the Sovereign greater control over expenses. These measures also laid the foundations for the legal authority of the office of First Lord of the Treasury. The man thought to be most responsible for developing these measures was Albemarle's Secretary, Sir George Downing. Albemarle is the first person associated with the Treasury to live in what would eventually become the modern home of the First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister.

After Albemarle's death, the Prince of Orange, later King William II, probably lived in the house at the back for a short time while visiting his uncle, Charles II. In the spring of 1671, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, took possession when he became a leading member of the Cabal Ministry. Buckingham rebuilt most of it at considerable government expense. The result was a spectacular, spacious mansion, lying parallel to Whitehall Palace. From its secluded ornamental garden there was a full view of St. James's Park where deer grazed and noble men and women strolled on paths adorned with sculpture.

After Buckingham retired in 1676, Lady Charlotte Fitzroy, Charles II's illegitimate twelve-year-old daughter, moved in when she married the Earl of Lichfield, Master of the Horse. In preparation for the new tenant, the Crown authorized extensive rebuilding once again. This work included widening the garden and adding a storey, giving the house three main floors, plus an attic and basement. The resulting mansion, which became known as Litchfield House, can still be seen today as the rear section of Number Ten.

Why such extensive rebuilding was necessary is a puzzle. Possibly there was a fire, but the most likely explanation is that the house had settled, causing structural damage. Westminster was once a swamp and buildings in the area require deep foundation pilings to avoid structural damage from settling. At this time, the house at the back rested on a shallow foundation, a design error that would cause problems until 1960 when the modern Ten Downing Street was rebuilt on a foundation set on deep pilings.

Charlotte and her family followed James II into exile after the Glorious Revolution. In 1690, the new King and Queen offered the house to Henry Nassau, Lord Auverquerque, a Dutch aristocrat who had assisted William of Orange in securing the Crown jointly for himself and his wife, Mary Stuart. Also a Master of the Horse, Nassau anglicized his name to Overkirk, and lived in the house at the back until his death in 1708.

The house reverted to the Crown upon Nassau's widow's death in 1720, and the Treasury issued an order "for repairing and fitting it up in the best and most substantial manner" at a cost of £2,522, a very large sum at the time. The work included: "The Back passage into Downing street to be repaired and a new door; a New Necessary House to be made; To take down the Useless passage formerly made for the Maids of Honour to go into Downing Street, when the Queen lived at the Cockpit; To New Cast a great Lead Cistern & pipes and to lay the Water into the house & a new frame for ye Cistern."

These repairs completed, Johann Caspar von Bothmar, Count Bothmar, envoy from Hanover and advisor to George I and II, took up residency. Although Count Bothmar complained bitterly about "the ruinous Condition of the Premises", he lived there until his death in 1732.

George Downing, the man who built Downing Street, was a spy. Soon after he joined the Parliamentary forces as a preacher, Oliver Cromwell appointed him Scoutmaster General of Scotland to spy for the army. During the Interregnum, Cromwell appointed him Ambassador to The Hague where again his primary responsibility was espionage. Downing's assignment was to watch Charles Stuart, the exiled Pretender to the throne, and report his activities to Cromwell.

Shrewd and avaricious, Downing invested in properties and acquired considerable wealth. In 1654, he purchased the lease on a parcel of land south of Saint James's Park, a short distance from Parliament. Downing planned to build a row of houses there, designed "…for persons of good quality to inhabit in…" The street on which he eventually built these homes now bears his name, and the largest is part of the official home of the First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister. Straightforward as this investment seemed, it proved otherwise. For thirty years, legal complications prevented Downing from building his houses.

Civil authority changed hands repeatedly during the Civil Wars, Interregnum and Restoration. Clever and unprincipled, Downing was a survivor. When Cromwell died in 1658, he switched sides, endeared himself to Prince Charles, and started spying for him. Putting his network of agents to work, Downing helped the Prince recover his throne. Precisely what he did has never been clear, but it must have been important because in 1660 Charles knighted Downing at Breda and re-appointed him ambassador to The Hague.

Downing’s legal problems with his Westminster property started at this time. He had purchased the lease during the Interregnum, but it had belonged to the Crown. After the Restoration, the sale was deemed illegal and canceled without compensation. Downing had done well securing a knighthood and an ambassadorship. Prudently, he chose not to complain about this matter until the King owed him a favor.

His chance came when three regicides escaped to Europe, including Colonel John Okey in whose regiment Downing had served as a preacher years before. Downing captured the fugitives and shipped them to England for trial; they were found guilty of treason and executed in April 1662.

Infamous as a liar and skinflint, Downing's reputation suffered even further because of this incident. Samuel Pepys described him as "a perfidious rogue" and added that "all the world takes notice of him for a most ungrateful villain for his pains." A pamphlet compared Downing’s betrayal of Okey to Judas' betrayal of Christ. John Evelyn dismissed him as "a pedagogue and fanatic preacher not worth a grot."

King Charles however was grateful and gave Downing a thousand pounds and a Baronetcy. Furthermore, when Downing pressed his claim on the Westminster property, Charles granted it. On February 23 1664, although the Crown retained ownership, Downing obtained a lease on the land and buildings lasting ninety-nine years, including "the unexpired portion of the 60 years' lease granted on the same property to Sir Thomas Knevett by James I." He had permission "to build thereon subject to the supervision of the Surveyor General of Crown Lands and with the proviso not to build further than the West part of the house called the Cockpit was then built." In other words, no closer to Saint James's Park than where Number Ten stands today.

This success did not end Downing’s trouble. The "unexpired portion of the 60 years' lease granted on the same property" was a reference to a lease on a house standing where Number 10 is today. Originally a brewery called The Axe, Queen Elizabeth I had granted it to Thomas Knevett, Keeper of Whitehall Palace in gratitude for his service. This is the same man who vacated the house at the back in favour of Prince Charles. Knevett died in 1622 and the house passed to Elizabeth Hampden, Lady Knevett’s niece. Mrs Hampden renovated it and lived there for almost forty years. A formidable woman, she was the mother of John Hampden and Oliver Cromwell’s aunt.

Mrs. Hampden died after the Restoration, leaving the house to her grandsons with twenty years still left on the Knevett lease. None of them lived there, and it was vacant when Downing recovered his lease to develop the land. He planned to raze Hampden (or Knevett) House, but the grandsons refused to surrender the remainder of their lease. Downing complained, saying "The housing are in great decay and will hardly continue to be habitable to the end" but his petition was denied. Having waited ten years to build his houses, Downing was forced to wait another twenty until the Knevett lease expired.

When the time finally came, Downing asked permission to build beyond the limit imposed earlier to take advantage of recent housing developments. The Crown approved and issued a new royal warrant in 1682 giving him permission to build his houses further west than specified in the original grant. The warrant reads: "Sir George Downing . . . [is authorized] to build new and more houses further westward on the grounds granted him by the patent of 1663/4 Feb. 23. The present grant is by reason that the said Cockpit or the greater part thereof is since demolished; but it is to be subject to the proviso that it be not built any nearer than 14 feet of the wall of the said Park at the West end thereof."

With astonishing speed, Downing built his cul-de-sac of two-storey homes with coach-houses, stables and views of St. James's Park. How many he built is not clear. Most historians say fifteen; others say twenty. Possibly, there were originally fifteen and others were added later. The addresses also changed several times in the coming years. For example, in 1766, Number Ten was "Five"; it did not become "Ten" until 1787.

Downing employed Sir Christopher Wren to design and construct his houses but the result was not impressive. Although large, they were shoddily built. Like the house at the back, the foundations were shallow which would cause endless structural problems in the future. Also, the fronts were facades with lines painted on the surface imitating brick mortar. Three centuries later, Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote that Ten Downing Street was "shaky and lightly built by the profiteering contractor whose name they bear."

The "upper end", known as Downing Square, closed off access to St. James's Park. Although poorly built, they were considered chic, and so had several distinguished residents. Charles II’s daughter Anne, by his mistress the Duchess of Cleveland, lived in a large corner house thought to be the site of Number 12. The Countess of Yarmouth lived at Number 10 between 1688 and 1689. Lord Lansdowne resided there from 1692 to 1696, as did the Earl of Grantham from 1699 to 1703. It was a fashionable place to live. An advertisement in 1720, described Downing Street as: " . . . a pretty open Place, especially at the upper end, where are four or five very large and well-built Houses, fit for Persons of Honour and Quality; each House having a pleasant Prospect into St. James's Park, with a Tarras Walk."

Downing probably never lived in the houses he waited so patiently to build. In 1675, he retired to Cambridge where, nine years later, at age sixty-one, he died a few months after the completion of his street.

When Count Bothmar died, ownership of the house at the back reverted to the Crown. George II took this opportunity to offer it to Sir Robert Walpole as a gift for his extraordinary services over the previous years. Coincidentally, the King had also obtained the leases on stables and two properties on Downing Street, one of which was Number Ten, and added these to his proposed gift.

Walpole did not want to accept the gift for himself. Shrewd and wealthy, he, perhaps, did not want to burden himself by adding to his extensive holdings. Or, perhaps, he knew the houses were built on soft soil and would be expensive to maintain. At the same time, he probably did not want to offend the King by refusing the gift outright. Whatever his motivations, Walpole proposed - and the King agreed - that the Crown give the properties to the Office of First Lord of the Treasury. Walpole would live there as the incumbent First Lord, but would vacate it for the next one.

The arrangement made, Walpole set about uniting the properties. Wanting to extend the new house as far as the passage to the east, Walpole persuaded Mr Chicken, the tenant of the small house next door, to move to another house in Downing Street. Mr Chicken's former residence, the stables and the house at the back were then incorporated into Number 10.

Walpole commissioned William Kent to join the structures. Kent's plan was an masterpiece. He joined the two larger houses by building a two-story structure on part of the space between them, consisting of a long room on the ground floor and several rooms above. The remaining space was converted into a courtyard. He then connected the Downing Street houses with a corridor, now called the Treasury Passage.

Having joined the houses, Kent then gutted them: tearing down walls, ripping up floors, removing staircases, and dismantling fireplaces. Craftsmen created a handsome stone triple staircase in the main section of the original Number Ten. With an iron balustrade embellished with a scroll design and mahogany handrail, it rose from the garden floor to the first floor. For over two hundred years, Kent's staircase was the first architectural feature visitors saw as they entered 10 Downing Street. Portraits of all the Prime Ministers from Sir Robert Walpole decorated the wall going up its side. In the 1960 restoration, Kent's staircase was moved to the back of the house and a new one with no visible supports was installed. The Prime Ministers' portraits still decorate the wall going up.

Kent left the house at the back with three floors of living space but surmounted its central section with a pediment. To allow Walpole quicker access to the House of Commons, he walled up its north side entrance from St. James's Park, and made the door on Downing Street the entrance to the new enlarged house.

The redesign and rebuilding took two years. On September 23 1735, the London Daily Post announced that Walpole had moved into Number Ten: “Yesterday, the Right Hon. Sir Robert Walpole, with his Lady and Family moved from their House in St James’s Square, to his new House adjoining to the Treasury in St James’s Park.”

The Walpole family did not enter through the door that is now so famous. That would be installed forty years later. However, Kent's door was also modest, belying the spacious elegance beyond. The Walpole family's new, albeit temporary, home had sixty substantial rooms, decorated with hardwood and marble floors, crown moulding, elegant pillars and marble mantelpieces. Kent's sketches show seven main rooms on the ground floor and the first floor, all with beautiful views of either the garden or St. James's Park. The largest was made into study for Walpole, measuring forty feet by twenty with enormous windows. The room was and still is magnificent; its impressive size is easily seen in many paintings and photographs. "My Lord's Study" (as Kent labelled it in his drawings) would later be famous as the Cabinet room where Prime Ministers meet with their subordinate ministers. A portrait of Walpole hangs over the fireplace behind the Prime Minister’s chair; it is the only picture in the room.[[1]]

After moving in, Walpole ordered that a portion of the land outside his study to be converted into a garden. 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 Honorable the Chancellor of His Majesty's Exchequer, hath been lately made & fitted up at the Charge … of the Crown". The same document confirmed that Number Ten 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." Thus it was stated in writing that the First Lord of the Treasury had an official home.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, 10 Downing Street was generally seen as a small, unimpressive, mediocre building that was far below the quality and standard possessed by leader peers. William Pitt lived in Number Ten Downing Street for more than nineteen years, longer than any other minister of the Crown, either before or after him. He lived there for three months as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1783, and then a total of nineteen years as Prime Minister from 1783 to 1802 and 1804 to 1806.

By the time Pitt moved into Downing Street, the exterior of the house looked much like it does today, due to extensive work done on it over a period of years beginning in 1766. At that time, Pitt's father was Prime Minister, but the house was occupied by Charles Townsend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Before moving in, Townsend pointed out that the house was in a dreadfully dilapidated condition and needed a great deal of repair. On his instructions, architects conducted a survey of Downing Street and the results were forwarded in a letter to the Treasury:

"... we have caused the House in Downing Street belonging to the Treasury to be surveyed, & find the Walls of the old part of the said House next the street to be much decayed, the Floors & Chimneys much sunk from the level & no party Wall between the House adjoining on the Westside ... We have therefore made a plan & Estimate for taking down the Front next the street & also the East Flank Wall of the Hall, to build a party Wall on the Westside to prevent danger of Fire, to repair the remaining part of the Old Building & to Erect an additional Building adjoining thereto. All which Works ... will Amount to the sum of Nine hundred & Fifty pounds."

It is surprising that such extensive repairs and rebuilding were necessary since it had only been thirty years since the three houses forming Number Ten had been completely reconstructed by Kent for Walpole. The letter suggests that the damage was caused by the ever-present, shallow foundations, especially the one under the house at the front built by Downing, which was by this time over eighty years old.

Townsend's reconstruction was begun almost immediately, and continued while he and his family occupied the house. But, inexplicably, it appears to have taken many years to complete. A note from Lord North to the Office of Works, dated September 1774, asks that the work on the front of the house, "which was begun by a Warrant from the Treasury dated August 9, 1766", should be finished.

The entrance from Downing Street was rebuilt during this period. Executed in the elegant Georgian style by the architect Kenton Couse, it was probably completed by 1772. Knowing the momentous discussions which had already taken place within the walls of the house, its facade was a masterpiece of English understatement. Unassuming and narrow, it consists of a single step made of white stone leading to a modest brick frontage. The small, six-panelled door, made of black oak, is surrounded by cream-coloured casing and adorned above with an attractive semicircular fanlight window. Painted in white in the centre of the door, between the top and middle sets of panels, is the number "10"; between the two middle panels is a black iron knocker in the shape of a lion's head; and just below the knocker is a brass letter box with the inscription "First Lord of the Treasury". A black ironwork fence with spiked newel posts runs along the front of the house and up each side of the step to the door. The fence rises above the step into a double-swirled archway, supporting an iron gas lamp surmounted by a crown. Beyond the door, Couse installed in the entrance hall black and white marble tiles, still in use. At the same time, he also added the large bow front to the small house on the Whitehall side, incorporated in Walpole's time.

Only seventeen years had elapsed since the very substantial alterations had been begun for the Townsends, but it had been left incomplete. At the end of August 1783, the Duke of Portland moved out of Downing Street because it was in need of repair. This new need for attention became apparent in 1781. In March of the following year a committee consisting of North and others after inspecting the condition of the house, found that the money spent so far was insufficient and considered a statement from the Board of Works, declaring that "the Repairs, Alterations & Additions at the Chancellor of the Exchequer's House will amount to the sum of £5,580, exclusive of the sum for which they already have His Majesty's Warrant. And praying a Warrant for the said sum of £5,580 - and also praying an Imprest of that sum to enable them to pay the Workmen."

This was just before Pitt moved into Downing Street as Chancellor of the Exchequer. The work was apparently still in progress when Pitt took up residence, which may explain his choice of words in a letter to his mother that he had, "settled ... in part of my vast, awkward house." It seems not to have been satisfactorily completed by the time Portland moved in, for on April 15th, 1783, a very few weeks before his first big dinner, it is recorded: "Mr Couse reported that having been directed to go over the House in Downing Street he had caused an Estimate to be made for sundry Works desired to be done by the Duchess of Portland."

But it was not until August that the repairs were begun. On August 8, "Sir William Chambers Recd a Letter from Mr Beirne, private secretary to the Duke of Portland, relative to Painting, &c, the House in Downing Street.". Later that month, it was announced in the press that, "The Duke of Portland is removed to Burlington House, where his Grace will reside while his house in Downing Street is repairing."

In addition to the repairs required, elaborate alterations were undertaken. The Cabinet Room, for example, was extended, giving it its modern appearance. This was achieved by removing the east wall and rebuilding it several feet inside the adjoining secretaries' room. The secretary's room became smaller with its fireplace out of centre. At the entrance to the Cabinet room a screen of coupled Corinthian columns (four in all) was erected. They supported a moulded entablature, which is continued round the room. Similarly, the large drawing room on the floor above - the corner room adjoining Kent's Treasury building, and looking out on to the Horse Guards Parade - was enlarged by replacing the south wall with a screen of two ionic columns. At the same time, the pediment on the Horse Guards front was removed and a plain parapet erected. Robert Taylor was the architect to whom this work was entrusted; he was knighted on its completion.

As quoted in Cleland's Memoirs of Pitt, "... the expense of repairing the house in Downing Street, in which he had the honour to be lodged for a few months . . . had but a year or two before he came into office, cost the public £10,000 and upwards; and for the seven years preceding that repair, the annual expenses had been little less than £500. The alterations that had cost £10,000 he stated to consist of a new kitchen and offices, extremely convenient, with several comfortable lodging rooms; and he observed, that a great part of the cost, he had understood, was occasioned by the foundations of the house proving bad."

Four days later, on June 21st, the Morning Herald commented: "£500 pounds p.a. preceding the Great Repair, and £11,000 the Great Repair itself! So much has this extraordinary edifice cost the country – for one moiety of the sum a much better dwelling might have been purchased."

At this time a number of prominent Prime Ministers, notably the Duke of Wellington, chose to live in their rather more spacious and grand personal London residences, giving Number 10 over to be used by some more junior official. Between 1742 and 1780, only two Prime Ministers (Lord Grenville and Lord North) actually lived in Ten Downing Street. After 1834, no Prime Minister lived there until Benjamin Disraeli moved into it in 1877. Indeed, for thirty years, between 1847 and 1877, the residential area was vacant.

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It was Disraeli who renewed the association of Ten Downing Street with the First Lord of the Treasury. When he became Prime Minister, he at first saw no need to move into Number Ten. However, two years later during the Middle East crisis, Disraeli, seventy-two years old and crippled with gout, found it impossible any longer to walk even the short distance from Whitehall Gardens to Downing Street for the heated Cabinet discussions. He wrote to a friend that "I have been very ill and continue very ill, and am quite incapable of walking upstairs; gout and bronchitis have ended in asthma ... Sometimes I am obliged to sit up all night, and want of sleep at last breaks me down ... I have managed to attend every Cabinet, but I can't walk at present from Whitehall to Downing Street, but am obliged to brougham even that step, which I once could have repeated fifty times a day."

In November 1877, Disraeli took up his residence at Number 10, the first time it had been used as a Prime Minister's residence since Peel left it thirty years before. In anticipation that Disraeli might decide to move in, the upper rooms had been opened and aired, and the decorators had been called in several months before to prepare estimates. Their estimate for doing just the large drawing room, described as "The Reception Room for Lord Beaconsfield", alarmed the Treasury. The cost of painting the ceiling in a plain colour, for decorating the walls and inserting handsome paper in the panels, and picking out the cornice in tints and gold came in all to £782 for the one room. The cost of a new gate and tiles alone was £40. An immediate letter from the Treasury, dated November 21, 1876, stated:

My Lords trust that every effort will be made to confine the expenditure within narrow limits, as they should regret to see any greater outlay incurred than is absolutely essential for placing the room in a condition appropriate to the uses for which it is designed. Beyond this they could not consent to go, as it would injudicious to spend any large amount upon so old a house and one in which the approaches and other arrangements are so decidedly defective. They should hope that the Estimate now submitted might yet be found susceptible for reduction.

The final cost was discounted £200 off the original estimate. But then there was the question of furniture for the room. Disraeli insisted that the Treasury should purchase all the furniture required. He pointed out that this had been the practice next door at No. 11, the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for a quarter of a century. Indeed, a quarrel between Disraeli and Gladstone more than twenty years before had brought about this change at No. 11. Previously, each new Chancellor of the Exchequer had been required to purchase the furniture from the outgoing tenant. Gladstone, on taking over from Disraeli in 1853, declined to do this, and asked the Board of Works to buy it instead - at least the furniture used for official business. Although Disraeli agreed in principle, he insisted that the old agreement "as between gentlemen" be observed for the present; the new arrangement would take affect with the next transfer. An acrimonious correspondence followed. On that occasion, Gladstone prevailed, and the furniture was purchased by the state. To prevent future disputes, a Treasury memo clearly defined the degree of responsibility of the outgoing and incoming tenant.

Now the tables were turned, and it was Disraeli who prevailed. A practice similar to the one used for the tenant of No. 11 was now developed for the tenant of No. 10, the Prime Minister. A Treasury memo (dated May 30, 1878) defined as public places the entrance hall, staircase and first floor rooms (including the Cabinet room), and specified that these should be furnished at the state's expense. All other areas of the house were defined as private, and the furnishings in them purchased by the new Prime Minister through a process of debiting and crediting. When a new Prime Minister moved in, an inventory would be taken of the furniture already there, together with an estimate of its value. To this list would be added first the cost of any additional furniture requested by the new occupant; and, second the cost of repairs made to furniture during his occupancy. On leaving, the outgoing Prime Minister would then pay for wear and tear, determined by subtracting the value of the furniture at that time from the initial total.

This procedure was adhered to for almost twenty years, until November 1897. Since then, the state has maintained and renewed all furniture in No. 10, even in the residential rooms. Prime Ministers bring only their own personal items.

Having won the argument over who should pay to furnish the newly decorated main reception room, Disraeli spent the state's money lavishly on it. He selected an eighteen-piece silk upholstered suite of furniture - two sofas, four easy chairs, four high-backed chairs and eight small chairs - at a cost of £286 10s, together with matching silk curtains with cornices and valances for £145, three tables for £122, and two fine Axminster Persian carpets, a large one for the room itself and another for the hallway for £178. He also had carpenters install a partial three-foot parquet floor as decoration around the room for £50. Once again, the house became the Prime Minister's residence, and to commemorate the event, the Queen sent Disraeli bowls of primroses, his favourite flower, from her spring garden at Windsor.

But after thirty years of use as an office, Downing Street was in a sad state of disrepair. Some rooms were dilapidated, and Disraeli's private apartment was inadequate and in need of modernization. Disraeli quickly found that much more would need to be done to make the old place a home again, as it had been for the Younger Pitt and Peel. In August 1878, the Office of Works made a completed a new estimate and forwarded it to the Treasury requesting the expenditure of an additional £2,350 for installing hot and cold running water in Disraeli's dressing room, creating and furnishing a new drawing room, repairing the staircase and the Prime Minister's official room, bedroom and ante-room, and "painting, cleansing, (and) whitewashing" various offices. For another £30, Disraeli also purchased from Mr Richard Evens a brass candle chandelier for the drawing room to match the one already there.

During his last period in office, in 1881, William Gladstone, who was both Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister at the same time, claimed residence in all of numbers 10, 11 and 12 for himself and his family.

Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister at the very beginning of the twentieth century, was the last Prime Minister not to be the First Lord of the Treasury.

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Until the early 20th century, ministers of the Crown received only minimal pay and were expected to subsidize themselves through their own private wealth. Accordingly, numbers 10 and 11 were arranged as townhouses in which government ministers lived with their own servants. But when he became Prime Minister in the early 1920s, the first Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, lacking the wealth of former 'grandee' Prime Ministers, found himself moving into an almost unfurnished house, surrounded by household staff he could not afford, some of whom even earned more than he did.

By the 1940s, economic and social changes led to major change in the use of 10 Downing Street. Instead of being a large residence run by servants, it became a working office, with the Prime Minister and his office relegated to a small flat created from the old servants' rooms at the top. The cramped nature of this flat and its location above what is now a busy office-complex, has led some Prime Ministers to live elsewhere. Some 19th and 20th century Prime Ministers owned larger and more impressive townhouses with servants and in reality lived in them. Harold Wilson lived in his own private home in Lord North Street during his second term as Prime Minister in 1974-76, but, with the assistance of the media, maintained the pretence of living at Number 10, secretly exiting by a side door to return to his real home after being photographed entering the front door. Other Prime Ministers lived in Admiralty House in the 1950s while Number 10 was undergoing rebuilding work, or in the 1990s following an IRA mortar attack.

Similarly, after the 1997 General Election in which Labour took power, a swap was carried out by the present incumbents of the two titles. Tony Blair was a married man with three children still living at home, whilst his counterpart, Gordon Brown, was unmarried at the time of taking up his post. Thus, although Number 10 continued to be the Prime Minister's official residence and contained the prime ministerial offices, Blair and his family actually lived in the more spacious Number 11, while Brown lived in the more meagre apartments of Number 10. After Brown married and the Blairs had their fourth child, Brown moved out to his own private flat nearby and the Blair family occupied both.

In reality, two and a half centuries of use as government residences has led to so much interlinking between the houses that it can be hard to know where one ends and the other one begins. The walls between not only the houses on Downing Street, but also the adjacent houses behind them on Horseguards Parade, have been knocked through and the buildings integrated.

In the 1950s, it became clear that No. 10 was in such a poor state of repair that it was in immediate danger of collapse. The pillars in the cabinet room that held the upper stories in place were themselves found to be held together by little more than two hundred years of layers of over painting and varnish, with the internal original wood having rotted away almost to dust. After considering demolishing the entire street, it was decided that, as occurred in the White House in the 1950s, the façade would be preserved while the interior would be gutted down to the foundations, and a copy of the original building erected using modern steel and concrete, over which furnishings of the original interior could be grafted. When builders examined the exterior façade, they discovered that the black colour visible even in the first photographs from the mid-nineteenth century was misleading – the bricks were actually yellow, the black look being a product of two centuries of severe pollution. It was decided to preserve the 'traditional' look of more recent times, so the newly cleaned yellow bricks were then painted black to resemble their well-known appearance.

In a letter to Christopher Jones that he reproduced in his book No. 10 Downing Street, The Story of a House, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher summarized the feelings that she and many other British people have toward the house she lived in for eleven years from 1979 to 1990: “All Prime Ministers are intensely aware that, as tenants and stewards of No. 10 Downing Street, they have in their charge one of the most precious jewels in the nation's heritage."

The Prime Minister’s office, for which the terms "Downing Street" and "No. 10" are synonymous, lies within 10 Downing Street and is headed by a Chief of Staff and staffed by a mix of career civil servants and special advisors. It provides the Prime Minister with support and advice on policy, communications with parliament, government departments and public/media relations.

The office was reorganised in 2001 into 3 directories:

• Policy and government
  Took over the functions of the Private office and policy unit. Prepares advice for the PM and coordinates development and implementation of policy across departments
• Communication and strategy, contains 3 units:
  • Press office: responsible for relations with the media
  • Strategic communications unit
  • Research and information unit: provides factual information to No. 10
• Government and political relations: Handles party/public relations

Changes were intended to strengthen the PM’s office. However, some commentators have suggested that Blair’s reforms have created something similar to a ‘Prime Ministers' department.’ The reorganisation brought about the fusion of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Office- a number of units within the Cabinet Office are directly responsible to the Prime Minister.

The Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister (currently Oliver Robbins) was formerly head of the Prime Minister's Office. It is now headed by the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff (Jonathan Powell). With the exception of the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, and the Director of Political Operations (John McTernan), who are political appointees, all are civil servants.

Heavy security measures are present, if not always visible. A police officer traditionally stands outside the black front door of Number 10 — a door which has no keyhole on the outside; it can only be opened from the inside. A security guard is on duty on the other side of the front door 24/7, so there is always someone there to open it for the Prime Minister — no matter how early or late he should return home. Gates were installed at both ends of the street during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher. People are still allowed access to the street, providing prior security checks are run and they adhere to certain protocol. The gated entrance holds a box where several uniformed heavily armed police stand guard. The Metropolitan Police Force's DPG (Diplomatic Protection Group) provides protection for ministers in London, acting on the Security Service's intelligence.

More covert security measures exist, for example plain-clothed armed police along the roofline of the street and in the vicinity of Whitehall itself. A bunker linked to other government/transport amenities has been suggested to exist under the street, but this has neither been officially confirmed or denied.

The most serious breach of security occurred on February 7, 1991, when the Provisional IRA used a white van parked in Whitehall to launch a mortar shell. This exploded in the back garden of 10 Downing Street, blowing in all the windows of the cabinet room while then-Prime Minister John Major was leading a session of the Cabinet. Major moved to Admiralty House while repairs were completed.

Daily press briefings are currently given by the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) from Number 10. These are published on the Downing Street website and amplified at DowningStreetSays.org (see external links).

Prime Ministers are indicated in bold.

NAME(S) OF RESIDENT(S)		OFFICE(S) HELD WHILE IN RESIDENCE (IF ANY)	YEAR(S) IN RESIDENCE
The House at the Back: Before 1733
Oliver Cromwell		Lord Protector	1650-1654
George Monck, Duke of Albemarle		First Commissioner of the Treasury	1660-1671
William, Prince of Orange (future King William III of England)		***	1671 (probably 4 months)
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham		Member of the Cabal Ministry	1671-1676
Earl of Lichfield		Master of the Horse	1677-1688
Henry Nassau, Lord Overkirk (formerly Auverquerque)		Master of the Horse	1690-1708
Frances Nassau, Lady Overkirk		None	1708-1720
Johann Caspar von Bothmar, Count Bothmar		Envoy from Hanover; advisor to George I and George II	1720-1732
Ten Downing Street: Before 1733
Countess of Yarmouth		*	1688-1689
Lord Lansdowne		*	1692-1696
Earl of Grantham		*	1699-1703
Ten Downing Street, including the House at the Back: 1735 and After
Between 1733 and 1735, the architect William Kent, under a commission from Sir Robert Walpole, combined Litchfield House and Ten Downing Street into one house known since as Number Ten Downing Street, officially the residence of the First Lord of the Treasury.
Sir Robert Walpole		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1735-1742
Samuel Sandys		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1742-1743
Lord Sandys		***	1743-1744
Earl of Lincoln		***	1745-1753
Lewis Watson		***	1753-1754
Henry Bilson-Legge		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1754-1761
Thomas Pelham-Holles		***	1762
Sir Francis Dashwood		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1762-1763
George Grenville		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1763-1765
William Dowdeswell		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1765-1766
During 1766, the house underwent extensive repairs and reconstruction.
Charles Townsend		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1766-1767
Frederick North, Lord North		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1767-1770
Frederick North, Lord North		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1770-1782
Sir John Cavendish (doubtful)		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1782
William Pitt the Younger		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1782-1783
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland		First Lord of the Treasury	1783
During 1783, Ten Downing Street again underwent extensive repairs and alterations.
William Pitt the Younger		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1783-1801
Henry Addington		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1801-1804
William Pitt the Younger		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1804-1806
William Pitt lived in Ten Downing Street for a total of twenty years, more than any Prime Minister before or since. This long residency help to establish an association in the public mind between the house and the office.
William Wyndham Grenville, Lord Grenville		First Lord of the Treasury	1806-1807
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland		First Lord of the Treasury	1807
Spencer Percival		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1807-1809
Spencer Percival		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1809-1812
Charles Arbuthnot		*	1810
Nicholas Vansittart		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1812-1823
Frederick John Robinson		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1823-1827
George Canning		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1827-1828
Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich		First Lord of the Treasury	1827-1828
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington		First Lord of the Treasury	1828-1830
For the first seven months of his ministry, Wellington refused to live in Ten Downing Street because he thought it too small. He relented and moved in only because his home, Apsley House, required extensive repairs. He returned to Apsley House eighteen months later.
Earl of Bathurst		Lord President of the Council	1830
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey		First Lord of the Treasury	1830-1834
Sir Thomas Freemantle		Secretary to Sir Robert Peel	1835
The residential part of Ten Downing Street was vacant for three years from 1835-1838 during the Melbourne Ministry.
The Hon William Cowper and G. E. Anson		Junior Lords of the Treasury (?)	1838
G. E. Anson		Junior Lord of the Treasury	1839-1840
Edward Drummond		*	1842
Edward Drummond and W. H. Stephenson		*	1843
W. H. Stephenson and George Arbuthnot		*	1844-1846
George Keppel, Charles Grey, and R.W. Grey		*	1847
The residential part of Ten Downing Street was vacant for the next thirty years and the house was used only for Cabinet meetings and office space.
In 1877, Disraeli ordered extensive repairs and redecorating on Ten Downing Street so that he could live there. Gladstone, during his 1880-1885 ministry, ordered still more repairs and redecorations so that he could live there. Widely reported in the penny press and magazines like Punch, the colourful rivalry between Disraeli and Gladstone before and during these years firmly established Ten Downing Street as the symbol of British executive power.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield		First Lord of the Treasury	1877-1880
William Ewart Gladstone		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1880-1885
Sir Stafford Northcote		First Lord of the Treasury	1885-1886
William Ewart Gladstone		First Lord of the Treasury	1886
William Henry Smith		First Lord of the Treasury	1886-1891
Arthur Balfour		First Lord of the Treasury	1891-1892
William Ewart Gladstone		First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Privy Seal	1892-1894
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery		First Lord of the Treasury, Lord President of the Council	1894
Arthur Balfour		First Lord of the Treasury, Leader of the House of Commons	1895-1902
Since 1902, every Prime Minister has officially resided in Ten Downing Street although several actually lived elsewhere as noted below. Also, since then, all have held the official legal office of First Lord of the Treasury; none have been Chancellor of the Exchequer as was often the case previously.
Arthur Balfour		First Lord of the Treasury	1902-1905
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman		First Lord of the Treasury	1905-1907
Herbert Henry Asquith		First Lord of the Treasury, Secretary for War	1907-1916
David Lloyd George		First Lord of the Treasury	1916-1922
Andrew Bonar Law		First Lord of the Treasury	1922-1923
Stanley Baldwin		First Lord of the Treasury	1923-1924
James Ramsay MacDonald		First Lord of the Treasury	1924
Stanley Baldwin		First Lord of the Treasury	1924-1929
James Ramsay MacDonald		First Lord of the Treasury	1929-1935
Stanley Baldwin		First Lord of the Treasury	1935-1937
Neville Chamberlain		First Lord of the Treasury	1937-1940
Winston Churchill		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister of Defence	1940-1945
For his safety, Churchill lived in the heavily bunkered Annex of Number Ten during most of World War II. However, he did insist on using Number Ten for work and dining.
Clement Attlee		First Lord of the Treasury	1945-1951
Sir Winston Churchill		First Lord of the Treasury	1951-1955
Sir Anthony Eden		First Lord of the Treasury	1955-1956
Harold Macmillan		First Lord of the Treasury	1957-1960
Macmillan lived in Admiralty House from 1960-1964 while Number Ten was restored. Completely gutted and rebuilt, only the facade is now original.
Sir Alec Douglas-Home		First Lord of the Treasury	1964
Harold Wilson		First Lord of the Treasury	1964-1970
Edward Heath		First Lord of the Treasury	1970-1974
Harold Wilson		First Lord of the Treasury	1974-1976
During his second ministry, Wilson maintained the public illusion of living in Ten Downing Street even though he actually lived in his house in Lord North Street.
James Callaghan		First Lord of the Treasury	1976-1979
Margaret Thatcher		First Lord of the Treasury	1979-1990
John Major		First Lord of the Treasury	1990-1997
In 1991, The Provisional IRA launched a mortar bomb at Ten Downing Street, blowing out windows and leaving a large crater in the back yard. Major vacated the house during repairs.
Tony Blair		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service	1997-present

• No. 10 Downing Street: 1660-1900, Hector Bolitho, Hutchinson, 1957.
• No 10 Downing Street: The Story of a House, Christopher Jones, The Leisure Circle, 1985.
• No. 10 Downing Street: A House in History, R.J. Minney, Little, Brown and Company, 1963.

• Chequers - the Prime Minister's official country residence

• Official website
• George Downing and his Street
• http://www.downingstreetsays.org/
• Google Maps - Downing Street, Westminster, Greater London, SW1
• Labour-Leadership.com Discuss the leadership election of the Labour party