Boris Johnson is leaving or, rather, they are kicking him out. But he is not leaving completely either, because although he is no longer the head of the Conservative Party, refuses to leave 10 Downing Street, which is a way of saying that he is still prime minister. The media game that gives that dark door with the golden number… and the times that journalists quote the address in their chronicles. Today we ring the bell and sneak inside.
Before, it is worth knowing the reason for the name of that street. turns out in the seventeenth century there was a Mr. Downing. Baron Sir George Downing, to be exact. He was one of the most able statesmen of his time, able to adapt to all situations. First he was a supporter of the monarchy, then he positioned himself alongside Oliver Cromwell who overthrew (and beheaded) Charles I and, finally, he sided with the Crown again during the Restoration, with the reign of Charles II (the son of the executed Cromwell). ).
Downing’s figure is one of the most controversial in the United Kingdom because in addition to changing his jacket, he also did good things from the different positions of political responsibility he held. Above all, its remarkable boost to British naval developmentwhich allowed the colonial expansion in the five continents.
Towards the end of his life, in 1680, he bought the land where the street that bears his name now stands. That area was close to the royal residence of the time, the Whitehall Palace, which gave it not only economic value but also status for those who lived there. Taking advantage of this, Downing built a series of houses which he sold to English noblemen. To maximize the return on investment, he had no qualms about using low-quality materials. For example, instead of using bricks, only mortar was used on the walls, which was then duly decorated with lines to give the impression that there were real bricks. In addition, the houses were not numbered consecutively but instead. It was necessary to wait for 1787 to order them and for the 10 to be fixed forever.
The building began to gain symbolic weight in 1735 when the king Jorge I nombró a Robert Walpole como ‘first lord of the Treasury’. That position was the one of maximum responsibility and that is why it was often called ‘prime minister’ (PM), and it has stayed that way since the time of Walpole, whom the monarch wanted to thank for the services rendered by giving him the house at number 10. politician, however, preferred that it become the official residence for his successors, and also extended it to numbers 11 and 12. However, very few MPs wanted to live there from the start, because they preferred to continue in their own home. Thus, the house was only used for government meetings and official receptions.
During the first decades of the 19th century, the neighborhood deteriorated. It was filled with brothels and ‘gin bars’, which were a nest of problems. The situation was so critical that in 1839 the option of tearing down the street to redevelop the area was put on the table, but the idea was finally discarded.
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The big change came in 1874 during the second term of Benjamin Disraeli, who decided to go and live there. That forced to modernize the house to provide it with the maximum comforts of the time, that is, it had hot running water and proper bathrooms. For electricity and the telephone, they still had to wait a little longer: they arrived in 1894 during the time of PM William Gladstone. In the 20th century, after the Second World War, Downing Street was very run-down. During the 1950s, no prime minister wanted to carry out the necessary reforms because they were expensive and complex, but during the 1960s, architects warned that the structural damage was so serious that it was even dangerous for its residents. During the works, the private residence was moved to 12 and 10 and 11 were restored to adapt them to the new times. We will see if after so much party during the Johnson era it will also be time to make a new restoration.
no keys
What Boris Johnson will certainly not do when he leaves 10 Downing Street is return the keys, because he doesn’t have them. The door cannot be opened from the outside. You can see for yourself when you see footage of the PM entering. You will realize that it always opens from the inside, where there is a security control that monitors access to the enclosure.
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