10 Downing Street
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Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney stand in front of the famous main door to Number 10. Literally hundreds of pictures like this one have been taken of Prime Ministers greeting other world leaders. |
10 Downing Street is commonly known as the residence of the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, situated on
Downing Street in the
City of Westminster, west
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 symbol of British executive power and the centre of the British government, physically and politically. Not only is Number 10 the Prime Minister's home, it is his place of work. The house 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 heads of state and government. 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 the renowned architect
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 important, Walpole set an example not a rule and the position of Prime Mininster 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 rundown, 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: Before 1733
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The Palace of Whitehall by Hendrick Danckerts c. 1660-1679. The view is from the west with King Charles II in the foreground riding through St James's Park. The "house at the back" is on the far right; the octagonal building next to it is the Cockpit. |
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 shaped structure. Early in seventeenth century, the "Cockpit" was converted to a concert hall and theater but retained its old name. After the Restoration, some of the first Cabinet meetings were held in secret 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, famous for capturing
Sir Guy Fawkes in 1605 and foiling his plot to assassinate King James I. The previous year, Knevett vacated the house at the back and occupied the house next door.
From this time, members of the royal family and high 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. Charles moved out to make way for his eight-year-old sister, Elizabeth. Before Elizabeth moved in, the property was extended to include the Little Close Tennis Court where Henry VIII played his favorite game sixty years earlier, and a kitchen and rooms for domestic staff were built. Elizabeth lived in the house at the back until 1613 when she married the Elector Palatine. She moved to Hanover where 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 the house at the back links over a period of a hundred years 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 allowing the Sovereign to control expenses. These measures also laid the legal foundations for the 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 at the Treasury, 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 member of the Cabal Ministry.
Over a period of two years, Buckingham rebuilt most of the house at considerable government expense. The result was a spectacular, spacious mansion. Lying lengthwise north to south, it ran parallel to Whitehall Palace. From the 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.
Shortly after Buckingham retired in 1676, Lady Charlotte Fitzroy, Charles II's illegitimate twelve-year-old daughter, moved in when she married the Earl of Litchfield, Master of the Horse. Before Charlotte occupied the house, however, it underwent extensive rebuilding once again. This new work included widening the garden and adding a story, giving the house three main floors, plus an attic and basement.
Why 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 damaged. 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.
Whatever the reasons, the house at the back was extensively rebuilt. Massive and square with many windows, Litchfield House was a stately mansion. Its outer size and shape have remained much the same for three hundred years. The three-story mansion can still be seen today as the rear section of Number Ten Downing Street
In 1688, 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. His widow live there until her death in 1720.
The house reverted to the Crown 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, took up residency. Count Bothmar played a quiet role in the early evolution of the position of Prime Minister under Sir Robert Walpole. The Count spoke fluent English and had a better understanding of British politics and government than either George I or George II. As advisor to the first two Hanoverian kings, Bothmar helped Walpole maintain his position at court.
Count Bothmar complained bitterly about "the ruinous Condition of the Premises." Nevertheless, he lived in the mansion, with its "Necessary House and piped water", until his death in 1732.
George Downing's House: Before 1733
George Downing, the man who built the Downing Street, was a spy. Soon after he joined the Parliamentary forces as a preacher near the end of Civil War, 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. His asignment was to follow and 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, as he put it, ". . . 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 now part of the official home of the First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister. Straightforward as this investment seemed, it proved otherwise. For almost 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 the land 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 complaint about this matter until the King owed him a favor.
His chance came when three regicides had escaped to Europe, including
Colonel John Okey in whose regiment Downing had served as a preacher years before. Downing captured his former commander and the other fugitives and shipped them to England for trial. Briefly imprisoned, all three 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 in his diary dismissed him as "a pedagogue and fanatic preacher not worth a grot."
Nevertheless, Downing achieved his goal: Charles was grateful and gave him a thousand pounds and a Baronetcy. Furthermore, Downing pressed his claim on the Westminster property and Charles granted it saying, "His Majesty, being graciously Pleased to gratify the Petitioner in this his humble request . . ."
On February 23, 1664, Downing obtained a lease on the property and the buildings standing on it. Retaining ownership, the Crown rented it to him to do with as he pleased within the terms of the agreement. The document described the site as follows:
" . . . all that messuage or house in Westminster, with all the courts, gardens and orchards thereto, situate between a certain house or mansion called the Peacock in part and the common sewer in part on the South side and a gate leading to King Street called the New Gate in part, and an old passage leading from the great garden to St. James's Park in part, on the North side, and abutting on King Street on the East side and upon the wall of St. James's Park on the West side."
The lease was for ninety-nine years, including "the unexpired portion of the 60 years' lease granted on the same property to Sir Thomas Knevett by James I." Downing 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 sucess did not end Downing's trouble. There was another problem that would take twenty years to resolve. It had to do with the reference in his grant to the "unexpired portion of the 60 years' lease granted on the same property . . ."
The reference was 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 favor 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, an early hero of the Parliamentary cause, famous for refusing to pay "ship money" taxes. She was also 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 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 housing developments in the area. 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. But with liberty also to him to build vaults or cellars. . . [and] to cope the wall . . . with free stone and set flower pots or statues thereupon for the beautifying and ornament of the said buildings."
With astonishing speed, Downing built his row of houses, a cull-de-sac of two-story homes with coach-houses, stables and views of Saint James's Park. The number is not clear. Most historians say fifteen, but others say as many as twenty. Possibly, the original number was fifteen and others were added later. Although Downing employed the services of Sir
Christopher Wren, the result was not impressive. The houses were quite large but 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 mortor. 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."
As far as we know, Downing never lived in the houses he waited so patiently to build. For him, they were an investment. 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.
The "upper end", known as Downing Square, closed off access to St. James's Park. Although poorly built, they were elegant, chic, and conveniently located, 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 a fashionable place to live. In 1720, an advertisement 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 Honor and Quality; each House having a pleasant Prospect into St. James's Park, with a Tarras Walk."
The First Lord's House: 1733-1735
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King George II wanted to give Ten Downing Street and "the house at the back" to Sir Robert Walpole (considered to be the first Prime Minister) as a personal gift for his services to the Crown. Walpole accepted only on the condition that the gift be to the office of First Lord of the Treasury rather than to himself personally. |
When Count Bothmar died, ownership of the house at the back reverted to the Crown and was therefore at the King's disposal. George II took this opportunity to offered it to Sir Robert Walpole as a gift for his extraordinary services over the previous twelve years. Coincidentally, the King had also obtained the leases on stables and two properties on Downing Street, one of which was Number Ten. The King added these to his proposed gift to Walpole.
Walpole did not want to accept the gift for himself. A shrewd, wealthy man, Walpole, perhaps, did not want to burden himself by adding to his extensive holdings. Or, perhaps, he knew the houses had been 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 settled, Walpole set about uniting the properties making them as private as possible. Wanting to extend the new house as far as the passage to the east, Walpole approached Mr Chicken, the tenant of the small house next door, and persuaded him to relocate elsewhere 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 fusion of the houses was an architectural 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. Kent 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. Combining their talents, craftsmen installed a handsome stone triple staircase in the main section of the original Number Ten. With an iron ballistrade 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 elegant staircase was the first architectural feature foreign dignitaries 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 stairchase 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 located to the south, he walled up the northside entrance to the "house at the back" 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 No 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 fifty years later. However, Kent's door was 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 molding, elegant pillars and marble mantlepieces. Kent's sketches show seven main rooms on the ground floor and the first floor, all with beautiful views of either the garden or Saint 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 labeled 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 Mininster's chair; it is the only picture in the room.
After moving in, Walpole ordered that a portion of the land outside his study to be converted into a garden. Letters patent issued by the Treasury Commission in April 1736 state that: " . . . a piece of garden ground situate 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 and its new garden were: "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.
"My Vast, Awkward House": 1735-1877
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William Pitt the Younger, Prime Mininster 1783-1801; 1804-1806 Pitt lived in 10 Downing Street for nineteen years, longer than any other Prime Minister before or since. In a letter to his mother, Pitt called No 10 his "vast, awkward house" |
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Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Prime Minister 1828-1830, for 7 months Wellington refused to live in Number 10 because it was too small |
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Frederick John Robinson, Lord Goderich, Prime Minister, 1827-1828 Lord Goderich selected Soane to create the State Dining Room |
A Precious Jewel: 1878-present
In an era when ministers of the Crown received only minimal pay and in effect had to subsidize themselves through their own private wealth, numbers 10 and 11 were originally
townhouses in which government ministers lived with their own servants. But when he became Prime Minister in the early 1920s,
Ramsay MacDonald, the first
Labour Prime Minister, lacking the wealth of former 'grandee' Prime Ministers, found himself moving into an almost unfurnished house, surrounded by household staff he could not afford â€" 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 overpainting 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 â€" 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
Ivan Rogers) 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 â€" a door which can be opened only from the inside. 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 DRG (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, Earl of Beaconsfield | First Lord of the Treasury | 1877-1880 |
| William E. Gladstone | First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1880-1885 |
| Sir Stafford Northcote | First Lord of the Treasury | 1885-1886 |
| William E. Gladstone | First Lord of the Treasury | 1886 |
| William Henry Smith | First Lord of the Treasury | 1886-1891 |
| Arthur James Balfour | First Lord of the Treasury | 1891-1892 |
| William E. 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 James 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 James 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 S. 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 Richard Attlee | First Lord of the Treasury | 1945-1951 |
| Sir Winston S. 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 Alexander Douglas-Home | First Lord of the Treasury | 1964 |
| James Harold Wilson | First Lord of the Treasury | 1964-1970 |
| Edward Richard George Heath | First Lord of the Treasury | 1970-1974 |
| James 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. |
| Leonard James Callaghan | First Lord of the Treasury | 1976-1979 |
| Margaret Hilda 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. |
| Anthony Charles Lynton 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
