Short - But the Most Important Street 

The name of Downing Street is well known all over the world:

firstly it is a term, used for the British Government, and, secondly, the house at No.10 is the official home for the Prime Minister, No.11 – for the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Downing Street can be found close to Cenotaph on White Hall.

The street was named after Sir George Downing (1625 – 1684). But why? Who was he?

“Born in Ireland, he emigrated to New England with his parents in 1638 and attended the newly founded Harvard College.

Returning to England, he fought for Parliament, and later undertook several diplomatic missions for Cromwell, including that of ambassador to the Hague, where he associated with the Royalists exiles, so that at the Restoration he continued as ambassador and received other offices, as well as a baronetcy (1663).

As a diplomat he was an expert in commercial matters, but achieved a reputation for contentiousness and duplicity, which led Charles II to use him as an instrument in provoking the Dutch into war.”

(Chambers Biographical Dictionary, Centenary Edition 1997. Edinburgh)

The earliest building known to have stood on the site was a brewhouse called Axe which belonged to the Abbey of Abington. By the middle of the 16th century it was no longer used. In 1581 Elizabeth I leased the property to Thomas Knyvet, keeper of the White Hall palace. After the death of his widow, the property came in to possession of her niece, Elizabeth Hamden, aunt of Oliver Cromwell.

After the Restoration the Crown’s interest in the property was acquired by Sir George Dowining who about 1680 built a cul-de-sac of plain brick terraced houses on it.

The houses were fit for persons of honour and quality, each having a pleasant prospect of St. James Park.

Of the original houses only No.10, 11 and 12 remain. George II offered No.10 as a personal gift to Sir Robert Walpole (1676 – 1745), the first real Prime Minister of England, who accepted the house for his office. It happened in 1752.

Walpole made the system that is used today. The cabinet controls the government and its political party, and dominates Parliament.

Walpole’s greatest strength were his understanding of his countrymen – he became the personification of John Bull – and of a Parliament.

A lot of water has flown under the bridges since those times, but tradition remained – all successive Prime Ministers have become residents of the famous address.

Currently it is impossible, as in the old days and in times of national crises, to see little groups of curious folk waiting for a decision of the Prime Minister in front of the threshold. Since the ruling of Margaret Thatcher, the street has been closed to the public, tough security measures are being taken, and policemen stand guard over the place round the clock.

I was lucky to stroll along the street in earlier days, as many times as I wished, and policemen did not mind you taking pictures of the proudest threshold in the land. Once I even had a chat with a policeman, asking him about two strange metallic devices in front of the door.

“These are bootscrapers. They have been installed here since 1752 and are a domestic reminder of those times. Before entering No.10, visitors were obliged to scrape dirt from their boots and shoes heels.”

No.10 is famous not only for its Prime Ministers and their families, but also for its pet residents.

When Tony Blair and his family moved into the house in May 1997, all British animal lovers expressed serious concern about the fate of Humphey, the resident cat at No.10. In November 1997 the cat suddenly disappeared.

Humphey has lived in and around Downing Street for eleven years and had become very popular among British people. His antics regularly appeared in the British press. Once he was accused of murdering and eating one of Queen Elizabeth II’s ducklings in nearby St. James Park. Humphey was also blamed for killing four baby robins in the No.10 Dowing Street gardens, and is the prime suspect of several savage mouse deaths.

He narrowly avoided death in May 1997 when he was nearly run over by US President Bill Clinton’s two-ton bullet-proof Cadillac. And his future seemed in jeopardy after newspapers reported that Cherie Blair, wife of the new Labour Prime Minister, was allergic to cats. And it happened – Humphey disappeared. Was the cat murdered? A vat representative suggested that it would be better for the cat to live in a quieter home in the suburbs of the capital, as Humphey was eleven years old and was suffering from kidney problems.

Another sensation took place at Downing Street. Tony Blair and his wife Cherie decided that the flat above 10 Downing Street was too small for them, their three children Nicky (13), Euan (11), and Kathryn (9), and a nanny, and have chosen instead to live in No.11 Downing Street, the traditional address of the Chancellor of the Exchequer which is more spacious.

But as usual all office work is being done at Downing Street No.10.

 

By Yevgeny Kunitsin,
Senior teacher of English
The New University of Humanities of Natalya Nesterova