Few people have access to what lies behind the famous black door. Downing Street has served as the official workplace and residence of the British prime minister since the time of Robert Walpole in the eighteen century. Gathering outside the gates in preparation for the visit, Professor Jon Davis OBE reminds us how few are granted such an honour. Most of us hope to one day return, perhaps as civil servants, special advisors, or even as government ministers.
Laptops away. Belts off. Bags through the scanner. Security is tight, though this is unsurprising given that we are entering the heart of British government. After passing through the checkpoint, we walk up towards Number 10. Camera angles often make the street appear far longer than it actually is. Customary photographs are taken on the Prime Minister’s porch, and some even take the opportunity to wave at a sea of imaginary cameras. The door to Number 10 opens and we file in, quickly depositing our phones into small wooden slots. No photos may be taken, no recordings made, and no exceptions granted. From that point onward, the experience is entirely analogue.
Stepping inside immediately brings a sense of political theatre layered over centuries of history. Prime ministers including Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair have walked these corridors. It is quietly surreal: part private home, part centre of government. Splitting into two groups we take the back stairs upwards, passing office doors behind which the business of government continues. The first room we are shown is one of many antechambers. While such spaces are common in Number 10 and other official residences, this one is notable for housing small fragments of the Moon’s surface. Elsewhere, a door leads to the private study of the prime minister. Another staircase leads up to the flat where the Starmer family lives.
Our group were then shown to the White Drawing Room, complete with ornate ceiling carvings depicting the national flowers of the four nations of the United Kingdom, which we were told was commissioned during Thatcher’s premiership. Accustomed to National Trust properties, where sitting on the furniture is usually discouraged, we were all surprised to be allowed to sit in comfortable armchairs that have hosted presidents, prime ministers, and monarchs from across the world. This is a working building, the centre of a modern government. Sitting there it was hard not to feel the weight (or hand!) of history upon us. Our guide explained how the room had been damaged by an IRA mortar attack which attempted to assassinate John Major and his Cabinet in 1991. It felt as though the building itself embodied the infamous British “stiff upper lip”, having survived terror attacks, world wars and turbulent premierships.
The next few rooms were much less recognisable, but no less grand. All afforded views over the rose garden and Horse Guards Parade beyond, one of which contained a London 2012 Olympic Torch and several gold medals. This particular parlour, complete with white pillars and polished wooden floors, is used for the official photograph of each British Cabinet. By this point we had become aware of the remarkable number of false doors, created only for the purposes of symmetry, an example of form over function within the very halls of power.
After passing through another small chamber, we entered a large dining room. This space is used to host foreign dignitaries and was where Queen Elizabeth II had dinner with her surviving prime ministers in 2002, hosted by then premier Tony Blair. Standing there produced a strange moment of recognition; we quickly learnt that it had doubled as the backdrop for Downing Street’s COVID-19 briefings. It was hard not to feel humbled. After descending a couple of floors using the main staircase, complete with pictures of each prime minister, we spotted a brown leather armchair that once belonged to Churchill. This is the only seat in the house that no one, not even the prime minister, is permitted to use.
Down the hallway we waited for a meeting to finish in the Cabinet Room while Larry, the Downing Street cat, lay curled beside a nearby radiator with the quiet authority of someone who clearly understands that he outranks all the humans present. As a staffer lets our guide know the meeting has ended, the door to the Cabinet Room opened and we briefly saw Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer passing through, accompanied by an advisor. They were deep in conversation – another reminder that this building is a functioning nerve centre.
Inside the Cabinet Room, the green coffin-shaped table – designed to allow the premier to see their whole Cabinet – was instantly recognisable. Our guide explains where the most senior members of the Cabinet sit, including the only chair in the room with arms, which is for the prime minister. Large bookcases stand at one end of the room, complete with weighty tomes and a set of Jane Austen novels – presumably first editions. Among the expected volumes of political biographies sits the more recently published Diddly Squat by Jeremy Clarkson, reportedly left by Boris Johnson.
Leaving Number 10 there was a feeling of awe amongst the group, having just spent an hour walking the corridors of arguably the most storied address in the country. While history is certainly dynamic, the importance of this place remains clear, and its impression on our group was unmistakable.