The PM’s house is actually a lot bigger than it looks from the outside. The PM also has other properties in the country, and does not necessarily spend their time at no 10 (remember the PM is also an MP for a constituency). I went to school with John Major’s kids, and they lived at their original home. They also have large properties such as Chequers (a large country house) to relax in at weekends.
Also, Cecil notes that having even and odd house numbering on opposite sides of the street is a purely-American thing, and we don’t do that in Britain. That’s basically wrong. Although there are exceptions, the norm is odd on one side, even on the other.
Since this is a comment on Cecil’s column, and not a comment on a Mailbag Answer, I am closing it here and transferring it to the forum called “Comments on Cecil’s Columns.”
I’d have to say that I think it’s soopa cool that other top UK officials have official residences, and that they are close to one another. Cecil mentions two: the Chancellor at No. 11, and the Chief Whip, at No. 12, but I thought I heard something about the Foreign Secretary also having an official residence. I don’t think anybody other than the President’s family has ever lived in the White House, though there are rumors that a crazed Marine officer sometimes crashes in the basement. Then there’s the Vice President, who lives at the Naval Observatory, which isn’t very close to the White House. Not close enough for the President’s daughter’s saxophone practice to disturb the VP’s family, which isn’t close enough. I like to think that the PM sometimes goes over to the Chief Whip’s place and borrows a cup of sugar now and then.
While we’re on the subject, I heard that the current PM, Tony Blair, actually lives at No. 11 (the official residency of the Chancellor of the Exchequer), since it’s a larger place and he’s got a big family.
Any Brits (or Anglophiles) out there who can say yea or nay to this rumor?
I’m your only friend
I’m not your only friend
But I’m a little glowing friend
But really I’m not actually your friend
But I am
Short answer: a certain yes, the current British PM lives at #11 Downing Street.
Long answer:
A day or so after winning the election (British PMs are chosen by Parliament, not directly elected, and take power immediately) the Blair family announced they would live in the larger flat above No. 11 (Chancellor of the Exchequer’s place), with the bachelor Chancellor of the Exchequer ( = Finance Minister) living in the small flat at the top of No. 10. It is rare for a serving Prime Minister to have young or teenage children.
The Blairs are quite strong on the privacy of their children, and I can’t even remember whether they had two or three children before their change baby, Leo, was born a few months ago. (Presumably the only child born to a serving Prime Minister this century.) I’m not sure about knocking together the two flats, though. A week or two ago, Gordon Brown married
his LTR, so he might be more reluctant to let the Blairs prioritise their needs.
The one thing No. 10 is not is ‘a dump’. The building is in fact three substantial seventeenth and eighteenth-century town houses (not Nos. 11 and 12) which have been knocked into one. It is only the smallest of these which can be seen from Downing Street, thus giving the impression that it is no more than an ordinary house. The state rooms inside at the back are actually rather grand. Some of them were designed by Sir John Soane, the greatest English architect of the nineteenth century. These can be seen in the virtual tour provided by the official No. 10 site - http://www.number-10.gov.uk/
The Blairs apparently live above No. 11 (which also interconnects with No. 10) as there is more room for the kids.
Prime Minister: Chequers
Chancellor of the Exchequer: Dorneywood
Foreign Secretary: Chevening House
Home Secretary: dunno…anybody else?
The Chancellor, being rather ascetic, has relinquished his right to use Dorneywood and it is currently used by the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott. Mrs Prescott is known to appreciate a bit of quality.
The houses in Downing Street are really just offices with a flat above the shop, as it were.
The original question mentioned the Queen’s numerous palaces and it is true that these rather outnumber the politicians’ facilities. In addition to her family’s major private properties at Balmoral and Sandringham she has the use of the following official (nationally-owned) palaces:
Buckingham Palace: offices and official receptions
St James Palace: official seat of the court + the Prince of Wales’s apartments + the Queen Mum’s apartments (Clarence House).
Kensington Palace: apartments for minor royals
Windsor Castle: rather nice place
I’ve been in the Downing Street residences of both Major (10) & Blair (11). They are in no wise shoddy. But they are cramped and the techies are about at the end of their ropes in keeping the places adequately wired. The private apartments are very nice, if you like that sort of thing… heavy in the decorations of empire. Joining 10-11 is probably a good idea… it would leave some slack room to absorb the growth necessitated by increased security concerns, growing bureaucracy and increased demand for new technology.
From what I saw of the outside, it looked like a large part of London does - dark, very old, gray, and depressing, with no lawn or greenspace at all. I guess compared to the White House and it’s grounds, it does look pretty dumpy. Not that it’s a bad place, but still…
There’s a bit of garden at the back, but not a huge amount. On the other hand, there’s the whole of St James’s Park at the end of the street. Plenty of green space at Chequers, but not as much as at Camp David I would guess.
Downing Street is only ‘very old’ if you are used to a part of the world where something built in 1680 is ‘very old’. London still has masonry from around the year 200, and whole buildings from before 1100.
But yes, large parts of London are dark, gray and depressing. Mostly the parts redeveloped in the 1960s & 1970s.