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Monday 24 November 2025

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10 thing you didn’t know about a famous political property

The controversy surrounding renovations to the US Presidential White House has got us thinking about the history of other global seats of power.

Published November 24, 2025 2 min read
Number 10 Downing Street as seen through the lens of a television camera waiting outside the office and residence of Britain’s Prime Minister.
By RICHARD CUNNINGHAM

THE arrival of wrecking crews at Washington’s White House have underscored the solidity of another great seat of power: 10 Downing Street.

While the British PM’s London residence has also been repaired and remodelled, and indeed bombed a couple of times, it is largely unchanged in 300 years.

Built in the 1680’s and home to British leaders since 1735, Number 10 is much larger than it appears from the street.

Behind that famous front door, it extends westward into Numbers 11 and 12, with some 100 rooms and 200 staff.

Here are 10 other things you might not know about Number 10:

  1. The glossy front door is not wood but blast-proof steel, a precaution taken after an IRA mortar bomb was lobbed from Whitehall into the rear garden in 1991.
  2. The “0” in the 10 painted on the new door is slightly askew, at a 37-degree angle to the left. It’s a nod to a badly affixed zero on the original oak door.
  3. The door cannot be opened from the outside. There is no keyhole. The door is managed by a custodian inside who observes visitors on CCTV.
  4. The brass letterbox and black iron knocker are inoperable. The letterbox is inscribed “First Lord of the Treasury” which was the original role of the Prime Minister.
  5. The dark brickwork was originally yellow, typical of London brickwork, but became discoloured by pollution. It’s now been uniformly painted black.
  6. Downing Street was built in 1682-84 by spy and speculator George (later Sir George) Downing, with the houses designed by Christopher Wren.
  7. They were cheaply built on shallow foundations, Winston Churchill remarking that Number 10 was “shaky and lightly built by the profiteering contractor whose name they bear.” Millions have been spent on structural upgrades.
  8. Churchill was dining in the Garden Rooms on 14 October 1940 when a German bomb fell nearby, damaging the kitchen and state rooms and killing three Home Guards.
  9. Prime Ministers since Tony Blair (PM from 1997-2007) have lived in a flat upstairs at Number 11. It’s more spacious than one above Number 10.
  10. Another famous resident is Larry the Cat, whose official title is Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office. He was a Wandsworth stay adopted in 2011.

Perhaps of interest to conveyancers, there is no “title deed” for 10 Downing because the property is not privately owned; it is held in trust by the Crown and managed by the government.

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