10 Downing Street - Dods Monitoring

Chamberlain, who became Prime Minister
in 1937, had ambitious plans to rectify the
problems and give Number 10 a facelift, which
disappeared from view with his own departure
in 1940. The house suffered near misses and
structural damage during the Blitz in the
autumn of 1940, and in the post-war period, a
consensus emerged that this awkward house,
far from ideal as either a residence or an office
for the Prime Minister, had served its time.
Incoming Prime Minister Harold
Macmillan duly established a committee
in July 1957 to consider ‘proposals for
reconstruction’ of Number 10, 11 and 12
Downing Street. Years of Whitehall squabbling
followed, concluding in a compromise to
retain the facades of Number 10 and 11
with substantial re-building inside, and to
reconstruct Number 12 wholesale. Macmillan
and his staff moved out of Downing Street
in July 1960 and settled into
Admiralty House, between
Trafalgar Square and The
Mall, to clear the space for
work scheduled to take two
years or less. But trade union
disputes, and the shocking
state of the building and its
foundations, led to the project
taking over three years. It was
not until September 1963 at a
final cost of £1 million, over
double the initial estimate,
that Macmillan was able
to move back into his new
Downing Street office and
home. Within a month, he had
fallen from power, damaged
irreparably by the Profumo
Scandal.
Next year, 2013, will
see the 50th anniversary of
Downing Street in its new
guise. The building today
is still very substantially
the same as that which
Macmillan re-entered in
1963. In the 1980s, Margaret
Thatcher employed the
classical architect, Quinlan
Terry, who had worked on
the building in 1960-63, to
undertake some elaborate
interior redecoration in
the three interlinked State
APRIL 2012 | THE HOUSE MAGAZINE | 7