History of the Building

Behind the quiet façade of this famous black door lie many secrets. Number 10 has been the setting for violent riots, passionate protest and surprising activities. It has been the nerve centre of the British Government through two World Wars. Pioneering policies have been developed inside its walls and world-changing meetings have been chaired by Britain’s greatest leaders.

It is used as a busy office and workplace for the Prime Minister and the staff employed to support him in his role. Not least it is also home to the PM and his family.

Downing Street began its association with the office of the Prime Minister in 1730. That the house is still being used today by Gordon Brown is down to the refusal of first-ever PM Robert Walpole to accept the house as a personal gift. Instead he insisted it be used by future “First Lords of the Treasury”.

During its history the house has undergone major development to be turned into a grand residence fit for the most powerful politician in the country.

Number 10 Downing Street has never been busier than it is today. It is an office for the Prime Minister, a meeting place for the Cabinet, a venue for state events and a home for the Prime Minister’s family.

While in office, prime ministers traditionally live with their families in Downing Street in the private flat on the second floor.

‘Living above the shop’, as Margaret Thatcher described it, has sometimes made it difficult for prime ministers to separate family life and work, but it does allow him or her to keep fully in touch with events as they develop.

Fortunately, prime ministers no longer have to furnish the whole house themselves. Until the twentieth century, prime ministers who lived in Downing Street used to bring their own households with them - bedding, crockery and furniture. They would arrange their possessions in the state rooms on arrival and move them out when they left office.

Prime ministers today have an opportunity to select the art that hangs on the walls of Number 10. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries prime ministers brought their own paintings to display in the house.

Ramsay MacDonald was the first prime minister not to have a personal art collection and began the convention of borrowing from national collections to make the prime minister’s residence into a showcase for traditional and modern British art and craftsmanship.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20