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Number 10 Downing Street is the residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The headquarters of His Majesty's Government, it is situated on Downing Street in the City of Westminster in London, England.
Number 10 was originally three houses: a stately mansion overlooking St James's Park called "the house at the back" built around 1530, a modest townhouse behind it located at 10 Downing Street and a small cottage next to Number 10. The townhouse, from which the modern building gets its name, was one of several built by Sir George Downing between 1682 and 1684.
Below is a list of the residents of Number 10 and the House at the Back from 1650 to the present.
Residents of Number 10 Downing Street and The House at the Back, 1650–present
Prime Ministers are indicated in bold.
| Name of resident(s) | Offices(s) held while in residence (if any) | Year(s) in residence | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The House at the Back: Before 1733 | |||
| George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham | Member of the Cabal Ministry | 1673–1676 | |
| Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield | Master of the Horse | 1677–1690 | |
| Henry Nassau, Lord Overkirk (formerly Auverquerque) | Master of the Horse | 1690–1708 | |
| Frances Nassau, Lady Overkirk | Widow of Lord Overkirk | 1708–1720 | |
| Johann Caspar von Bothmar, Count Bothmar | Envoy from Hanover; advisor to George I and George II | 1720–1732 | |
| Number 10 Downing Street: Before 1733 | |||
| The Countess of Yarmouth | — | 1688–1690 | |
| Lord Lansdowne | — | 1692–1696 | |
| Henry Nassau, Lord Overkirk, 1st Earl of Grantham | Master of the Horse | 1699–1703 | |
| Number 10 Downing Street, including the House at the Back: 1735 and After | |||
| Between 1733 and 1735, the architect William Kent, under a commission from Sir Robert Walpole, combined Litchfield House and one of the Downing Street townhouses into one house, known since as Number 10 Downing Street, officially the residence of the First Lord of the Treasury. | |||
| Sir Robert Walpole | First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1735–1742 | |
| Samuel Sandys, later Baron Sandys | Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1742–1744 | |
| Earl of Lincoln | Prime Minister Henry Pelham's nephew and son-in-law | 1745–1753 | |
| Lewis Watson | Prime Minister Henry Pelham's son-in-law | 1753–1754 | |
| Henry Bilson-Legge | Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1754–1761 | |
| Thomas Pelham | Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty | 1762 | |
| Sir Francis Dashwood | Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1762–1763 | |
| George Grenville | First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1763–1765 | |
| William Dowdeswell | Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1765–1766 | |
| During 1766, Number 10 underwent extensive repairs and reconstruction. | |||
| Charles Townshend | Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1766–1767 | |
| Frederick North, Lord North | Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1767–1770 | |
| Frederick North, Lord North | First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1770–1782 | |
| Sir John Cavendish (doubtful) | Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1782 | |
| William Pitt the Younger | Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1782–1783 | |
| William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland | First Lord of the Treasury | 1783 | |
| During 1783, Number 10 again underwent extensive repairs and alterations. | |||
| William Pitt the Younger | First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1783–1801 | |
| Henry Addington | First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1801–1804 | |
| William Pitt the Younger | First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1804–1806 | |
| William Pitt lived in Number 10 for a total of twenty years, more than any Prime Minister before or since. This long residency helped to establish an association in the public mind between the house and the office. | |||
| William Wyndham Grenville, Lord Grenville | First Lord of the Treasury | 1806–1807 | |
| William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland | First Lord of the Treasury | 1807 | |
| Spencer Perceval | Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1807–1809 | |
| Spencer Perceval | First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1809–1812 | |
| Charles Arbuthnot | Joint Secretary to the Treasury | 1810 | |
| Nicholas Vansittart | Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1812–1823 | |
| Frederick John Robinson | Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1823–1827 | |
| George Canning | First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer | 1827–1828 | |
| F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich | First Lord of the Treasury | 1827–1828 | |
| Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington | First Lord of the Treasury | 1828–1830 | |
| For the first seven months of his ministry, Wellesley refused to live in Number 10 because he thought it too small. He moved in only because his home, Apsley House, required extensive repairs. He returned to Apsley House eighteen months later. | |||
| Earl of Bathurst | Lord President of the Council | 1830 | |
| Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey | First Lord of the Treasury | 1830–1834 | |
| Sir Thomas Fremantle | Secretary to Sir Robert Peel | 1835 | |
| The residential part of Number 10 was vacant for three years from 1835 to 1838 during the Melbourne Ministry. | |||
| The Hon William Cowper and G. E. Anson | Private secretaries to Lord Melbourne | 1838 | |
| G. E. Anson | Private secretary to Lord Melbourne | 1839–1840 | |
| Edward Drummond | Private secretary to Sir Robert Peel | 1842 | |
| Edward Drummond and W. H. Stephenson | Chief private secretary and junior private secretary to Sir Robert Peel | 1843 | |
| W. H. Stephenson and George Arbuthnot | Chief private secretary and junior private secretary to Sir Robert Peel | 1844–1846 | |
| George Keppel, Charles Grey, and R.W. Grey | Private secretaries to Lord John Russell | 1847 | |
| The residential part of Number 10 was vacant for the next thirty years and the house was used only for Cabinet meetings and office space. | |||
| In 1877, Disraeli ordered extensive repairs and redecorating of Number 10 so that he could live there, as did Gladstone during his 1880–85 ministry. From this time, every First Lord has lived in Number 10, although not all were also Prime Minister. | |||
| Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield | First Lord of the Treasury | 1877–1880 | |
| William Ewart Gladstone | First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer (April 1880 – December 1882) | 1880–1885 | |
| Sir Stafford Northcote | First Lord of the Treasury | 1885–1886 | |
| William Ewart Gladstone | First Lord of the Treasury | 1886 | |
| Lord Salisbury | First Lord of the Treasury | 1886–1887 | |
| Salisbury lived at his home at 20 Arlington Street in St James's in 1887–92 and 1895–1902. | |||
| William Henry Smith | First Lord of the Treasury | 1887–1891 | |
| Arthur Balfour | First Lord of the Treasury | 1891–1892 | |
| William Ewart Gladstone | First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Privy Seal | 1892–1894 | |
| Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery | First Lord of the Treasury, Lord President of the Council | 1894–1895 | |
| Arthur Balfour | First Lord of the Treasury, Leader of the House of Commons | 1895–1902 | |
| Since 1902, every Prime Minister has officially resided in Number 10 although several actually lived elsewhere as noted below. Also, since then, all have held the official legal office of First Lord of the Treasury; none have held the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer while PM as was often the case previously, with the exception of Stanley Baldwin between May and August 1923. | |||
| Arthur Balfour | First Lord of the Treasury | 1902–1905 | |
| Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman | First Lord of the Treasury | 1905–1907 | |
| H. H. Asquith | First Lord of the Treasury (and Secretary of State for War: January–August 1914) | 1907–1916 | |
| David Lloyd George | First Lord of the Treasury | 1916–1922 | |
| Bonar Law | First Lord of the Treasury | 1922–1923 | |
| Stanley Baldwin | First Lord of the Treasury (and Chancellor of the Exchequer: May–August 1923) | 1923–1924 | |
| Ramsay MacDonald | First Lord of the Treasury and Foreign Secretary | 1924 | |
| Stanley Baldwin | First Lord of the Treasury | 1924–1929 | |
| Ramsay MacDonald | First Lord of the Treasury | 1929–1935 | |
| Stanley Baldwin | First Lord of the Treasury | 1935–1937 | |
| Neville Chamberlain | First Lord of the Treasury | 1937–1940 | |
| Winston Churchill | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister of Defence | 1940–1945 | |
| For his safety, Churchill lived in the heavily bunkered Annex of Number 10 during most of the Second World War. However, he did insist on using Number 10 for work and dining. | |||
| Clement Attlee | First Lord of the Treasury | 1945–1951 | |
| Sir Winston Churchill | First Lord of the Treasury | 1951–1955 | |
| Sir Anthony Eden | First Lord of the Treasury | 1955–1956 | |
| Harold Macmillan | First Lord of the Treasury | 1957–1960 | |
| Macmillan lived in Admiralty House from 1960 to 1964 while Number 10 was restored. Completely gutted, and carefully dismantled, the house was then meticulously rebuilt on deep foundations using as much of the original materials as possible. | |||
| Sir Alec Douglas-Home | First Lord of the Treasury | 1964 | |
| Harold Wilson | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service | 1964–1970 | |
| Edward Heath | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service | 1970–1974 | |
| Harold Wilson | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service | 1974–1976 | |
| During his second ministry, Wilson maintained the public illusion of living in Number 10 even though he actually lived in his house at 5 Lord North Street in Westminster. | |||
| James Callaghan | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service | 1976–1979 | |
| Margaret Thatcher | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service | 1979–1990 | |
| John Major | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service | 1990–1997 | |
| In 1991, the Provisional IRA launched a mortar bomb at Number 10, blowing out windows and leaving a large crater in the back yard. Major vacated the house during repairs. | |||
| Tony Blair | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service | 1997–2007 | |
| Shortly after taking office in 1997, Blair agreed to swap apartments with his Chancellor, Gordon Brown, since the flat at Number 11 was larger and more suited to his larger family. Brown remained at Number 10 after he succeeded to the premiership in 2007, thus spending a full calendar decade, the 2000s, resident in the house, as Thatcher had done in the 1980s. | |||
| Gordon Brown | Chancellor of the Exchequer (1997–2007) First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service (2007–2010) |
2007–2010 | |
| David Cameron | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service | 2010–2016 | |
| Cameron agreed to swap apartments with his Chancellor, George Osborne, for similar reasons to Blair. | |||
| Theresa May | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service | 2016–2019 | |
| May chose to live in Number 11 while her Chancellor, Philip Hammond, resided at Number 10. | |||
| Boris Johnson | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Minister for the Union | 2019–2022 | |
| Prime Minister Boris Johnson lived in the flat above Number 11, while his first Chancellor Sajid Javid lived in Number 10. | |||
| Liz Truss | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Minister for the Union | 2022 | |
| Rishi Sunak | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Minister for the Union | 2022–2024 | |
| In a break with recent tradition, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak moved into the Number 10 flat where he previously resided as Chancellor, while his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt moved into the Number 11 flat. | |||
| Keir Starmer | First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Minister for the Union | 2024–present | |
| Starmer chose to live in the flat above Number 11 while his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, resided at Number 10. | |||
See also
References
- Minney, pages 441–43. This chart was adapted from Minney and updated.
- "Brown to stay put at No 10". BBC News. 7 January 2000. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
- ^ "Goodbye from him: Brown moves out of Number 10". The Independent. 23 October 2011.
- ^ McCann, Kate (19 July 2016). "Theresa May to move into Downing Street this week after giving David Cameron extra time to leave". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
- Buchan, Lizzy (29 July 2019). "Boris Johnson to move into bigger Downing Street home with girlfriend, leaving Sajid Javid and four children smaller flat at No 10". The Independent.
- Martin, Daniel (26 October 2022). "Rishi Sunak to move back to Number 10". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- "Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament". questions-statements.parliament.uk. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
Further reading
- Minney, R.J. (1963). No. 10 Downing Street: A House in History. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.