Downing Street, historically, has been the most powerful street in the history of the planet. It is time for a museum dedicated to the office of the Prime Minister.
10 Downing street. Photo: Sergeant Tom Robinson RLC/MOD, OGL v1.0OGL v1.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A View of the West Front of Horse Guards with the Treasury and Downing Street beyond, c.1758 (oil on canvas) Wale, Samuel (1721-86) NAM237617 © National Army Museum / Bridgeman Images
Museum of
The Prime Minister
Downing Street, historically, has been the most powerful street in the history of the planet. It is time for a museum dedicated to the office of the Prime Minister.
Why is it time for a
Museum of Prime Ministers?
According to the Museums Association, there are 2,500 museums in the United Kingdom. They include the Churchill War Rooms and the Lloyd George Memorial Museum.
There are also museums to pencils, dog collars, lawnmowers, cuckoo clocks, and defunct police forces. There is no modern museum dedicated to the country’s collective prime ministers.
Despite this diversity of fame and subject, there is no museum to the most famous British political office in history, that of the Prime Minister, nor to the most famous political address in the world, 10 Downing Street.
About us
Featured content
Read our report
This report provides dozens of lessons for how we can create a Museum of the Prime Minister. Within these pages, you will find descriptions of some of the finest museums celebrating presidents and prime ministers throughout the world.
In all of the countries featured in this report, there is pride in their former leaders, and an inspirational commitment to preserve and remember history.
When you read this report, we encourage you to think about how we can and should do this here in the United Kingdom. How do we turn aspiration into action? How can we build a worthwhile and appropriate museum to our Prime Ministers?
There is no part of Britain untouched by the decisions of the Prime Minister
Downing Street, historically, has been the most powerful street in the history of the planet. It is time for a museum dedicated to the office of Prime Minister.
Visitors to a Museum of Prime Ministers will explore the achievements, failures, and decisions of Prime Ministers past and present. For the first time in London, there would be a museum to the great political controversies of British history. It could also tell the story of Downing Street itself, allowing tourists the opportunity to ‘visit’ a place that, thus far, they can only glimpse through the railings. Finally, it could bring to life items related to Prime Ministers that have no real place in current museum collections, and thus languish in storerooms.
About us
Image capture: 10 Downing Street, The Cabinet Room – Jan 2016 © 2023 Google
Image capture: 10 Downing Street, The Cabinet Room – Jan 2016 © 2023 Google
Collections & Content
Andrew Bonar Law
Bonar Law was the shortest serving Prime Minister of the 20th Century, being in office for just 209 days. He was gravely ill when he t…
The Earl of Rosebery
Lord Rosebery was Gladstone’s successor and the most recent Prime Minister whose entire parliamentary career…
Arthur James Balfour
Arthur Balfour was Salisbury’s successor. He had a reputation as a good parliamentarian, a capable minister, and an excellent ta…
The Duke of Wellington
Wellington is a Prime Minister who is today largely remembered for achievements unrelated to his premiership. …
The Duke of Grafton
The Duke of Grafton believed, according to Horace Walpole, that ‘the world should be postponed to a whore and a…
Benjamin Disraeli
Charming, brilliant, witty, visionary, colourful, and unconventional, Benjamin Disraeli (nicknamed ‘Dizzy’) was one of the greate…
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson is one of the most charismatic and controversial politicians of the modern era. To supporters, he was an authentic voice wh…
The Earl Grey
Earl Grey was the great aristocratic reformer. His government passed the ‘Great Reform Act of 1832’, ending an entire e…
Supporting our mission
The RT Hon Sir John Major KG CH
“Britain is a nation which thrives upon her history, and yet – unlike many other countries – there is no Museum dedicated to the Office of Prime Minister. That is now to be rectified.
There are many truths – and as many myths – about the 57 Prime Ministers who, thus far, have presided over our national evolution. I believe this Museum will bring to life the context of their Premierships, their hopes and fears, successes and setbacks. It will also explain why that title has become the longest surviving template for the role of Head of Government across most of the Western World. I wish it every possible success.”
Dr Robert D. Kilgour
Co-founder and chairman of MoPM
“The office of prime minister is a legacy that Britain has given to the world. And yet there is no museum dedicated to this great office, nor to the collection of people who have served in it. But it does not have to be like this. So many other countries in the world have established museums and exhibitions to celebrate their former leaders. Our report considers their example and will, I hope, encourage debate about establishing a museum of the prime minister here in the United Kingdom.”
Sir Anthony Seldon
Founder and creator of MoPM
“There is no part of Britain, and not many parts of the world, untouched by the decisions of the prime minister. Downing Street has been the most powerful street in history and it is time for a museum dedicated to the prime minister and No 10. It will be a centre that educates, informs, researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of the most long-standing leaders office in the democratic world.”
Penny Mordaunt
“The office of Prime Minister is central to how a government operates and it has evolved rapidly particularly in the last few decades. No examination of political events can be complete without serious focus on this office. I very much welcome this project which will help us examine and celebrate our history.”
The Rt Hon Lord Deben
“I was so pleased to read your proposal for an exhibition to present the history of the office of Prime Minister. Britain is so bad at celebrating its history – particularly its political inheritance. We take it for granted and therefore don’t understand it. It would be so good for all of us – Parliamentarians. commentators, and the public – simply to review the 300 years of this seminal office. We should all support your concept.”
The Marquess of Salisbury K.G.
K. C. V. O.
“Edmund Burke observed that we owe as much to the past as to the future. The office of Prime Minister, with all its burdens, is, in the form that we know it in this country, a peculiarly British invention. Most Prime Ministers have influenced the nation. Many have transformed it. A museum dedicated to the office and to its holders will, by reminding us of our past, educate us as to our future.”
