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Ben Johnson. 7 min read. 10 Downing Street in London has one of the most photographed front doors in Britain. Since 1735, it has been the official residence of the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Prime Ministers and world leaders have been photographed outside this famous door and important announcements have been made to the nation from here.
- Spencer Perceval
Spencer Perceval, born on 1st November 1762, was a trained...
- Robert Walpole
On 26th August 1676 Sir Robert Walpole was born, a man who...
- David Lloyd George
Later that year after winning a local by-election by a...
- Winston Churchill
On 30th November 1874, Winston Churchill was born. One of...
- Guy Fawkes
What we do know is that Guido was arrested in the early...
- Queen Elizabeth I
Queen Elizabeth I gave her name to a golden age of poets,...
- Spencer Perceval
- Introduction – by Sir Anthony Seldon
- Explore 10 Downing Street
- Origins and Early Inhabitants
- The Emergence of Downing Street
- Pelham to Pitt
- Fall and Rise of Number 10
- Number 10 at War
- Restoration and Modernisation
- A Place of Entertainment
- Installations at Number 10 Timeline
10 Downing Street, the locale of British prime ministers since 1735, vies with the White House as being the most important political building anywhere in the world in the modern era. Behind its black door have been taken the most important decisions affecting Britain for the last 275 years. In the 20th century alone, the First and Second World Wars...
Take a virtual tour inside 10 Downing Street and explore it’s most famous rooms and significant events at the Google Cultural Institute.
The area around Downing Street was home to ancient Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman settlements, and was already a prestigious centre of government 1,000 years ago. The Romans first came to Britain under the command of Julius Caesar in 55 BC. Making their capital at Londinium downriver, the Romans chose Thorney Island – a marshy piece of land lying be...
George Downing gave his name to the most famous street in the world. It is unfortunate that he was such an unpleasant man. Able as a diplomat and a government administrator, he was miserly and at times brutal. However, George Downing was responsible for the street, its name and the building we know today. A former diplomat at The Hague serving the ...
When Walpole left Downing Street in 1742, it was over 20 years before another First Lord of the Treasury moved in. His successors saw the house as a perk of the job, and Prime Ministers Henry Pelham (1743 to 1754) and the Duke of Newcastle (1757 to 1762) preferred to live in their own residences. In 1763 George Grenville (1763 to 1765) took up resi...
At the turn of the 19th century, Downing Street had fallen on hard times. Although Number 10 continued to serve as the Prime Minister's office, it was not favoured as a home. Most prime ministers preferred to live in their own townhouses. But by the 1820s, Downing Street had emerged as the centre of government. Prime Minister Viscount Goderich empl...
World War One
In 1912, Herbert Henry Asquith found himself at odds with Ulster and the Tory opposition following renewed attempts to introduce Irish Home Rule. This unrest and fierce opposition would continue, and civil war in Ireland was only averted with the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. The Cabinet Room at Number 10 was the nerve centre of Britain's war effort. Asquith's Cabinet included future Prime Ministers David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, in their posts as Chancellor and F...
World War Two – Chamberlain
During the 1930s the world's eyes rested on Europe. With rising tensions between Germany and Czechoslovakia, the prime ministers of France and Britain did what they could in an attempt to avoid another war. On 12 September 1938, thousands gathered at Downing Street to listen to Hitler's speech on the final night of the Nuremberg Rally, convinced Britain stood on the brink of war. As tension mounted further in Europe, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made several attempts to appease the situ...
Falklands Conflict – Margaret Thatcher
On 19 March 1982, the Argentinian flag was raised by a group of scrap metal merchants on the island of South Georgia, a British overseas territory and dependant of the Falkland Islands. There had been a lengthy dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the sovereignty of the Islands and this action was seen as a precursor to the Argentinian invasion which would follow. Argentine General Leopoldo Galtieri ordered the invasion of the Falklands to be brought forward to 2 April 1982,...
By the 1950s, the material state of 10 Downing Street had reached crisis point. Bomb damage had worsened existing structural problems: the building was suffering from subsidence, sloping walls, twisting door frames and an enormous annual repair bill. The Ministry of Works carried out a survey in 1954 into the state of the structure. The report boun...
Every week, Number 10 is the venue for official functions including meetings, receptions, lunches and dinners. It is not only heads of state and official dignitaries who visit – functions are held for people from all areas of UK society, including notable achievers, public service employees and charity workers. Receptions tend to be informal gather...
Since 10 Downing Street became the official residence of the premier, the building has performed the dual role of both residence and place of work for Britain's Prime Ministers. Number 10 has been upgraded – including new technology – throughout its history, to ensure both an acceptable standard of living for its residents and to keep the Prime Min...
Jul 22, 2024 · Newly-elected Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer with his wife Victoria Starmer enter his official London residence at No. 10 Downing Street for the first time after the Labour Party won a...
Moody image of a 1930s’ dingy, decaying European apartment stairwell, where a young woman in a trench coat cautiously ascends the stairs. “Ascending ” 2015 11 of 20 next
Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like "the reality was decaying, dingy cities where people walked to-and-fro...", "everything had a battered...", "there seemed to be..." and more.
Nov 22, 2018 · This dingy, decaying house, decorated throughout in the depressing colour of rich gravy, is then a ship of fools, but also a microcosm of the state of the nation at the time.
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Synonymous with the heart of British government, ‘Downing Street’ is one of those oddities of English history which, like ‘beefeaters’, the woolsack, or the quaintly-named ‘Chancellor of the Exchequer’, baffle foreigners and defy easy or even rational explanation.
