Inside Number Ten: A guided tour of Brown's new home

Inside Number Ten: A guided tour
Published: 28 June 2007
Independent UK

Built by a spy, bombed by the Luftwaffe, and mortared by the IRA, the Prime Minister's home boasts as colourful a history as the statesmen who've occupied it. As Gordon Brown moves in, Colin Brown peers through No 10's famous letterbox

Gordon and his wife Sarah finally have the keys to Number Ten Gordon Brown entered 10 Downing Street yesterday, fulfiling an ambition that has been burning in his soul for more than a decade. But the outgoing prime minister Tony Blair has questioned whether Number 10 is in any way fit to serve as the headquarters of a modern head of state.

There are around 200 staff employed in the Downing Street complex, and most gathered to bid Tony Blair farewell yesterday. But the majority are forced to work apart in small rooms and on different floors as there are no large open-plan offices in the building.

If ever a television series was made of life in Number 10, it would need a very different set from that of the West Wing. There policy advisers stride through hi-tech offices; here it's more like trying to run a government in a stately home, with key players having to run upstairs and downstairs. Unlike the White House, which has a separate residence, the flat above Downing Street always keeps open the prospect that the "First Lady" might be caught in her nightie at the front door.

The elegant town house is tucked down a side street off Whitehall and widely judged by those who work inside it to be too cramped to house a modern government. It was built in the 17th century by Sir George Downing as a bit of speculative enterprise on a patch of land given to him by Charles II as a reward for his services. Downing, an exchequer official, was a nasty piece of work - one of his clerks, Samuel Pepys, confided to his diary that his boss was a "perfidious rogue".

Born in Ireland but brought up in New England, Downing, then a preacher, sailed to Britain to join the parliamentary cause against Charles I, and went on to become Oliver Cromwell's chief of intelligence under the title Scoutmaster General. Using his close contacts with Cromwell, under his protectorate, in 1654, Downing obtained the Crown interest in the land near St James's Park, which had been part of Henry VIII's Palace of Whitehall.

Downing was later was sent as an ambassador by Cromwell to the Hague to spy on the exiled Royal Family, who were plotting the restoration of the monarchy. But with the death of Cromwell and the failure of his son Richard to secure his succession, Downing changed sides.

He betrayed three allies, Corbet, Okey and Barkstead, who were brought back to England from Holland and executed for their part in the death of Charles I. Having renounced the principles of independence that he "sucked in" in America, Downing was rewarded at the Restoration by Charles II with a baronetcy and set about making his fortune with speculative building at Whitehall.

Downing demolished a fine Tudor house on the site and built a cul-de-sac of 15 to 20 terraced houses in its place. They were designed cheaply for a quick profit but they had poor foundations for the boggy ground, and instead of neat brick façades had mortar lines drawn on to look like bricks. No 10 was numbered five in his scheme, and overlooked at the back a much finer house that was owned by Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield, the illegitimate daughter of Charles II and one of his celebrated mistresses, Barbara Villiers.

In the first recorded case of Nimbyism, the countess complained to the king about the new building overlooking her home, and he wrote back with a note for the King's Surveyor, Christopher Wren, to build up the wall "as high as you please".

The first steps towards modern cabinet government were taken in Whitehal in the 18th century, with the creation of the party system by the Tories and the Whigs. Sir Robert Walpole became the first Prime Minister under the title of First Lord of the Treasury, which is still on the famous brass letter box at No 10 today.

Walpole, a Whig, was a giant of a man, with an avarice and large houses in Norfolk and Surrey to match. But when George II offered him the small town house in Downing Street as a personal gift to use as his London home, he refused, saying he would only accept it if it were taken as a gift to the nation for use by his successors. The king agreed, and Walpole moved in.

Walpole realised that the house on Downing Street was too small, and commissioned his architect William Kent to merge it with the house at the back that overlooked Horse Guards Parade. Kent, a follower of the Palladian fashion who had designed the interiors for Walpole's house, Houghton Hall, in Norfolk, was already working on the first Treasury building for Walpole - now the Cabinet Office - at 70 Whitehall. Kent connected the two houses and future world leaders may have enjoyed a grander spectacle were he to have kept the entrance on Horse Guards, but he opted instead for the pokier entrance on Downing Street that we see today. Walpole took up residence in 1735 and it has been in use by successive prime ministers ever since.

No 10 became little more than a discreet entrance hall to the complex, with the Walpoles living in the rooms in the house at the back overlooking Horse Guards Parade. Lady Walpole used the White Drawing Room - which Tony Blair says is his favourite - as her sitting room and the Terracotta Room as the dining room. Pitt and Grey both enjoyed living at No 10 but Lord Melbourne and Sir Robert Peel both had their own houses nearby (Melbourne's was at Dover House, which is now the Scottish Office) and only used Downing Street during business hours.

The street became squalid and run down. In the Victorian era the old Colonial Office at No 14 was replaced by the Foreign Office building, and No 10 (by now connected to No ll) was overshadowed but remained the Prime Minister's official London residence. Its work, however, increased, and offices overlooking the garden were taken over for secretaries, known as the "garden girls".

The Georgian town house survived a near direct hit during the Second World War. Winston Churchill was there at the time and was forced to evacuate his Cabinet to a bunker under the Treasury, now known as the Cabinet War Rooms, for the remainder of the conflict.

Harold Macmillan introduced the bow-shaped Cabinet table to keep eye-contact during meetings, and the 23 chairs that Gladstone's Cabinet would have sat in are still in use today. Serious damage was done to the building by an IRA mortar attack on 7 February 1991, when John Major was holding a Cabinet meeting. His team dived under the table for protection as the blast blew out the windows, and although no one was injured the Cabinet had to decamp to Admiralty House while restoration work was carried out.

The attack exposed the vulnerability of Downing Street. The "Thatcher Gates" at the end of the street were already in place but new, secret work was carried out to make No 10 more secure, including the replacement of the famous front door with a blastproof steel replica.

Edward Heath and Lady Thatcher both liked to "live above the shop" , and the Blairs famously moved into the larger flat above No 11 after selling their Islington home, leaving Gordon Brown with the smaller flat over No 10. The flat above No 11 has a large, comfortable living room where the Blairs would try to tidy up Leo's toys when he was a baby, but VIP visitors were likely to find themselves tripping over building blocks and bits of Lego when seeing the Prime Minister. It was reserved as the Blairs' private place, which Cherie jealously guarded, and only a few visitors were allowed a peep inside. But there are bedrooms overlooking Horse Guards Parade and St James's Park that often echo to sound of the guards practising for the Trooping the Colour.

It is the domesticity of Downing Street that has jarred with its role as the nerve centre of government. Alongside the homeliness it bristles with hi-tech equipment, which includes a transatlantic video link to the President of the United States in the basement, where the lobby journalists used to be briefed.

Unlike the Kremlin or the White House, 10 Downing Street was never designed as a headquarters of state. The haphazard layout of the rooms means that members of the policy unit are housed in small offices on the first floor, while the Prime Minister prefers to work next to the pillared Cabinet Room in his study, with its sofa made famous in the Butler report. In recent years, it has seen the secret negotiations that led to the peace deal in Northern Ireland, the advent of Cool Britannia with receptions for celebrities such as Noel Gallagher, state visits by world leaders including President George W Bush, and the declaration of war against Iraq.

The limitations of the residence as a working environment were given away in a short documentary for the Downing Street website in which Blair was interviewed by the historian Simon Schama, the author of the television series, A History of Britain.

"I think I am right in saying that Gladstone would do his own correspondence from time to time - he might have had a few secretaries to help him. But the concept would be completely alien to him of having a couple of hundred people [in Downing Street]," says Blair. " However, that is the modern business of being a prime minister. Therefore, the trouble is that Downing Street at the moment is perched a little uneasily between being the formal, state, visible outward expression of Britain and the place where you receive people, and a functioning workplace."

The press team, who will work under Mike Ellam now Gordon Brown has taken charge, are based in the former chief whip's headquarters at No 12. The house at the end of Downing Street contains the only open-plan office space available, and was taken over when Alastair Campbell was director of communications. Mr Blair's closest advisers, including his chief of staff Jonathan Powell and gatekeeper Ruth Turner, occupied small offices next to the prime minister's "den", which is through the double doors from the Cabinet Room. Their replacements, Tom Scholar and Sue Nye, may find the offices cramped after moving from the refurbished Treasury building.

Brown's spokesman has confirmed that he will use the den as his private office, although the eventual occupants of the flat above No 10 will depend on who takes over at the Treasury. The Downing Street policy unit is upstairs at No 10 on different levels, with more key advisers in other rooms on the first floor.

Criticism of the security of No 10 by President Bush's secret service agencies prior to his visit in November 2003 led to a reappraisal of the building as the centre of government. Secret plans were drawn up for a £30m upgrade of Downing Street with a tunnel across to St James's Park, where a new secure entrance would be created for staff and deliveries. The survey found that offices at No 10 were "overcrowded", lighting was " poor", air-conditioning non-existent and that there were sewage smells from the drains. One central complaint by the CIA was that everyone, from heads of state to delivery vans, had to use the same entrance to the street itself. The redevelopment would create an office in Downing Street "in keeping with the head of government" and capable of turning it into a White House-style "world stage".

One Downing Street insider said that the plans were shelved due to cost. " No 10 is just not fit for purpose," he said. "Someday, someone will have to do something about it. The offices are too small, there are health and safety issues, and it no longer serves as it should. But I don't think Gordon is going to put it on his agenda." Lance Price, a former No 10 aide, added: "I always thought it was completely incredible that the government is run from what was a private house in Downing Street. It is an extraordinary anachronism that the British Prime Minister in the 21st Century should work from this building simply out of tradition."

However, a solution is emerging from within the Brown camp who have been giving urgent thought to their attempt to modernise the Government. One senior ally of Brown said: "You will find that the core of Gordon's team will be housed in the Cabinet Office. You may see No 10 used mainly for official engagements, but the main work will go on in Whitehall."

Brown is used to working in a small office at the Treasury - characteristically, he turned down the biggest office, which chancellors have used in the past - but he did oversee the complete modernisation of the Treasury building. The thinking in the Brown camp now is that No 10 will remain as the official residence, but the Cabinet Office, which is linked by an underground passage that follows the line of Henry VIII's Cockpit Passage, should become the setting for more of the day-to-day business of the Prime Minister.

History's Acre, A History of Whitehall from Wolsey to Brown by Colin Brown will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2008

1. Door

It is probably the most famous door in the world. The original was placed in the Churchill Museum at the Cabinet War Rooms after the IRA mortar attack on the Major government in 1991. The new one is steel, and blast-proof. But, according to officials, it is regularly removed for refurbishment and replaced with a replica. It is so heavy that it takes eight men to lift it. The brass letterbox still bears the legend "First Lord of the Treasury" , the title every Prime Minister has carried since the first PM, Sir Robert Walpole. The building was gutted and restored at a cost of £1m in the 1960s after a structural survey found it was unsafe.

2. Entrance hall

There are no keys to the famous door, but security staff are on duty round the clock to open it. The hall is famous these days for the sequence in Love Actually where Hugh Grant meets the staff, including the tea-girl with whom he falls in love. There is a portrait of Sir George Downing over the mantelpiece. He built the street as a piece of speculative enterprise.

HOODED CHAIR

The Chippendale-designed porter's chair once used when men sat on watch in the street has a drawer beneath the seat where hot coals were placed to keep the guards warm. The scratches on the leather were caused by their pistols. There is also a fine travelling chest used by the Duke of Wellington. Most visitors are told to leave their mobile phones in the entrance hall.

3. Grandfather clock

The clock, by Benson of Whitehaven, sits to the left of the hooded chair in the hall. Its chimes irritated Winston Churchill so much that he had the musical machinery turned off. It is back in full working order for Gordon Brown's arrival.

4. The Cabinet Room

The pillared Cabinet Room is the nearest that Downing Street comes to the Oval Office at the White House, where the President has his private office. There is no permanent room set aside for the Prime Minister.

THE CABINET TABLE

The oval table was introduced by Harold Macmillan and Tony Blair said it allows him to see "odd expressions" among his ministers during debates. The chairs were used by Gladstone's Cabinet and a portrait of Walpole, the first Prime Minister, looks down from the chimney breast.

At 10am on 7 February 1991, an IRA unit fired three mortars at Downing Street from a white van parked by the Banqueting House. Only one exploded, but the Cabinet Room took the full force of the blast. John Major was chairing a meeting of the War Cabinet. They dived for cover under the Cabinet table. He said later: "We waited there a moment until the aftershock and then we got up and... I said, 'I think we had better start again, somewhere else.'"

The CIA secretly complained at the poor security surrounding Downing Street when President George W Bush was due to visit in 2003. Blair commissioned a report which recommended "Project George" costing £30m to bring security up to date. It included an underground passage to St James's Park, with a new more secure entrance for staff and deliveries, but was eventually shelved because of the cost.

5. The study

There is no dedicated room for the Prime Minister like the Oval Office for the President at the White House. Gordon Brown will have to decide where he likes to work. Lady Thatcher used a room on the first floor as her study. John Major worked at the Cabinet table. Tony Blair used a small study off the Cabinet Room as his "den". It has a desk, computer, and two sofas. Key decisions were informally taken here, but Lord Butler later criticised Blair's "sofa" government.

6. Grand Staircase

Many famous feet have trodden this impressive staircase on the way to the state rooms. It was added to the house by William Kent in the 1730s, when it was joined with a grander house at the back, overlooking Horse Guards Parade, for Robert Walpole. Portraits of former prime ministers line the walls - including Tony Blair. Churchill is the only one to have two portraits here.

7. The White Room

Tony Blair's favourite room and used as a private retreat by prime ministers until the 1940s. It was used by Sir Edward Heath to relax while playing his grand piano. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman died in the room. Pottery includes a Bloor Derby figure of the 18th-century actor David Garrick as Richard III. There is also a bronze statuette of Florence Nightingale, which is a reduced version of the Crimean Memorial in Waterloo Place.

8. Thatcher memento

A straw-carrying thatcher was carved into in the plasterwork of the room now painted in a terracotta colour, as a lasting memorial to Lady Thatcher after she commissioned a new ceiling to restore it to its former glory. The thatcher figure is near the door to the Pillared Room.

9. Pillared Room

The largest of the three state rooms is used when international agreements are being signed, or for receptions. This is where the England Rugby Union team were entertained after winning the World Cup in 2003. John Logie Baird used it to demonstrate one of his new-fangled televisions to Ramsey MacDonald.

GHOST

The Pillared Room is said to be haunted. Several staff in No 10 report having seen or heard a woman in a long dress and pearls.

CHAIRS

The chairs were designed by William Kent, who also redesigned the building for Walpole, and date from the 18th century.

10. Desk

In a corner of the Terracotta Room is William Pitt the Younger's desk. It is almost 200 years old and delicate, but has seen grave history. Asquith wrote to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany from this desk before the First World War and Chamberlain penned a letter to Hitler from here in his attempt at appeasement with the Nazis before the Second World War.

11. Small Dining Room

The Small Dining Room, or Breakfast Room, was used by prime ministers and their families for their meals until the flat upstairs was renovated. There is a kitchen next door. This was a favourite room of Lloyd George, and is used for intimate dinners of up to 12 people. A silver and enamel clock over the mantelpiece is controlled by a radio receiver linked to the National Physical Laboratory's transmitter at Rugby, which broadcasts the national time.

12. State Dining Room

The panelled State Dining Room is usually laid for banquets for foreign leaders hosted by the Prime Minister. Celebrity chefs such as Nigella Lawson have cooked in the small kitchen next door. The room was used by Tony Blair for his monthly press conferences, and has become the one most familiar to the public. He would enter through the Small Dining Room.

13. The flat

Prime ministers traditionally live with their families in Downing Street in the private flat on the second floor. The Blairs lived in the larger flat above Nos 11 and 12, which had more room for their extended family. Margaret Thatcher described it as "living above the shop" and reputedly did her own decorating. Gordon Brown owns a small private flat in Great Smith Street and preferred that to the flat over No 10, but the Browns will now be able to claim the larger flat over No 11.

14. The garden

John Major announced his resignation, to fight a leadership contest, in the rose garden. Tony Blair says that, when the sun shines, he prefers to work there. Photographs are traditionally taken of Cabinets and prime ministers with their staff in it: last week, Blair posed for "farewell" pictures with the special advisers to ministers and the No 10 secretaries there. In recent years, it has been used by the Blair family - Leo had a blue trampoline in the garden. The secretaries whose offices overlook the small lawned area were known as the "garden girls" by Churchill.