Downing Street

About Downing Street

Street in London, England

Downing Street is London's most famous street, a gated cul-de-sac in Westminster running 200 metres off Whitehall, a few minutes' walk from the Houses of Parliament, housing the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was developed by Sir George Downing in the 1680s, and in 1732 George II gave Number 10 to Sir Robert Walpole, the first prime minister in the modern sense; for more than three hundred years it has been the residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, the office now synonymous with the premiership, while the Chancellor lives at Number 11 and the government's Chief Whip has an official residence at Number 12. Over time government offices came to occupy most of the street's townhouses; the houses on the south side were demolished in the 19th century to make way for government buildings now occupied by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the Cabinet Office faces the street from the Whitehall side. Numbers 10 and 11 were rebuilt in the 1960s behind their old facades. "Downing Street" has become a metonym for the Prime Minister and the British government in general. The street has been closed to the public since the 1980s for security reasons, so visitors look through the black iron gates from Whitehall towards the famous black door of Number 10 and the police officers standing before it.

Where:

London, United Kingdom