Downing Street Tour

A short tour of Number 10 Downing Street.

10 Downing street. Photo: Sergeant Tom Robinson RLC/MOD, OGL v1.0OGL v1.0, via Wikimedia Commons

10 Downing street. Photo: Sergeant Tom Robinson RLC/MOD, OGL v1.0OGL v1.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Black Door

The most famous door in the world.

10 Downing Street’s black door is seen at every election and during every political crisis. The Prime Minister will often speak to the nation directly from Downing Street, with the door as a backdrop.

Downing Street’s black door is the iconic symbol of British political fortunes and power. It is also a good symbol of Downing Street’s history itself. It has an old, orderly, and traditional appearance, but also contains hints that things are more complicated than might appear.

On the letter box are the words ‘First Lord of the Treasury’, the Prime Minister’s official and original position (they would only be known as ‘Prime Minister’ decades later). It was the first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, who insisted that Downing Street accompany the office of the First Lord of the Treasury in 1732. Though, Walpole would never have recognised this door; it only took on this appearance during the late eighteenth century.

The door has not always been black. It was a dark green during the early 20^th Century. Nor were the bricks originally black, they were yellow when the house was originally built during the 1680s, but centuries of grime turned them black. The modern façade is, however, painted black.

The sharp eyed will note that the 0 in 10 is actually slightly lopsided. This is a recent invention and a nod to Downing Street’s history of shoddy building, restoration and repairs. Don’t try and post anything through the letter box either; it’s only a decoration. The door’s impressive lion’s head doorknocker and brass doorbell are also decorative.

The Entrance Hall

On the other side of the black door is the Downing Street Entrance Hall.

This is the first view that an incoming Prime Minister has of Number 10 as they are ‘clapped in’ by the staff. It is also the last place where they will be in Downing Street, after being ‘clapped out’ by staff, before they exit and face the pitiless cameras of the waiting media outside.

Move around the map to explore the Entrance Hall

The black and white marble floor dates from the 1770s. The Chippendale hooded chair was once used by Downing Street’s guards, and there are marks on the leather where their pistols supposedly caused scratches.

The smaller chairs in the room are supposedly from a design for chairs used at cockfights, allowing the sitter to face either way. This might be considered a reference to the Cockpit theatre, which once stood near this site.

There are portraits of the first Prime Minister Robert Walpole (1721-42), Henry Pelham (1743-1754), and William Pitt the Elder (1766-68). The latter two remembered as leaders in peace and war respectively. A portrait of George Downing is to the right of the door. An 18^th Century view of Horse Guards Parade is above the fireplace on the right. Of the four persons depicted on the walls, only Walpole actually lived here.

A door to the left leads into Number 11. To your right, there is a door to the press offices, with their distinctive bow-windows, built by Erith during the 1960s.

Cabinet Room

Move around the map to explore the Cabinet Room

Leaving the entrance hall, you will walk down a corridor, past the lift, and out of the original, narrow Downing Street house, into the ‘House at the Back’. Soon, you are in the Cabinet ante-room, where the Cabinet ministers assemble awaiting the Prime Minister. There is a painting of long-vanished Whitehall Palace on the wall. Perhaps it is a reminder of England’s rich history, or a warning to ministers that even palaces can be transient.

Entering the Cabinet Room, the eye is immediately drawn to the famous ‘boat shaped’ table, which was introduced by Harold Macmillan during the early 1960s. The design allows the Prime Minister to see every member of the cabinet without having to lean forward. The seats are all tucked in, except for the Prime Minister’s, which faces outwards at an angle. A portrait of Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister, watches from above.

This is the most significant room in the British government, and perhaps in all British history. Some of the most important decisions since the 18^th Century were made in this room, and those decisions have shaped the destinies of millions of people in Britain, and millions more around the world. Cabinet usually meets once a week, though will occasionally meet much more often, especially during a political crisis.

Originally, Walpole used this room as a study, and the area where the pillars are, was his waiting room. In more recent times, Balfour also used this room as his study, as did Baldwin. Churchill liked to meet Cabinet here, but Downing Street was bomb damaged for much of the war, with business largely conducted in the secure Cabinet War Rooms.

Most Prime Ministers have worked in the Cabinet Room and several have used it as their main office, including Clement Attlee and John Major. However, others have felt less comfortable working there alone.

On 4 August 1914, after days of fraught Cabinet meetings, Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey, Lord Haldane, and Chancellor Lloyd George sat in the Cabinet Room waiting until the expiry of the British ultimatum to Germany. At 11pm, they could hear the chimes of Big Ben, and knew that Britain was at war.

Corinthian columns date to a 1796 restoration which enlarged the room, by combining it with another. There is a small collection of books, many donated by prime ministers, visitors and aides. This was once Number 10’s library, though the books were removed during the 1950s, leaving only a couple of small bookshelves.

Double doors at the end of the Cabinet Room lead to a small study that many Prime Ministers have used as their personal space.

Staircase

Leave the Cabinet Room. Now, the grand staircase takes us up to the State Rooms.

Move around the map to explore the Staircase

If you follow the stairs down, you will find an exit to the gardens and some of the ‘Garden Rooms’, where Number 10’s tireless staff toil.

Portraits of every prime minister line the main staircase in Number 10. These were a gift of Sir Edward Hamilton, Treasury Permanent Secretary in 1907. Briefly removed by Dorothy Macmillan during the 1950s, Harold Wilson restored the pictures and they remain to this day. Every portrait is black and white and they are all shuffled down when a new one is added.

The staircase has no visible supports – something that allowed Ramsay MacDonald’s daughter Sheila to slide down the banisters during the 1920s. She told anyone who challenged her that she was learning the Prime Ministers of England as their portraits went past. The lamps were not there at the time, because they were added during the renovation of the 1960s.

White Drawing Room

Move around the map to explore the White Drawing Room

This is the first of Downing Street’s three major state rooms. These state rooms were once the Prime Minister’s living areas. It was only during the late 1930s that a flat was built on the second floor for the Prime Minister, allowing them to vacate the state rooms. Stanley Baldwin was the last Prime Minister to live in the first floor rooms, and his successor, Neville Chamberlain, was the first to live in the Downing Street Flat.

During Churchill’s second ministry (1951-55), Clementine Churchill used these rooms as a residence, as did Dorothy Macmillan during the last months of Harold Macmillan’s premiership in 1963, but since then the State Rooms have been reserved for business.

Robert Walpole’s son, Horace, wrote on the 30 June 1742:
I am writing to you in one of the charming rooms towards the park: it is a delightful evening, and I am willing to enjoy this sweet corner while I may, for we are soon to quit it. Horace Walpole, 30 June 1742

The room was transformed during the 1980s redecorating by Quinlan Terry and is now a grand state room. The ceiling moulds have a three-dimensional floral design, featuring the rose of England, thistle of Scotland, daffodil for Wales, and shamrock for Northern Ireland. The small table is thought to have belonged to Robert Clive (an 18^th Century general), and the Waterford chandelier is similar to theone in the Terracotta Drawing Room. The furniture is mostly from the designs of famous 18^th Century furniture designer Thomas Chippendale.

It is the room where the unfortunate Lord Iddesleigh died in January 1887 after he collapsed on the stairs. Iddesleigh was one of only two men since 1721 to have been First Lord of the Treasury without ever being Prime Minister, and, when he died, he was visiting the other, William H. Smith (Arthur Balfour was also First Lord of the Treasury without being Prime Minister over 1891-92 and 1895-1902, but then became Prime Minister in his own right over 1902-05).

This room is often used for television broadcasts to the nation and interviews. Boris Johnson’s speech announcing a lockdown in March 2020 was made from this room (with the Terracotta Drawing Room in the background).

White State Drawing Room, 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London, England, UK — White State Drawing Room, 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London. Credit: Jeff Gilbert / Alamy Stock Photo

Terracotta Drawing Room

The Terracotta Drawing Room is another state room, and can be used for small meetings, discussions and interviews.

Move around the map to explore the Terracotta Drawing Room

This room was painted blue during the 1980s, and then green during the 1990s, and only took on its current appearance during the 2000s. A desk in the corner is believed to have belonged to Pitt the Younger, though it would have been a cramped fit for the famously tall Pitt.

Portraits of Britain’s paramount heroes of the Napoleonic Wars, Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington, hang above the doors. They appear to have been hung there during the Thatcher years. She proudly showed off the paintings to American Secretary of State Alexander Haig during the Falklands crisis, indicating that she intended to follow their victorious example.

The paintings commemorate the only time that Nelson and Wellington met, which was in 12 Downing Street on 12 September 1805, in an anteroom of the War and Colonial Office where they were awaiting a meeting with Lord Castlereagh. Wellington (then Major General Arthur Wellesley) later recalled “[Nelson] talked of the state of this country and of the aspect and probability of affairs on the Continent with good sense…in fact, he talked like an officer and a statesman’. Nelson was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar a few weeks later.

Belarusian human rights activist and politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya meets Prime Minister Boris Johnson inside 10 Downing Street in London. Picture date: Tuesday August 3, 2021. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo. Photographer: Dan Kitwood

The Pillared Room

The Pillared Room is the largest of the state rooms. As such, it is frequently used for events, political cabinets, and any large meeting of Number 10 staff.

Ionic columns decorate this room and give it its name. These date from the 1790s, during Pitt the Younger’s long tenure. The chandelier is the largest in the house and is made from cut glass. There is a pair of Chippendale mirrors in this room.

Historically, this room was used by Lord Palmerston and William Gladstone as a Cabinet Room. In 1930, John Logie Baird demonstrated the ‘wondrous miracle’ of television to Ramsay MacDonald in this room.

This is also a room decorated by large paintings. The artwork on Number 10’s walls comes from the National Gallery and the Government Art Service. It was Ramsay MacDonald, during the 1920s, who, having no art collection himself, began the tradition of borrowing art from the National Gallery. The art is chosen by a working group of art specialists, though it reflects the inclinations and instructions of the current Prime Minister.

Some say this room is haunted by the ghost of a woman in a taffeta dress, though others say they have seen a ghost in the nearby dining room. As usual with such matters, the story tends to have been heard from somebody else.

Move around the map to explore the Pillared Room

The State Dining Room

This is the largest and arguably the most impressive room in Number 10. It certainly hosts the most prestigious events with space for up to 65 guests to be seated.

Move around the map to explore the State Dining Room

This room was designed by the architect Sir John Soane during the 1820s. He chose a star vault pattern for the ceiling and created a large room by demolishing a wall. He added a central window, and the oak panelled sides.

This room is used for large state dinners for visiting world leaders and dignitaries. Winston Churchill dined with the new Queen here the night before announcing his retirement in 1955. This is where the 250^th anniversary dinner was celebrated in 1985 (when 6 Prime Ministers were present –Macmillan, Douglas-Home, Wilson, Heath, Callaghan, Thatcher). It is also where the Queen’s Golden Jubilee dinner took place in 2002 (this time with 5 Prime Ministers – Heath, Callaghan, Thatcher, Major, Blair), and where the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee dinner was celebrated in 2012 (attended by Major, Blair, Brown and Cameron).

This room is also used for the grand press conferences that are an increasingly common part of the Prime Minister’s schedule. In these circumstances, the table is cleared away (it is of telescopic design, so this can be easily done) and chairs are set out. The doors are always left open to allow the PM access, and often flags are placed (in the small dining room, which is also cleared) to provide a backdrop. The press briefings during the 2020-21 Coronavirus outbreak took place in this room.

Renovation of No. 10 Downing Street - London. The State Dining Room 1964 — Renovation of No. 10 Downing Street – London. The State Dining Room 1964. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Small Dining Room

Move around the map to explore the Small Dining Room

Once nothing more than a corridor and waiting area before entry into the State Dining Room, this was designed by Soane in 1826. The bust by the window is of Isaac Newton.

It was once known as the Breakfast Room and can be used for meals attended by up to 12 people. It is often used for smaller events, like meetings of the Prime Minister with key advisers and for more discrete meetings with world leaders. Before the building of the Downing Street flat, it would be used for dining by the Prime Minister’s family.

Downing Street Tour

The Black Door

The Entrance Hall

Cabinet Room

Staircase

White Drawing Room

Terracotta Drawing Room

The Pillared Room

The State Dining Room

Small Dining Room

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