Downing Street
The Downing Street [ daʊnɪŋstɹiːt ] is a street in central London , the official official and residences are located in the business for over two hundred years ago by two of the most important British government members - the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer . The most famous number on Downing Street is number 10 . The official residence of the first lord of the treasury and thus also of the prime minister is located here, as both offices are held by one and the same person. As a result, “Downing Street” or “Number 10” is often used as an abbreviation for the Prime Minister or his official seat, while “Number 11” is also used to denote the Chancellor of the Exchequer or his official seat.
Downing Street is a side street off Whitehall in central London, just a few steps from the Houses of Parliament and runs towards Buckingham Palace . The street was built by Sir George Downing , 1st Baronet (1632–1689), and therefore bears his name. Downing was a soldier and diplomat who served under Oliver Cromwell and King Charles II . In recognition of his services, King Charles II rewarded him with a piece of land adjacent to St. James's Park, which is now Downing Street. Both the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the leader of the ruling party officially live on the same side of the street. The buildings on the other hand were replaced by the Foreign Office buildings in the 19th century . In the 1950s and 1960s, consideration was given to demolishing both the Foreign Office and the rest of Downing Street and building something more modern. However, these plans were never implemented and are no longer being pursued.
Downing Street houses
9 Downing Street has served as access to the Privy Council Office since 2001 and is currently home to both the parliamentary group leader's office and the Department for Exiting the European Union .
10 Downing Street is the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury , whose office has been exercised by the Prime Minister without exception since 1735.
11 Downing Street has been the home of the Second Lord of the Treasury since 1828 .
12 Downing Street , the former seat of the parliamentary group leader, currently houses the Prime Minister's press office, as well as the marketing and communications office.
Since the existence of these houses, the ministers have been living by mutual agreement in the houses that best meet their needs. For example, number 11 is sometimes not inhabited by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but by the cabinet member who was designated as the Deputy Prime Minister; whether it accepts this title is not important. This practice was particularly common in coalition governments. Sometimes the ministers only use the living space they have made available for official occasions and live in other places.
During his tenure, which began in 1881, William Gladstone claimed the apartments at numbers 10, 11 and 12 for himself and his family. That was appropriate since he was both Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister at the time.
After the general election in 1997 , in which the Labor Party took over government, the two incumbents moved because the married Tony Blair still had three children living at home, while his colleague Gordon Brown was unmarried when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer took over. Although number 10 continued to be the prime minister's official residence and office, Blair and his family moved to the more spacious number 11, while Brown lived in the smaller apartment at number 10.
The houses 10, 11 and 12 are connected to each other on several floors by wall openings, so that they can be viewed more as a building complex. The plots of the three buildings also form a single garden without partitions at the rear.
The prime minister's actual private living quarters, provided they are used for these purposes, are located in the sloping roof of the 4th floor, which was expanded during a major renovation in the 1960s. Before that, the prime ministers used the garden-side rooms on the first floor for residential purposes. Today these are used for representation and guest reception.
The gates to Downing Street
In 1986, large black steel gates were erected at the entrance to Downing Street to protect then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from IRA terrorist attacks . Before that, the public was able to use Downing Street as a shortcut to St. James's Park. The foundations of the gates were further strengthened in 2003.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 11 " N , 0 ° 7 ′ 37" W.