Empire Murals

12 Downing Street is one of the buildings situated on Downing Street in the City of Westminster in London, England. It has been traditionally used as the office of the Chief Whip although the upper floor forms part of the residential apartment for the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It has been owned and used by the Crown since 1803, first housing the Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forces and then the Colonial Office, before the office of the Chief Whip moved into the premises in 1879 until 2001. It is a Grade II listed building.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID). The FCO, itself created in 1968 by the merger of the Foreign Office (FO) and the Commonwealth Office, was responsible for protecting and promoting British interests worldwide. The head of the FCDO is the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, commonly abbreviated to "foreign secretary". This is regarded as one of the four most prestigious positions in the Cabinet – the Great Offices of State – alongside those of Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary. The current foreign secretary is Liz Truss. The FCDO is managed day-to-day by a civil servant, the permanent under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, who also acts as the Head of Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service. The current permanent under-secretary is Sir Philip Barton, who took office on 2 September 2020. The expenditure, administration and policy of the FCDO are scrutinised by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

The India Office was a British government department established in London in 1858 to oversee the administration, through a Viceroy and other officials, of the Provinces of British India. These territories comprised most of the modern-day nations of Indian Subcontinent as well as Yemen and other territories around the Indian Ocean. The department was headed by the Secretary of State for India, a member of the British cabinet, who was formally advised by the Council of India.Upon the independence of India in 1947 into the new independent dominion of India of the India Office was closed down. Responsibility for the United Kingdom's relations with the new country was transferred to the Commonwealth Relations Office (formerly the Dominions Office).

A bronze statue of Admiral of the Fleet Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma is located on Mountbatten Green, off Horse Guards Road, Whitehall, London, England. The sculptor was Franta Belsky and the work was unveiled in 1983.

The Downing Street mortar attack was carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 7 February 1991. The IRA launched three homemade mortar shells at 10 Downing Street, London, the headquarters of the British government in an attempt to assassinate prime minister John Major and his war Cabinet, who were meeting to discuss the Gulf War. One of the 140 pounds (64 kg) mortar shells exploded in the back garden of Number 10, yards from the Cabinet Office. Due to the bomb-resistant windows, none of the cabinet were hurt, though four other people received minor injuries, including two police officers. The other two shells overshot Downing Street and landed on a green nearby.

The Downing Street Christmas tree is the Christmas tree placed on Downing Street, outside 10 Downing Street which is the official office and residence of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The tree arrives in Downing Street around the end of November with the lighting ceremony taking place at the beginning of December which is broadcast live by news broadcasters such as BBC News.

The Churchill War Rooms is a museum in London and one of the five branches of the Imperial War Museum. The museum comprises the Cabinet War Rooms, a historic underground complex that housed a British government command centre throughout the Second World War, and the Churchill Museum, a biographical museum exploring the life of British statesman Winston Churchill. Construction of the Cabinet War Rooms, located beneath the Treasury building in the Whitehall area of Westminster, began in 1938. They became fully operational on 27 August 1939, a week before Britain declared war on Germany. The War Rooms remained in operation throughout the Second World War, before being abandoned in August 1945 after the surrender of Japan. After the war, the historic value of the Cabinet War Rooms was recognised. Their preservation became the responsibility of the Ministry of Works and later the Department for the Environment, during which time very limited numbers of the public were able to visit by appointment. In the early 1980s, the Imperial War Museum was asked to take over the administration of the site, and the Cabinet War Rooms were opened to the public in April 1984. The museum was reopened in 2005 following a major redevelopment as the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, but in 2010 this title was shortened to the Churchill War Rooms.

A Grade II-listed bronze statue of Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, by John Tweed, stands in King Charles Street, Whitehall, London. The work was unveiled in 1912 outside Gwydyr House, also in Whitehall, and was moved to its current location in 1916.

11 Downing Street (sometimes referred to as just Number 11) is the official residence of Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer (who traditionally also has the title of Second Lord of the Treasury). The residence, in Downing Street in London, was built alongside the official residence of the Prime Minister at Number 10 in 1682. The first Chancellor to live there was Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice in 1806, but Number 11 did not become the Chancellor's official residence until 1828.From 1997 onwards, Prime Ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson chose to reside for all or part of their term of office at Number 11, as its residential apartment is larger than Number 10. However, the Prime Minister's home is traditionally described being at Number 10.

Horse Guards Road (or just Horse Guards) is a road in the City of Westminster, London. Located in post code SW1A 2HQ, it runs south from The Mall down to Birdcage Walk, roughly parallel with Whitehall and Parliament Street.To the west of the road is St James's Park. To the east, between Horse Guards Road and Whitehall, are various government buildings, including the five interconnected Admiralty buildings. The Old Admiralty (Ripley) Building, the oldest of the Government offices, was completed in 1726. The Horse Guards building, completed in 1759, originally housed barracks and government offices. Adjacent to the Horse Guards building is a large courtyard, Horse Guards Parade, where the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony is held in the presence of the reigning monarch. Her Majesty's Treasury is located in the New Government Offices at 1 House Guards Road. Constructed during the period 1899 - 1915, its basement was used as the Cabinet War Rooms during the Second World War. An underground portion of the war rooms was opened to the public in 1984. Also to the east, between Horse Guards Road and Whitehall, are the Cabinet Office, the intersection with Downing Street (which is blocked by an iron gate), and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (built 1888 - 1905).

Downing Street is a 200-metre (660 ft) long street in the City of Westminster that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Situated off Whitehall, a few minutes' walk from the Houses of Parliament, Downing Street was built in the 1680s by Irishman Sir George Downing. For more than three hundred years, it has held the official residences of both the First Lord of the Treasury, the office now synonymous with that of the Prime Minister, and the Second Lord of the Treasury, the office held by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Prime Minister's official residence is 10 Downing Street; the Chancellor's official residence is Number 11. The government's Chief Whip has an official residence at Number 12. In practice, the individuals involved may live in different flats; the current Chief Whip actually lives at Number 9. The houses on the south side of the street were demolished in the 19th century to make way for government offices now occupied by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The term "Downing Street" is used as a metonym for the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, or the British Government more generally.

The Battle of Downing Street was a march of suffragettes to Downing Street, London, on 22 November 1910. Organized by Emmeline Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union, the march took place four days after Black Friday, a suffragette protest outside the House of Commons that saw the women violently attacked by police.