More modern inside with a lot of offices and rather formal meeting rooms. We passed by it while on our Rick Steves walk to Trafalgar Square.Downing Street is a side road along Whitehall. The Grenadier Guards held off a large mob, a situation that might have ended with bloodshed had North not gone outside to warn the protestors of the dangers of being shot, following which the crowd dispersed. At the back of the house, where the Walpoles lived, Kent created grand new rooms suitable for receiving important guests, and built an unusual, 3-sided staircase.

After Andrew Bonar Law refused to form a government, David Lloyd George became leader of the coalition and Prime Minister on 7 December 1916.Under Prime Minister Lloyd George the number of staff at Number 10 expanded and offices spilled out into the garden to cope with the demands of the administration of the war.Lloyd George immediately formed his ‘War Cabinet’, whose members included Lord Curzon, Bonar Law and Arthur Henderson. Steel reinforcement was added to the Garden Rooms, and heavy metal shutters were fixed over windows as protection from bombing raids. Today's Downing Street is located on the edge of the Palace site.The huge residence included tennis courts, a tiltyard for jousting, a bowling green, and a cockpit for bird fights.

Asquith had been forced to take on the additional role of Secretary of State for War following the resignation of the incumbent in March 1914, but quickly appointed Lord Kitchener following the outbreak of war.On 15 April 1916, Number 10 was the site of a meeting between General Haig, Commander-in-Chief of British forces in France, and the Cabinet to go over the detail of the planned Somme offensive, later known as the Battle of the Somme.During a Cabinet split on 25 May 1915 (caused by public outcry at allegations the army had been under-supplied with shells and the failed offensive in the Dardanelles, for which Kitchener and Churchill respectively were blamed), Kitchener was stripped of his control over munitions and strategy, and Churchill lost his post as First Lord of the Admiralty.

You can't actually get that close to the No. Rainwater harvesting was introduced in 2009, providing a sustainable source of water for the garden.

She couldn’t sleep because she wanted to be ready in case anything happened.She wanted to be able to go to any briefings with the naval commanders at any time without the fuss and bother of having to get dressed.

It is unfortunate that he was such an unpleasant man. In reality, though, the steel reinforcement would not have protected him against a direct hit.In October 1939, the Cabinet had moved out of Number 10 and into secret underground war rooms in the basement of the Office of Works opposite the Foreign Office, today's Following near misses by bombs, in 1940, Churchill and his wife moved out of Downing Street and into the Number 10 Annex above the war rooms. Churchill was dining in the Garden Rooms when the air raid began.

He was very fond of the house and often entertained there. Balfour was the first inhabitant of Number 10 to bring a motor car to Downing Street.Over the years, more and more changes and improvements were made to the house. 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. An IRA mortar bomb was fired from a white transit van in Whitehall and exploded in the garden of Number 10, only a few metres away from where Prime Minister John Major (1990 to 1997) was chairing a Cabinet meeting to discuss the Gulf War.Although no one was killed, it left a crater in the Number 10 gardens and blew in the windows of neighbouring houses. 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 were directed from within it, as were the key decisions about the end of the empire, the building of the British nuclear bomb, the handling of economic crises from the Great Depression in 1929 to the great recession, and the building up of the welfare state.Some of the most famous political figures of modern history have lived and worked in Number 10, including Robert Walpole, Pitt the Younger, Benjamin Disraeli, William Gladstone, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.Number 10 has 3 overlapping functions.

Missing a proper library (or at least, one containing more than just Hansard reports), MacDonald set about creating one. During his occupancy in 1884, electric lighting was fitted and the first telephones were installed.The Marquess of Salisbury, who succeeded Gladstone on one occasion, was the last Prime Minister not to live at Number 10. The Garden Rooms included a small dining room, bedroom and a meeting area which were used by Churchill throughout the war. She also wanted to know everything that was happening, every single detail, so she could keep on top of events.

You can only get about a block from the famous black door and that vision is blocked by a gate.

That idea was rejected and it was decided that Number 12 should be rebuilt, and Numbers 10 and 11 should be strengthened and their historic features preserved.The architect Raymond Erith was selected to supervise the work, which was expected to take 2 years and cost £500,000. Also, the street is guarded, so it is very easy to identify.Centrally located hostel with a historic facade.

10 Downing Street is essentially London’s White House, and has been the official address for …

The kitchen in Number 10 Downing Street is lofty and spacious, and looks out through a large plate-glass window about 25 feet high.

I'd tell the Downing Street switchboard to wake me when she was on her way back so I could be ready for work.

It was awful when we heard any reports of our ships being hit. We’ll send you a link to a feedback form. Even George VI sought shelter there when he dined with Churchill in the Garden Rooms.

Several loud explosions occurred around us at no great distance, and presently a bomb fell, perhaps a hundred yards away, on the Horse Guards Parade, making a great deal of noise.Suddenly I had a providential impulse.