10 Downing Street - The World's Most Famous Front Door 10 Downing Street The World's Most Famous Front Door British politics has experienced many changes over the past 300 years, with 76 Prime Ministers overseeing the fortunes of the United Kingdom during this time. While many of these leaders would have had opposing views, one thing they nearly all have in common is having resided at 10 Downing Street. Here we take an in-depth look into the fascinating history of Number 10’s iconic shiny black entrance, widely accepted as the most famous front door in the world. 1732 The property was offered to Sir Robert Walpole by King George II. Walpole refused the offer as a personal gift but accepted on the basis that it would from then onwards be the official residency of First Lord of the Treasury, the position which he held at the time. Did you know ? To this day 10 Downing Street is the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury and not the Prime Minister, although since 1905 these have always been the same person.

tweet this 1735 After three years of renovations, Walpole took up residency on 22 September 1735 to begin a tradition which has lasted 280 years. 1766 Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend orders extensive repairs to the property. The front door was redesigned by architect Kenton Couse in a six-panelled Georgian style and was made from black oak. Installed in the 1770’s, the door featured a centre door knob, lion head door knocker and brass letter plate which bore the inscription ‘First Lord of the Treasury’. Did you know ? Soldiers heading to off to the trenches during the First World War used to touch the lion head door knocker for good luck. Then it was made of cast iron, whereas today it is brass and painted black to replicate the original. 1779 Downing Street is renumbered and the property is given the number 10. Previously the numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5 stood where the present day 10, 11 and 12 are, with popular belief that number 10 used to be number 5.

1908 Herbert Asquith becomes Prime Minister and has the front door repainted dark green for a brief time. Political historian Dr. Anthony Seldon writes in his book 10 Downing Street: An Illustrated History that the Prime Minister’s wife Margot Asquith complained that the building was ‘liver-coloured and squalid and lacked the landmark qualities of Marble Arch or the Albert Memorial.’ Why green? Historical Paint Consultant Patrick Baty advises that “Brunswick Green or Bronze Green were fairly standard on front doors during this time, with black on external surfaces comparatively rare until the 1930s and more generally in the 1960s.” 1960 Major works take place to renovate No.10 & 11 Downing Street and rebuild No.12 as designed by architect Raymond Erith. The works last three years costing £1,000,000 – one year and £500,000 over budget. As part of these renovations the front door of No. 10 is repainted along with new white numerals. The ‘0’ numeral is painted at a 37° degree angle sloping to the left. A Wonky Zero?

A commonly given reason for this angled numeral is that it is a nod to the original door which featured a poorly fixed ‘0’. However, Professor James Mosley from the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading has a far more plausible theory in that the ‘0’ is in fact a capital ‘O’ as found in the Roman’s ‘Trajan’ alphabet that was used by the Ministry of Works at the time. Did you No.10 Downing Street in London No.10 Downing Street > No.10 Downing Street is both home and office to the Prime Minister. The first floor (1) is used as the living area and it extends next door (2) over Numbers 11 and 12. > The famous black door of No.10 that appears in all the news reports is said to only open from the inside. The brass letterbox (3) is engraved with 'First Lord of the Treasury'. The second Lord of the Treasury is the Chancellor next door at No.11 > The black exterior (4) was once the result of years of London pollution. The brickwork is in fact a yellow colour and is now painted black to keep the familiar appearance.

> Downing Street has been gated since 1989 when Margaret Thatcher was in office, preventing public access. There was a similar barricade in 1918 when violent protest by supporters of Irish Independence was anticipated. > To the right (5) is an extension to the original terrace. No.10 is also connected to larger buildings at the back, overlooking Horseguards Parade > The website for 10 Downing Street can be seen here History of 10 Downing Street - GOV.UK GOV.UK Larry, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office Introduction – by Sir Anthony Seldon 10 Downing Street, the locale of British prime ministers since 1735, vies with the White House as being the most important political building anywhere in the world in the modern era. Behind its black door have been taken the most important decisions affecting Britain for the last 275 years.

In the 20th century alone, the First and Second World Wars were directed from within it, as were the key decisions about the end of the empire, the building of the British nuclear bomb, the handling of economic crises from the Great Depression in 1929 to the great recession, and the building up of the welfare state. Some of the most famous political figures of modern history have lived and worked in Number 10, including Robert Walpole, Pitt the Younger, Benjamin Disraeli, William Gladstone, David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Number 10 has 3 overlapping functions. It is the official residence of the British Prime Minister: it is their office, and it is also the place where the Prime Minister entertains guests from Her Majesty The Queen to presidents of the United States and other world leaders. The Prime Minister hosts countless receptions and events for a whole range of British and overseas guests, with charitable receptions high up the list. The building is much larger than it appears from its frontage. The hall with the chequered floor immediately behind the front door lets on to a warren of rooms and staircases.

The house in Downing Street was joined to a more spacious and elegant building behind it in the early 18th century. Number 10 has also spread itself out to the left of the front door, and has taken over much of 12 Downing Street, which is accessed by a corridor that runs through 11 Downing Street – the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Explore 10 Downing Street Downing Street Approach Entrance Hall Many famous feet have trodden across this entrance hall: from world leaders to sporting heroes. But this is also where the PM's staff enter each day to work among the myriad corridors and staircases which snake around the building. 10 Downing Street fulfils many roles – as meeting place, home and office. The Prime Minister does not have keys to Number 10 but there is always someone on duty to let him in. Grand Staircase Sir Robert Walpole took up residence as Prime Minister in 1735 and wanted the design of Number 10 to match his status. He employed a famous architect of the day to renovate the crumbling building and many of the features he installed, including the central staircase, still exist.

Portraits of every Prime Minister line the walls in chronological order, with the most recent incumbents at the top and group photographs from past Cabinets and Imperial Conferences at the bottom. White Drawing Room Until the 1940s Prime Ministers and their wives kept the White Room for their private use. It was here that Edward Heath kept his grand piano. The room contains works by one of the most important English landscape painters of the nineteenth century, J M W Turner. These days it is often used as the backdrop for television interviews and is in regular use as a meeting room for Downing Street staff. The room links through to the Terracotta Room next door. Cabinet Room Gordon Brown held Cabinet meetings every Tuesday but they were previously held on Thursday mornings. The only exceptions were during the Second World War and when the house was being renovated. The room was extended in 1796 by knocking a wall down and inserting columns to carry the extra span. The Cabinet room is separated from the rest of the house by soundproof doors. A terrorist bomb exploded in the garden of Number 10 in 1991, only a few metres from where John Major was chairing a Cabinet meeting.

Terracotta Room This was used as the dining room when Sir Robert Walpole was PM. The name of this room changes according to the colour it is painted. When Margaret Thatcher came to power it was the Blue Room and she had it re-decorated and re-named the Green Room. It is now painted terracotta. There are many famous works of art in this room, on loan from the Government Art Collection. Pillared Room The Pillared Room is the largest of the three rooms and is used when international agreements are being signed or as the main staging area for receptions. This is where the England Rugby Union team was entertained after winning the World Cup in 2003. The inventor John Logie Baird used the room to demonstrate one of his new-fangled television sets to Ramsey MacDonald and his children. The room contains a striking Persian carpet, copied from a 16th century original which can be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum Small Dining Room The Small Dining Room was once known as the breakfast room. Prime Ministers and their families used this room to have their meals until the flat upstairs was renovated. This was a favourite room of Lloyd George and can hold up to 12 people.

Sir John Soane designed it in 1827 following a commission from PM Viscount Goderich. The most unusual feature of this room is the fireplace without a chimney breast. The flues used to get so hot that the substance holding the window together would melt, causing the glass to fall out. State Dining Room Double doors lead you from the Small Dining Room to the larger State Dining room, which is built over the original vaulted stone kitchen. As with the small dining room, this room was designed by Sir John Soane in 1827. On the 250th anniversary of Number 10, in 1985, all the surviving Prime Ministers had dinner together here. This room is used to host the PM's press conferences, where he is quizzed by the world's media. The Study The study was a regular workplace for Harold Wilson and also Margaret Thatcher (later Lady Thatcher), who worked on important documents held in her “red boxes” and held meetings with her officials, a tradition restored by Gordon Brown. Sir Winston Churchill used the room as sleeping quarters. The Garden The Number 10 garden is in constant use.

Often used to host events it is kept in pristine condition by a small team of gardeners. 10 Downing Street Hundreds of people enter 10 Downing Street every week to attend meetings and receptions and to hand petitions over to the Prime Minister’s Office. Downing Street Approach Walking up Downing Street from Whitehall you have the imposing Foreign and Commonwealth building to your left and the Prime Minister’s residence on your right. Explore 10 Downing Street's most famous rooms and significant events in more detail at the Google Cultural Institute . Origins and early inhabitants The area around Downing Street was home to ancient Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman settlements, and was already a prestigious centre of government 1,000 years ago. The Romans first came to Britain under the command of Julius Caesar in 55 BC. Making their capital at Londinium downriver, the Romans chose Thorney Island – a marshy piece of land lying between two branches of the river Tyburn that flowed from Hampstead Heath to the Thames – as the site for their early settlement. These Roman settlements, and those of the Anglo-Saxons and Normans who supplanted them, were not very successful. The area was prone to plague and its inhabitants were very poor.

A charter granted by the Mercian King Offa in the year 785 refers to “the terrible place called Thorney Island”. It took royal patronage to give the area prestige. King Canute (reigned 1017 to 1035) built a palace in the area, and Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042 to 1066) and William the Conqueror (reigned 1066 to 1087) maintained a royal presence there. The position of Westminster (as the area became known) as the centre of government and the church was solidified following the construction of the great abbey nearby, on Edward's orders. Whitehall from St James's Park – Hendrick Danckerts c.1675 The earliest building known to have stood on the site of Downing Street was the Axe brewery owned by the Abbey of Abingdon in the Middle Ages. By the early 1500s, it had fallen into disuse. Henry VIII (reigned 1509 to 1547) developed Westminster's importance further by building an extravagant royal residence there.

Whitehall Palace was created when Henry VIII confiscated York House from Cardinal Wolsey in 1530 and extended the complex. Today's Downing Street is located on the edge of the Palace site. The huge residence included tennis courts, a tiltyard for jousting, a bowling green, and a cockpit for bird fights. Stretching from St James's Park to the Thames, it was the official residence of Tudor and Stuart monarchs until it was destroyed by fire in 1698. It made the surrounding real estate some of the most important and valuable in London – and the natural home of power. The first domestic house known to have been built on the site of Number 10 was a large building leased to Sir Thomas Knyvet in 1581 by Queen Elizabeth I (reigned 1558 to 1603). He was one of the Queen's favourites and was an MP for Thetford as well as a justice of the peace for Westminster. His claim to fame was the arrest of Guy Fawkes for his role in the gunpowder plot of 1605.

He was knighted in 1604 by Elizabeth's successor, King James I (reigned 1603 to 1625), and the house was extended. After the death of Sir Knyvet and his wife, the house passed to their niece, Elizabeth Hampden, who continued to live there for the next 40 years. The middle of the 17th century was a period of political upheaval and Mrs Hampden's family was right in the middle of it. Her son, John Hampden, was one of the MPs who opposed King Charles I (reigned 1625 to 1649), and Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector, was Mrs Hampden's nephew. Hampden House, as it was then known, gave Mrs Hampden a prime view of the tumultuous events during the Civil War and the Commonwealth and the early years of the Restoration. The execution of Charles I in 1649 took place on a scaffold in front of Banqueting House in Whitehall, within earshot of the house.

Mrs Hampden was still living there when King Charles II (reigned in Scotland from 1649 to 1685) was restored to the English throne in 1660. The Parliamentary Commissioners, who took over Crown lands during the time of the Commonwealth, described the house in 1650: “Built part of Bricke and part with Tymber and Flemish qalle and covered with Tyle, consistinge of a Large and spacious hall, wainscoted round, well lighted, and Paved with brick Pavements, two parls wherof one is Wainscoted round from the seelinge to ye floor, one Buttery, one seller, one Large kitchen well paved with stone and well fitted and Joynted and well fitted with dresser boards… And above stayres in the first story one large and spacious dyneinge Roome, Wainscoted round from the seelinge to the floore, well flored, Lighted and seeled, and fitted with a faire Chimney with a foote pace of paynted Tyle in the same.

Also 6 more Roomes and 3 Closetts in the same flore all well lighted and seeled. And in the second story 4 garretts…” The emergence of Downing Street George Downing gave his name to the most famous street in the world. It is unfortunate that he was such an unpleasant man. Able as a diplomat and a government administrator, he was miserly and at times brutal. However, George Downing was responsible for the street, its name and the building we know today. A former diplomat at The Hague serving the Commonwealth, he changed allegiance with finesse. He traded enough secrets to gain a royal pardon in March 1660 and, by the Restoration in May 1660, to be rewarded with a knighthood. Interested in power and money, he saw an opportunity to make his fortune in property. He had already gained the Crown interest in the land around Hampden House, but could not take possession as it was under lease to Knyvet's descendants. In 1682 he secured the leases to the property and employed Sir Christopher Wren to design the houses.

Between 1682 and 1684, existing properties were pulled down and in their place a cul-de-sac of 15 to 20 terraced houses was built along the north side of the new street, Downing Street. In order to maximise profit, the houses were cheaply built, with poor foundations for the boggy ground. Instead of neat brick façades, they had mortar lines drawn on to give the appearance of evenly spaced bricks. In the 20th Century, Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote that Number 10 was: Shaky and lightly built by the profiteering contractor whose name they bear. A rather important neighbour complained, however. The new houses were built directly behind a large and impressive house overlooking Horse Guards. Its occupier, the Countess of Lichfield, daughter of Charles II, was less than pleased with the emergence of the unwelcome terrace behind. She complained to her father, who wrote back with advice: I think that it is a very reasonable thing that other houses should not look into your house without your permission, and this note will be sufficient for Mr Surveyor to build up your wall as high as you please.

The original numbering of the Downing Street houses was completely different from what we see today. The sequence of numbers was haphazard, and the houses tended to be known by the name or title of their occupants. The current Number 10 started out life as Number 5, and was not renumbered until 1779. The Downing Street house had several distinguished residents. The Countess of Yarmouth lived at Number 10 between 1688 and 1689, and was followed by Lord Lansdowne from 1692 to 1696 and the Earl of Grantham from 1699 to 1703. The last private resident of Downing's terrace was one Mr Chicken. Little is known about him except that he moved out in the early 1730s. King George II presented both the house on Downing Street and the house overlooking Horse Guards to Sir Robert Walpole, who held the title First Lord of the Treasury and effectively served as the first Prime Minister. Walpole refused the property as a personal gift.

Instead, he asked the king to make it available as an official residence to him and to future First Lords of the Treasury – starting the tradition that continues today. The brass letterbox on the black front door is still engraved with this title. Walpole took up residence on 22 September 1735, once the townhouse on Downing Street and the house overlooking Horse Guards had been joined together and completely refurbished. Walpole employed architect William Kent – who had already worked on Walpole's Norfolk home, Houghton Hall – to undertake the work. Kent carried out extensive work on the 2 houses, connecting them on 2 storeys. The main entrance now faced onto Downing Street rather than towards Horse Guards, and the Downing Street building became a passageway to the main house. At the back of the house, where the Walpoles lived, Kent created grand new rooms suitable for receiving important guests, and built an unusual, 3-sided staircase. It is still one of the most impressive features of the building. Walpole used the ground floor for business, taking the largest room, on the north-west side of the house, as his study. This is now the Cabinet Room.

Upstairs on the first floor, the Walpoles lived in the rooms facing onto Horse Guards Parade. Lady Walpole used today's White Drawing Room as her sitting room, and the present day Terracotta Room served as their dining room. The Walpoles were soon entertaining important guests in their smart house, including George II's wife Queen Caroline, politicians, writers and soldiers. Number 10 became – as it continues to be today – a place for politics and entertainment. Pelham to Pitt When Walpole left Downing Street in 1742, it was over 20 years before another First Lord of the Treasury moved in. His successors saw the house as a perk of the job, and Prime Ministers Henry Pelham (1743 to 1754) and the Duke of Newcastle (1757 to 1762) preferred to live in their own residences. In 1763 George Grenville (1763 to 1765) took up residence but was sacked by King George III in 1765 for imposing stamp duty on the American colonies. The next Prime Minister to move into Downing Street was Lord North (1770 to 1782).

He was very fond of the house and often entertained there. Visitors included the writer Samuel Johnson and Thomas Hansard, founder of the parliamentary reporting system that is still in use today. One guest, Clive of India, was so popular that furniture was made for him, which is still present today in the first floor anteroom and Terracotta Room. During one memorable dinner party held by Lord North on 7 June 1780, civil unrest broke out in the street outside when angry Protestants unhappy with North's policy towards Roman Catholics rioted all over London, in what became known as the Gordon Riots. The Grenadier Guards held off a large mob, a situation that might have ended with bloodshed had North not gone outside to warn the protestors of the dangers of being shot, following which the crowd dispersed. North's dinner guests climbed to the top of the house to view the fires burning all over London. Major improvements were made to the house during North's time, including the addition of many distinctive features: the black and white chequerboard floor in the entrance hall, the lamp above the front door and the famous lion's head door knocker.

Following the loss of the American colonies, North resigned and was followed by the Duke of Portland, who was Prime Minister for only 9 months in 1782. Fall and rise of Number 10 At the turn of the 19th century, Downing Street had fallen on hard times. Although Number 10 continued to serve as the Prime Minister's office, it was not favoured as a home. Most prime ministers preferred to live in their own townhouses. But by the 1820s, Downing Street had emerged as the centre of government. Prime Minister Viscount Goderich employed the brilliant, quirky architect Sir John Soane, designer of the Bank of England , to make the house more suitable for its high-profile role. Soane created the wood-panelled State Dining Room and the Small Dining Room for elegant entertaining. But this wasn't good enough for his successor, Lord Wellington, who only moved in while his own lavish home, Apsley House , was being refurbished. Later leaders such as Lord Melbourne and Viscount Palmerston used Number 10 only as an office and for Cabinet meetings.

In 1828, Number 11 became the Chancellor of the Exchequer's official residence, but the surrounding area was becoming seedier, with brothels and gin parlours multiplying. Things became so bad that by 1839 there were plans to demolish Number 10 and the other buildings on the north side of Downing Street to make way for a remodelled Whitehall. Security also became an issue. In 1842, Edward Drummond, secretary to Prime Minister Robert Peel (1841-1846), was murdered in Whitehall on his way back to his home in Downing Street by an assassin who mistook him for Peel. The prestige of Downing Street was reduced even further by the building of the magnificent new Foreign Office building at the end of the 1860s. George Gilbert Scott's creation, with a huge open court and elaborate state rooms, dwarfed Number 10 opposite. It even had its own Cabinet Room in which the Cabinet sometimes met, rather than at Number 10. By the time Benjamin Disraeli became Prime Minister, the house was in poor shape.

The living quarters had not been used for 30 years and Disraeli described it as “dingy and decaying”. It was time for modernisation. The late 19th and early 20th century saw 10 Downing Street transformed from a humble terraced house into a grand residence with modern facilities – a home and office fit for the most powerful politician in the country. Disraeli persuaded the state to pay for renovation to the entrance halls and public rooms, though he paid for the refurbishment of the private rooms himself. His own first floor bedroom and dressing room were improved, and a bath with hot and cold water in the First Lord's Dressing Room was installed for the sum of £150.3s.6d. When William Gladstone moved into the house for the first time in 1880, he insisted on redecorating, spending £1,555.5s.0d – an enormous sum for the time – on furniture. During his occupancy in 1884, electric lighting was fitted and the first telephones were installed.

The Marquess of Salisbury, who succeeded Gladstone on one occasion, was the last Prime Minister not to live at Number 10. Salisbury never liked the Cabinet Room, describing it as a “cramped close room”. Preferring to work in the larger Cabinet Room in the Foreign Office and live in Arlington Street, he offered Number 10 to his nephew, Arthur Balfour, who would later become Prime Minister himself. Balfour was the first inhabitant of Number 10 to bring a motor car to Downing Street. Over the years, more and more changes and improvements were made to the house. When Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald first entered the house, he wanted Number 10 to regain some of the grandeur it had during the times of Walpole and Pitt. Missing a proper library (or at least, one containing more than just Hansard reports), MacDonald set about creating one. He started the Prime Minister's Library, originally housed in the Cabinet Room. The custom of the Prime Minister and other ministers donating books to the library continues to this day.

Central heating was installed in 1937 and work began to convert the labyrinth of rooms in the attic, which had formerly been used by servants, into a flat for the Prime Minister. Number 10 at war World War One In 1912, Herbert Henry Asquith found himself at odds with Ulster and the Tory opposition following renewed attempts to introduce Irish Home Rule. This unrest and fierce opposition would continue, and civil war in Ireland was only averted with the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. The Cabinet Room at Number 10 was the nerve centre of Britain's war effort. Asquith's Cabinet included future Prime Ministers David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, in their posts as Chancellor and First Lord of the Admiralty respectively. Asquith had been forced to take on the additional role of Secretary of State for War following the resignation of the incumbent in March 1914, but quickly appointed Lord Kitchener following the outbreak of war.

On 15 April 1916, Number 10 was the site of a meeting between General Haig, Commander-in-Chief of British forces in France, and the Cabinet to go over the detail of the planned Somme offensive, later known as the Battle of the Somme. During a Cabinet split on 25 May 1915 (caused by public outcry at allegations the army had been under-supplied with shells and the failed offensive in the Dardanelles, for which Kitchener and Churchill respectively were blamed), Kitchener was stripped of his control over munitions and strategy, and Churchill lost his post as First Lord of the Admiralty. As a result of the split, Asquith formed a coalition government with the opposition Conservatives, whose leader was future Prime Minister, Andrew Bonar Law. Asquith remained leader of the coalition until his resignation on 5 December 1916. After Andrew Bonar Law refused to form a government, David Lloyd George became leader of the coalition and Prime Minister on 7 December 1916.

Under Prime Minister Lloyd George the number of staff at Number 10 expanded and offices spilled out into the garden to cope with the demands of the administration of the war. Lloyd George immediately formed his ‘War Cabinet’, whose members included Lord Curzon, Bonar Law and Arthur Henderson. In the first 235 days of its existence, the War Cabinet met 200 times. This cabinet took total responsibility for the war, and on 3 occasions it sat as the Imperial War Cabinet when prime ministers from the Dominions attended. It provided a vigour previously lacking from the war effort. Highly able young men were appointed to collect and collate data and to bypass slow moving government departments. These men were nicknamed the ‘Garden Suburb’ because they lived in huts at the end of gardens near to Downing Street. They were not liked by diehard civil servants, who they continually bypassed. However, the men from the Garden Suburb gave Lloyd George the one thing Asquith seemingly never had – up-to-date, meaningful statistics. Their work was invaluable, providing the War Cabinet with data on merchant ships sunk and UK farm production, issues essential to address if the country was not to be starved into defeat.

When armistice was finally declared on 11 November 1918, crowds thronged Downing Street chanting ‘LG’. Lloyd George made an appearance at one of the first floor windows to acknowledge them. World War Two – Chamberlain During the 1930s the world's eyes rested on Europe. With rising tensions between Germany and Czechoslovakia, the prime ministers of France and Britain did what they could in an attempt to avoid another war. On 12 September 1938, thousands gathered at Downing Street to listen to Hitler's speech on the final night of the Nuremberg Rally, convinced Britain stood on the brink of war. As tension mounted further in Europe, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made several attempts to appease the situation, and Number 10 became the focus of international attention. On the morning of 29 September 1938, Chamberlain travelled to Germany for the final time as Prime Minister to hold talks with the French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier, Hitler, and Mussolini. The Munich Agreement was signed and war – for now – had been averted.

Before leaving for England, Chamberlain held a private meeting with Hitler where he obtained his signature on the famous “Peace in our Time” document, which declared that any future disputes between Britain and Germany would be settled peacefully. Upon Chamberlain's return to Heston Airfield, he was mobbed by large crowds and gave the resounding “Peace in Our Time” speech, waving aloft the document signed by Hitler. When he returned to Downing Street following a meeting with George VI, the Prime Minister found Downing Street and Number 10 itself packed with people. Chamberlain gave the speech a second time, from a first floor window of Number 10: My good friends, this is the second time there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Now I recommend you go home, and sleep quietly in your beds. But over the following 12 months tension did not lift, and on 3 September 1939, Chamberlain broadcast to the nation from the Cabinet Room at Number 10, announcing that the country was now at war with Germany.

Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister on 10 May 1940 and advised King George VI to ask Winston Churchill to form a government. When Winston Churchill replaced Chamberlain as Prime Minister, he and his wife moved into Downing Street's second-floor flat, where Churchill did much of his work. He often dictated speeches, memos and letters to his secretary while lying propped up in bed in the morning or late in the evening, cigar in hand. By October 1940, the intense bombing period known as the Blitz began. On 14 October, a huge bomb fell on Treasury Green near Downing Street, damaging the Number 10 kitchen and state rooms, and killing three Civil Servants doing Home Guard duty. Churchill was dining in the Garden Rooms when the air raid began. As he recalled in his memoir Their Finest Hour (1949): We were dining in the garden-room of Number 10 when the usual night raid began. The steel shutters had been closed. Several loud explosions occurred around us at no great distance, and presently a bomb fell, perhaps a hundred yards away, on the Horse Guards Parade, making a great deal of noise. Suddenly I had a providential impulse.

The kitchen in Number 10 Downing Street is lofty and spacious, and looks out through a large plate-glass window about 25 feet high. The butler and parlour maid continued to serve the dinner with complete detachment, but I became acutely aware of this big window. I got up abruptly, went into the kitchen, told the butler to put the dinner on the hot plate in the dining-room, and ordered the cook and the other servants into the shelter, such as it was. I had been seated again at the table only about 3 minutes when a really loud crash, close at hand, and a violent shock showed that the house had been struck. My detective came into the room and said much damage had been done. The kitchen, the pantry and the offices on the Treasury were shattered. Keeping Downing Street safe became the priority of the Prime Minister and the War Cabinet. Steel reinforcement was added to the Garden Rooms, and heavy metal shutters were fixed over windows as protection from bombing raids. The Garden Rooms included a small dining room, bedroom and a meeting area which were used by Churchill throughout the war. In reality, though, the steel reinforcement would not have protected him against a direct hit.

In October 1939, the Cabinet had moved out of Number 10 and into secret underground war rooms in the basement of the Office of Works opposite the Foreign Office, today's Churchill War Rooms . Following near misses by bombs, in 1940, Churchill and his wife moved out of Downing Street and into the Number 10 Annex above the war rooms. Furniture and valuables were removed from Number 10 and only the Garden Rooms, Cabinet Room and Private Secretaries' office remained in use. Churchill disliked living in the Annex and, despite it being almost empty, he continued to use Number 10 for working and eating. A reinforced shelter was constructed under the house for up to 6 people, for use by those working in the house. Even George VI sought shelter there when he dined with Churchill in the Garden Rooms. Although bombs caused further damage to Number 10, there were no direct hits to the house, allowing Churchill to continue to work and eat there right up until the end of the war.

As soon as war was over, Churchill and his wife moved back to Number 10, where he made his Victory in Europe (VE) Day broadcast, which was delivered from the Cabinet Room at 3pm on 8 May 1945. Falklands Conflict – Margaret Thatcher On 19 March 1982, the Argentinian flag was raised by a group of scrap metal merchants on the island of South Georgia, a British overseas territory and dependant of the Falkland Islands. There had been a lengthy dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the sovereignty of the Islands and this action was seen as a precursor to the Argentinian invasion which would follow. Argentine General Leopoldo Galtieri ordered the invasion of the Falklands to be brought forward to 2 April 1982, pre-empting any reinforcement of the United Kingdom's military presence in the area. Margaret Thatcher responded by sending a naval task force to recapture the islands, which set sail from Portsmouth on 5 April following a meeting of the Cabinet and the granting of a UN Resolution. The Prime Minister stayed up all night in the Downing Street flat for the entire Falklands conflict.

Margaret Thatcher's personal assistant, Cynthia Crawford, who moved into the flat at Number 10 to keep the Prime Minister company during the all-night vigils, recalls the 74 days of the conflict inside Number 10: She did not once change into her nightclothes in the flat for the duration of the war. We would sit in the flat listening to the BBC World Service for news of the task force. She couldn’t sleep because she wanted to be ready in case anything happened. She wanted to be able to go to any briefings with the naval commanders at any time without the fuss and bother of having to get dressed. She also wanted to know everything that was happening, every single detail, so she could keep on top of events. She had to know how the soldiers, sailors and airmen were getting on. She was so worried about them. It was awful when we heard any reports of our ships being hit. Her determination and powers of endurance were unbelievable. Denis was in the room next door. The 2 of us would sit in armchairs either side of a two-bar electric fire, listening to the radio.

Crawford recalls the Prime Minister leaving Downing Street at 8am each morning to attend military briefings for an update of events during the night and to discuss the next part of the campaign: I would take advantage of that and jump into bed at the flat so I could get some sleep. I'd tell the Downing Street switchboard to wake me when she was on her way back so I could be ready for work. We don't all have her energy. The conflict ended with Argentinian surrender on 14 June 1982. Margaret Thatcher looked back on this period: When I became Prime Minister I never thought that I would have to order British troops into combat and I do not think I have ever lived so tensely or intensely as during the whole of that time. Margaret Thatcher – The Downing Street Years. Restoration and modernisation By the 1950s, the material state of 10 Downing Street had reached crisis point. Bomb damage had worsened existing structural problems: the building was suffering from subsidence, sloping walls, twisting door frames and an enormous annual repair bill. The Ministry of Works carried out a survey in 1954 into the state of the structure.

The report bounced from Winston Churchill (1951 to 1955) to Anthony Eden (1955 to 1957) to Harold Macmillan (1957 to 1963) as one Prime Minister followed the other. Finally, a committee set up by Macmillan concluded that drastic action was required before the building fell or burnt down. The committee put forward a range of options, including the complete demolition of Number 10, 11 and 12 and their replacement with a new building. That idea was rejected and it was decided that Number 12 should be rebuilt, and Numbers 10 and 11 should be strengthened and their historic features preserved. The architect Raymond Erith was selected to supervise the work, which was expected to take 2 years and cost £500,000. It ended up taking a year longer than planned and costing double the original estimate. The foundations proved to be so rotten that concrete underpinning was required on a massive scale. Number 10 was completely gutted. Walls, floors and even the columns in the Cabinet Room and Pillared Room proved to be rotten and had to be replaced.

New features were added too, including a room facing onto Downing Street and a veranda at Number 11 for the Chancellor. It was also discovered that the familiar exterior façade was not black at all, but yellow. The blackened colour was a product of two centuries of severe pollution. To keep the familiar appearance, the newly cleaned yellow bricks were painted black to match their previous colour. Erith's work was completed in 1963, but not long afterwards, dry rot became apparent and further repairs had to be undertaken. Margaret Thatcher (1979 to 1990) appointed architect Quinlan Terry to refurbish the state drawing rooms at the end of the 1980s. Two of the rooms, the White Drawing Room and Terracotta Room, gained ornate plasterwork ceilings. In the White Drawing Room, this included adding the national emblems of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. All the building work of the past few decades could have been ruined when a terrorist bomb exploded in 1991.

An IRA mortar bomb was fired from a white transit van in Whitehall and exploded in the garden of Number 10, only a few metres away from where Prime Minister John Major (1990 to 1997) was chairing a Cabinet meeting to discuss the Gulf War. Although no one was killed, it left a crater in the Number 10 gardens and blew in the windows of neighbouring houses. John Major and some of his staff moved into Admiralty Arch while damage caused by the bomb was repaired. By 2006, it was clear that the Downing Street complex was no longer able to support the business of the Prime Minister's Office reliably. Independent surveys established that the building was no longer weather-tight, the heating system was failing, and the information and communications technology (ICT) network was at the limits of its operation. Power outages and water leaks were frequent occurrences and impacted significantly on the day-to-day operation of the Prime Minister's Office. In addition to deterioration through age, pressures on the buildings had increased dramatically over recent years, through an increase in occupancy (stable at around 50 for many years) to around 170.

In 2006, Prime Minister Tony Blair (1997 to 2007) authorised a new programme of improvements, with the building remaining operational throughout. Work was launched to address structural failure, renew the infrastructure, improve access and enhance the building's sustainability. Structural issues were among the first to be tackled, and a phased exterior repair project was launched to address failing lead guttering, cracking brickwork and other structural issues. The distinctive black colourwash was also renewed, as it had faded away in many areas to reveal the yellow brickwork beneath. During the course of the works it was discovered that the façade of 11 Downing Street was unstable, and had to be secured using 225 stainless steel pins. All work was carried out in consultation with English Heritage . Other projects have been undertaken to renew the building's ageing infrastructure and to replace many of the building's key services, including heating, fire protection and electrical power distribution. Sustainability is a key feature of the programme and a 10% reduction in carbon emissions was achieved during 2011. Rainwater harvesting was introduced in 2009, providing a sustainable source of water for the garden.

Accessibility for disabled visitors has been significantly improved through the introduction of ramps and modernisation of lifts. Many of the public areas of the building have also been restored, including the front entrance hall, the state and small dining rooms and the study. An ongoing programme is in place to upgrade facilities to modern standards, and to ensure the preservation of this historic building for years to come. A place of entertainment Every week, Number 10 is the venue for official functions including meetings, receptions, lunches and dinners. It is not only heads of state and official dignitaries who visit – functions are held for people from all areas of UK society, including notable achievers, public service employees and charity workers. Receptions tend to be informal gatherings. Lunches and dinners are more formal events. The Small Dining Room will sit a maximum of 12, and the State Dining Room up to 65 around a large, U-shaped table. The dining table is laid with items from the state silver collection: a range of modern silverware pieces commissioned by the Silver Trust to promote modern British craftsmanship.

Installations at Number 10 timeline Since 10 Downing Street became the official residence of the premier, the building has performed the dual role of both residence and place of work for Britain's Prime Ministers. Number 10 has been upgraded – including new technology – throughout its history, to ensure both an acceptable standard of living for its residents and to keep the Prime Minister at the heart of decision making within government. Often, the prompt for new technology or an upgrade was the arrival of a new Prime Minister. Here are some of the more notable developments across 3 centuries of history, from the arrival of hot running water to the first tweet: Timeline 1877 – hot and cold running water installed. The living quarters were renovated for Benjamin Disraeli – including a bath. 1894 – installation of electric lighting and first telephones. Following Disraeli's departure William Gladstone redecorated the building and oversaw the installations. 1902 – first motor-car driven onto Downing Street.

Arthur Balfour brought the first car and since then, Prime Ministers have looked to select British marques for their official car, with a procession of Wolseleys, Humbers, Rovers, Daimlers and Jaguars sweeping successive Prime Ministers into – and out of – Downing Street. 1937 – first central heating. 1963 – electrical and telephone systems were replaced. 1963 was a major period of renovation for the building. 1982 – the first direct hotline between No10 and Washington was established during Margaret Thatcher's first term of office. 1982 – first ‘micro-computer’ and microfilm reader installed. 1983 – wider roll-out of computers machines for Number 10 staff following a review of the building's needs. 1990s – first video conference. John Major used the technology from his study. 1996 – desktop PCs installed at all workstations. BBC News - Why is the door at 10 Downing St so shiny? BBC News Why is the door at 10 Downing St so shiny? WHO, WHAT, WHY? The Magazine answers... Gordon Brown has gone, David Cameron has arrived.

The one constant is the heavily polished black door to 10 Downing Street. But why does this famous Georgian entrance have such a high-gloss sheen? Look at that sheen It is the only way in - and out - of the prime minister's residence - a black Georgian door flanked by a dutiful police officer. But avid viewers of recent events at the centre of government may have noticed the door's almost unnatural sheen. The door is made of bomb-proof metal with high-quality gloss paint as a coating. Originally made of black oak, the high-security replacement was installed after 1991's IRA attack, in which a mortar launched from a van parked in nearby Whitehall exploded in Number 10's back garden. The wooden original - thought to be Robert Walpole's door from 1735 - was replaced with an identical-looking high security door with a solid letter box.

THE ANSWER Door is bomb-proof metal with high-gloss paint Replica fitted during regular maintenance and repainting Even wooden original - replaced in 1991 - is very shiny "At that point they realised a solid wooden door just wasn't strong enough and replaced it with a metal-backed version," says Cressida Finch, exhibitions manager of the Cabinet War Rooms, where the original now takes pride of place in the Churchill Museum. Despite the nicks and bumps that give an old wooden door its character, even that is "incredibly shiny", she says. "Somebody comes down from Downing St, an official Number 10 cleaner, to polish the brass every couple of weeks. They don't like us touching it." Behind the green door Nor has the front door always been black. During the early 20th Century it was painted green - dark green, in fact, from 1908 to 1916, when Herbert Asquith was in power. And as an April Fool joke in 2006, the Daily Mail reported that the famous black door had been replaced with a red version. RED DOOR FOR NO.

10 Some political observers were asking whether Cherie Blair's love of redecoration had finally gone a step too far. Others said the go-ahead had been given by the Prime Minister himself, apparently feeling well and truly at home nine years after claiming the keys to Number 10 Daily Mail, 1 April 2006 As 10 Downing Street is a period building with many original features, the heavy high-security front door retains the Georgian panelled look of the wooden original. And the Downing Street website notes that the "0" in the number 10 is at an angle as a nod to the original, which had a badly-fixed zero. When the door itself is in need of maintenance - perhaps a new lick of high-gloss paint - it is removed and replaced with a replica which is kept in storage, says Anthony Seldon, author of 10 Downing Street: The Illustrated History, which charts the architectural and human history of the building. These refurbishment works often take place during the summer recess, when the prime minister is out of town, on holiday. Elbow grease helps "Ever since it was replaced, there has been a spare door for when it needs repainting," says Mr Seldon.

Being metal, the door is so heavy it takes several workmen to lift it off its hinges and away for a fresh lick of paint. While the iron knocker in the shape of a lion's head still knocks, there is no point in ringing the brass doorbell to the right - it does not work. "The door just opens," says Mr Seldon. "They've got someone watching on a screen inside so they can see what's happening and when to open the door." WHO, WHAT, WHY? A regular part of the BBC News Magazine, Who, What, Why? aims to answer some of the questions behind the headlines On the other side of that famous exterior, there is a brass handle while the paintwork is off-white to blend in with the muted tones of the entrance lobby. But there have been red faces when someone has been stranded on the doorstep, knocking to no avail - as once happened to the Blair family, notes Mr Seldon. And is it the most famous door in the world? "There is no equivalent door at the White House, although it is a seat of greater power.

But it's not been in use for as long." Bookmark with: First impressions - Telegraph First impressions Image 1 of 4 Meet and greet: Arts & Crafts door at Hazelbank, near Stockton Heath, in Cheshire (top); A modern planked door is the choice for this re-built property in Beaconsfield Your pictures: Have you got a front door to be proud of? It takes just eight seconds to decide whether or not you will buy a house, according to the latest research. And at least four of them will be spent waiting at the front door. Lord Lloyd-Webber has a mahogany one, Richard Rogers has a white one, and Kate Middleton has just installed a pair of them, in black. "People look at a front door before they look at anything else," says designer Cecilia Neal, of Meltons. "Your front door reflects what you think about the house. A door can sell a property." An Oxford blue, Edwardian front door with stained- and etched-glass panels and side windows sold a house in Putney to Susie King. "After being shown round by the agent, I drove back there that night, parked outside and just stared at the door.

I wanted to live behind it so badly," she says. A decade later, when it came to repainting the door, it took 12 attempts to mix the right shade of blue. But a door can also jeopardise a sale. "We have had a buyer who refused to complete until we repainted the front door as it was green, which they felt was unlucky," says Andy Buchanan, director of John D Wood, Chelsea. Doors, it seems, are the one thing property owners are not prepared to compromise over. "People want to get it right," says Kerry Walters, of The London Door Company (020 7801 0877; ), which has made bespoke front doors for Jeremy Beadle, Ant and Dec and Kensington Palace. "They see a new front door as an investment - they realise it can transform the look of a property." And if they don't, agents are quick to tell them. "If a door is a horrid colour, or has naff, crinkly glass, it is a big turn-off," says Richard Gaynor, head of Savills country house department.

But while more of us are investing in tailor-made front doors, costing at least twice as much as a ready-made one from Magnet or B&Q, we are reluctant to be particularly adventurous. The doors on display in The London Door Company showrooms would sell time and time again, if Mr Walters didn't cajole customers into making personal decisions about panels, mullions and hand-made mouldings. "Victorian splendour with stained glass was fashionable in the 1980s and 1990s, but now four-panelled doors are the most popular, sometimes with the top two panels made of glass," says Mr Walters. A front door must be appropriate to a house, says Jeremy Musson, Architecture Editor of Country Life. Planked doors can work well on barn or warehouse conversions or new-builds. But there is no escaping the universal charm of the Georgian front door - "solid, well constructed, but at the same time curiously domestic and welcoming" - rather like the blue one belonging to Hugh Grant in the film Notting Hill.

"The classic Georgian combination of solid, panelled door with a glazed fanlight over the top, as in London and Dublin, and Bath and Liverpool terraces, is just magic," says Mr Musson. There is nothing to say classic Georgian, Victorian or Edwardian styles cannot be used on new houses. Properties on the Wentworth and St George's Hill estates, in Surrey, tend to use classical styles on a larger scale - taller and wider with vast porticos, illustrating that owners are happier to experiment with the size of a door rather than its style or colour. "Double doors are vital for new-builds over £2 million," says Simon Ashwell, of Savills. "They give an impression of a much wider frontage. I will always tell a developer to put in a double door." Savills is selling Park Hill, St George's Hill, an Edwardian-style new build with double front doors for £12 million (01932 838004). Ms Neal advises clients to select a door that matches their style of house but suggests they use contemporary paint colours and door furniture if they want a more modern look.

"A door should never be dislocated from a house, but if you want to go contemporary, use Scandinavian-style colours and chrome door furniture," she says. These washed-out greys, greens and blues are all the rage. "I think we're responsible for the grey front door," says Mr Walters. "We supply the door primed and painted with undercoat. But people liked the undercoat so much we found ourselves mixing the top coat to match the undercoat." Paint supplier Farrow & Ball has noted the trend: "We are finding that the blue palette, French Gray, Pigeon and Pale Powder are the most popular," says a spokesperson. But before repainting your door battleship grey, make sure you are allowed to do so. Property owners in Royal Crescent, Bath, and certain London streets would need listed building consent to alter the colour of their front doors - and the door furniture in some cases. In the Duchy of Cornwall's Poundbury village, in Dorset, front doors must conform to a certain palette. "We try to ensure, if the street scene is dark colours [dark blue, blacks and reds], that the doors remain those colours and the same applies to pastels," says Poundbury site manager Peter James.

"For any alteration you have to apply to the Duchy Office and there's a certain palette you can choose from." So far, Mr James has not had to veto any colour requests - perhaps another indication that the British prefer to be conservative about their front doors. In fact, No10 Downing Street, Britain's most famous front door, has changed in appearance only once in 300 years. It was an "unlucky" dark green for a brief spell at the beginning of the 19th century, when Herbert Asquith was prime minister - before he fell out of favour and resigned in 1916. Number10 has been black ever since. It even bears a wonky "0" in the number 10 - a tribute to the original door, which had a badly fitted zero. COLOUR Get inspiration from your neighbours - a unified look along a street is more appealing. Crown paints has brought out a clever guide, enabling you to match your neighbour's door colour exactly (Crown 08870 241 6457).

Red, black and blue gloss work well on most houses, while more unusual colours (purple, orange, turquoise) and odd shades are to be avoided. Use green by all means - but be warned that some people take exception to it. Choose matt paints for an understated appearance and bleached pastel colours to achieve a flat, contemporary look. Stained-wood doors can look good so long as the wood is good quality and well varnished. Farrow & Ball (01202 876141; ). Dulux (0870 4441111; ). DOOR FURNITURE Door knobs, knockers and letterboxes should be in keeping with one another and sympathetic to the size and style of the door. Simple brass ring knockers and "Doctor's" door knockers, popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, are two simple styles that suit both panelled and plank doors. Octagonal or round door knobs and handles and plain letterboxes work well with this simple look.

Lionhead knockers and knobs with ornate embellishment are typical of the Queen Anne period while reeded (ridged) door furniture was used in late Georgian and early Victorian times. Edwardian door furniture is plain, with simple reeding, while Victorian is slightly heavier. Traditional-style door furniture coated in brushed and polished chrome and nickel creates a more contemporary look and works well with flatter, lighter colours. For top-of-the-range or custom-made door furniture, visit Drummonds (020 7376 4499; ), or JBBeardmore, which still uses original casts and molds from the 19th century and top-quality British brass ( ). Good-quality generic door furniture is available at Danico ( ) and Magnet ( ). WHERE TO BUY: SALVAGE YARDS The perfect front door or door furniture could be waiting for you in a salvage yard. Often, doors salvaged from older properties will match your house better than the existing door but make sure you invest in good locks and ironmongery.

Cox's Architectural Salvage has one of the largest stocks of reclaimed doors in Britain, and can also make Victorian four-panel, Georgian six-panel, Edwardian five- panel and 1930s doors with quarter windows to order from reclaimed pine. Customers are advised to buy a door before making a frame to ensure a wider choice (01608 652505; ). Neville Griffiths ( ), Walcot Reclamation ( ) and Architectural Treasures ( ) also have a wide range of salvaged doors and door furniture. FOLIAGE The plants surrounding your door are almost as important as the door itself. In a recent survey, jasmine and roses were voted top for adding value to a property, while leylandaii was found to put potential buyers off. Clipped box trees and hedge either side of a front door create a tidy composition but make sure they are in attractive containers and well watered - dying plants can kill your chance of a quick sale. Door types William and Mary (1689-1702) Winslow Hall, in Buckinghamshire, built by Christopher Wren, features a glazed, William and Mary front door.

The house is on the market with Savills (020 7499 8644) and Jackson-Stops & Staff (020 7664 6646) for £3 million. Late Georgian (1770-1800) Late Georgian doors were usually white, black, or very dark (National Trust) green and made of solid timber, with panels and a glazed fanlight above. Westcott Lodge, a former rectory in Chiswick, west London, features this type of door, with a plain-ring knocker. The property, which has balconies overlooking the Thames, is available for rent through Savills (020 7499 8644). Victorian age (1837-1901) Victorian doors were solid oak or painted white, dark blue, brown, dark red and olive-yellow green. They often featured elaborately stained or etched glass and heavy door furniture. The Victorian gothic-style front door and porch at Shanganagh, in Wimbledon, south London, leads into a wide entrance hall. There are four reception rooms and four bedrooms.

£3.75 million; Savills (020 8971 8111; ). Art Deco (1910-1939) An oval or square stained-glass window in top third of the door, and two or three vertical panels in the lower two thirds, characterise an Art Deco front door. Hazelbank, near Stockton Heath, in Cheshire, with four bedrooms, and a green Art Deco front door is on the market with Jackson-Stops & Staff (0161 928 8881) for £875,000. Arts & Crafts (1880-1920) Arts & Crafts front doors and door funiture were inspired by medieval design and ranged from simple, linear styles to Romantic gothicism and Queen Anne. A simple, half-glazed black Arts & Crafts door at Coombe Barton in Wimbledon (pictured above; £2.5 million; Savills: 020 89718111). Modern planked A modern, horizontal planked front door is in keeping with this newly rebuilt property in Beaconsfield (pictured above).

Situated on a quiet no-through road within a few minutes' walk of Waitrose, the house has six bedrooms and a landscaped, south-facing garden. £1,675,000 Savills (01494 731950; ). Dos and don'ts Play safe - remember a new front door should be in keeping with the property. Don't make life difficult - buy a door before making a door frame. Do keep your front door neatly painted and the plants around it well watered. Make sure your door furniture is in proportion to the size of the door. Do check you have permission to make alterations. No. 10 Downing Street - HUMPHRIES WEAVING No. 10 Downing Street Our Work > Institutions > No. 10 Downing Street No. 10 Downing Street, London. 10 Downing Street, the locale of British prime ministers since 1735, vies with the White House as being the most important political building anywhere in the world in the modern era. Behind its black door have been taken the most important decisions affecting Britain for the last 275 years. The building is much larger than it appears from its frontage.

The hall with the chequered floor immediately behind the front door lets on to a warren of rooms and staircases. The house in Downing Street was joined to a more spacious and elegant building behind it in the early 18th century. Number 10 has also spread itself out to the left of the front door, and has taken over much of 12 Downing Street, which is accessed by a corridor that runs through 11 Downing Street – the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Furniture Gifts in celebration of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Chippendale Suite of Furniture. Rose coloured silk and cotton damask used to reupholster a Chippendale suite of seat furniture. This suite was then copied on behalf of H.M The Queen in celebration of her Silver Jubilee and gifted to heads of state. The first set in the reproduction was presented to President Jimmy Carter for use in the Oval Office in The White House .

Question: What colour is the front door to 11 Downing Street in London?
Answer: Black