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11 unusual facts about Downing Street


Amy Lamé

She is mentioned in Sarah Brown's 2011 memoir Behind the Black Door, where she details Lamé's hen night celebrations in Downing Street.

Bournemouth Highcliff Marriott Hotel

In May 1940, after a meeting of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee at the hotel, their leader Clement Attlee telephones Downing Street with the news that Labour would join a National Government but not if Chamberlain was Prime Minister.

Downing Street

Downing was a soldier and diplomat who served under Oliver Cromwell and King Charles II, and who invested in properties and acquired considerable wealth.

The houses on the west side of the street were demolished in the nineteenth century to make way for government offices, now occupied by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

However, the then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, rejected the proposal, feeling that it would appear to be an unacceptable restriction of the freedom of the public.

Downing Street Kindling

The title refers to the home of the British Prime Minister, and references one of the song's key lyrics, "I will build a fire in Westminster using the door of Downing Street"

Government Art Collection

Works are displayed in several hundred locations, including Downing Street, ministerial offices and reception areas in Whitehall, regional government offices in the UK, and diplomatic posts in locations as diverse as Paris, Buenos Aires, Washington DC and Beijing.

Hilda Gibson

Gibson received the badge of recognition in 2008 during a Prime Ministerial reception at Downing Street.

Marshall Library of Economics

In his honour, the expanded collection was named "The Marshall Library of Economics", and moved to larger quarters on Downing Street.

Merrion Street

The term Merrion Street is often used as shorthand for Irish Government in the same way as Whitehall or Downing Street is used to refer to the British government.

Siobhán O'Hanlon

O'Hanlon was a member of the first Sinn Féin delegation to meet the British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Downing Street in December 1997.


Count Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk

When Edward VIII declared his intention to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson, against the wishes of Prime Minister Baldwin, and was forced to abdicate, Potocki de Montalk printed a manifesto supporting the King and chastising Baldwin, distributing copies in Downing Street and was arrested.

Daniel M'Naghten

On the afternoon of 20 January the Prime Minister's private secretary, civil servant Edward Drummond, was walking towards Downing Street from Charing Cross when M'Naghten approached him from behind, drew a pistol and fired at point-blank range into his back.

Horse Guards Road

To the west of the road is St. James's Park and to the east are various government buildings, including the Horse Guards building, the Old Admiralty Buildings, the Cabinet Office, Downing Street (the entrance to which is blocked by an iron gate), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and HM Treasury.

Plebs

In September 2012, UK Conservative Party Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell was reported using the word in a tirade directed at police officers in Downing Street.

Ted Wragg

Although initially his beliefs were reflected by the government of Tony Blair, he later fell out with it and attacked it, nicknaming Ruth Kelly "Ruth Dalek" and "The Duchess of Drivel"; he also coined the nickname 'Tony Zoffis' (Tony's office) for Andrew Adonis, then a member of the Downing Street policy unit but subsequently ennobled and appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Education.

Theodore Goddard

Goddard went straight to Downing Street to see Baldwin, as a result of which he was provided with an aeroplane to take him directly to Cannes.