Downing Street History: Recent Episodes
Downing Street History
Audio histories about Number 10 Downing Street, the office of the official residence of the UK Prime Minister
My name is Monica. I started working with the Prime Minister’s Office as a Messenger and served 2 Prime Ministers during my time. I worked in Downing Street for a total of 14 years and enjoyed every minute of that time. I worked for Sir John Major in his time at Number 10 for 4 years and then Tony Blair for 10 years.
My duties as a Messenger included looking after the Prime Ministers directly, ensuring he had all he required such as refreshments, access to members of staff and anything of a personal nature in his residence. This also included allowing people, such as Clive (the clock man) to wind the clocks in the Number 10 flat, which he did in most of the buildings in Whitehall.
As part of my duty at that time we were required to stay overnight in Number 10. This was to ensure duties such as carafes being full, pencils and papers available in the Cabinet Room and many other jobs were completed.
During my time with Sir John Major he introduced me to Her Majesty the Queen on Sir Ted Heath’s 80th birthday dinner party, hosted by the Prime Minister at Number 10. Unknown to the Prime Minister at the time, meeting Her Majesty was my childhood ambition, and I am so happy that I was able to do so.
After seeing the Prime Minister on his way back from seeing Her Majesty to the front door I said “thank you Prime Minister” and he said “I knew you would like that”. On one occasion, we would be required to take the Prime Minister’s Red box to Cambridge with his papers and Dame Norma’s mother would also get a lift as she sometimes spent time at Number 10.
During the week that Sir John Major was going to leave, I was on my knees one day outside the Private Office checking the mini bar making sure there was enough bottled water. The Prime Minister said to me “Monica, you don’t have to go that far” and I said “Prime Minister I am praying for you” and everybody started laughing.
I found Sir John to be a very pleasant man to work for and enjoyed working with him.
During my time with Tony Blair, I noticed there were a lot of changes when he came into power, for example there were lots more staff which meant extra offices and a new Number 10 café.
As I would personally attend to the Prime Minister when working my shifts especially the nightshift, I used to leave many knickknacks such as cheese sticks and other treats for Mr Blair. He always knew it was me when he found these and he was very pleased.
I have many fond memories from this time as well, which included Tony Blair’s dad playing the piano for me in the Number 10 flat. The detectives used to say “watch him Monica he likes the girls”.
I met Nelson Mandela on 3 occasions; which included once before he became President and Tony Blair introduced me personally to him in the lift.
I have met many other heads of states, singers and actresses in my time including Shirley Bassey and Cliff Richard too. I have many memorable events in Downing Street from my time working there and this will always be a job I will remember.
Hello my name is Tina and I currently manage the Number 10 Direct Communications Unit. I started work in the Cabinet Office in 1977 straight from school.
Jim Callaghan was Prime Minister when I joined the Civil Service and I remember clearly watching Mrs Thatcher arrive in Downing Street as the first woman to be Prime Minister back in 1979. I was a Committee Clerk during my time in the Cabinet Office and had organised many of the Cabinet and war Cabinet meetings during the time of the Falklands war – it was such a very busy time. My first role in Number 10 involved helping in Press Office back in the early 1980s when press notices were still circulated or handed out on pieces paper.
I took a career break to have my children, but returned in 1989 to join Number 10. I worked closely with the Duty Clerks (then called the Confidential Filing Office) on the review of the Number 10 papers from the 1960s; a fascinating time in our country’s political history.
I also worked part time in the Honours and Appointments Unit, which had previously been based in Number 10; preparing papers for church appointments and their interviews etc.
Then, when the Freedom of Information Act came in in 2005, I was involved in setting up the process to ensure requests were dealt with efficiently. As you can imagine we were inundated with requests from the start.
In Direct Communications Unit where I now work, I have had the opportunity to take on many roles; however I have been the Head of the Unit since 2006. It is a privilege to support the Prime Minister with the important communications he receives from members of the public.
The Direct Communications Unit is always busy and as well as ensuring we have the day to day work covered we have to be quite reactive depending on public stories and media stories. The way that we have also become very reliant on IT is a major change that I’ve seen in Number 10, the IT unit used to consist of 1 person and I actually didn’t get a computer to use until the mid-1990s!
It has been a privilege to work here and I have some fantastic memories, being introduced to Mikhail Gorbachev by Mrs Thatcher after she spotted me in the corridor was quite a surprise, and then getting to meet Nelson Mandela on a couple of occasions is certainly something I will never forget.
I'm so grateful to have had such a wonderful career and have met and worked with such wonderful people. Everyone is extremely proud to support the Prime Minister and the government of the day and more importantly to serve the public. Walking through the big black door is something that I will never take for granted.
The history of the Garden Rooms, which is a team of elite secretaries, can be traced back to the First World War. We are lucky to have in our possession a short journal written in 1918 by a secretary to David Lloyd George. My own story starts much later, when I joined the Prime Minister’s Office in November 1988. I have been privileged to work in the Garden Rooms ever since, serving 5 Prime Ministers.
The team operates a 24/7 service from Downing Street but we also accompany the Prime Minister when he or she travels, both abroad and within the UK, at Chequers and on constituency visits.
My earliest recollection of a visit by an overseas Head of State was when President Gorbachev visited Mrs Thatcher at Number 10 in April 1989. They had their photograph taken in the front hall surrounded by staff and I remember he remarked on how many women worked at Number 10. I was on duty again over 20 years later when Mr Cameron invited Gorbachev for afternoon tea to mark his 80th birthday – and we showed Gorbachev the original Evening Standard front page that I’d kept, picturing him with Mrs Thatcher – and me in the background of the photo.
I also came face-to-face, unexpectedly, with President Vaclav Havel in 1990 on an official visit to what was then still Czechoslovakia. Mrs Thatcher and he were having talks at Prague Castle and I was tasked with getting an urgent message to Mrs Thatcher, before the joint press conference. Now this was in the days before mobile phones or blackberrys so I raced off, message in hand, down numerous corridors which were lined by the Prague Castle Guard, looking resplendent in their uniforms. I realised I was not going to hand the message over before the press conference when I saw Mrs Thatcher, the President, Bernard Ingham and a rather startled looking Ambassador bearing down on me along the corridor. Quick as a flash I dived to the side, between a suit of armour and a living guard and, nodding courteously to President Havel as he swept by, I managed to stick my hand out and make contact with Bernard Ingham. Message safely delivered!
I remember being on night duty when Iraq invaded Kuwait. The night Duty Clerk was relatively new and the Prime Minister was overseas in the US. I recall having to persuade the Duty Clerk that yes, an invasion of Kuwait was worth waking the Prime Minister up for.
I famously once asked Mrs Thatcher to resign. Spotting an error in a document, I re-submitted it to her Red Box with a covering note saying “Prime Minister, grateful if you could please re-sign this minute”. My writing was very small and the hyphen seemingly went unnoticed but luckily Mrs Thatcher had a good sense of humour – and I learnt to type my notes for the Box and not to hand-write them.
Other memorable events that I recall during my time at Number 10 include:
• the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the freeing of Nelson Mandela in 1990 • John Major’s involvement with the 1991 Gulf War, which was the first time I had experienced UK Forces deployed overseas in hostility. I was also part of the Number 10 delegation while he negotiated the Maastricht Treaty and I remember his work on bringing about peace in Northern Ireland • I remember visiting Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast on numerous occasions in the run-up to the constitutional reforms of Tony Blair’s government, with devolution of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as being in Belfast for the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 • I was also involved in many of the overseas visits which Gordon Brown undertook following the global financial crisis of 2008, and in advance of the London G20 in 2009 • More recently, I was on duty at Chequers when the White House telephoned my colleague in Number 10 at around 2:15 to ask for an urgent call between President Obama and David Cameron regarding the successful raid on Bid Laden’s hideout.
In the years I have been at Number 10 the main changes have been in technology and communication, although a...
My name is Ray Penny and I worked at Number 10 as a Custodian. I worked at Number 10 for approximately 27 years in total and when I started there the Prime Minister in office was Margaret Thatcher or now, who ended up Baroness Margaret Thatcher. I had the privilege of working with 5 British Prime Ministers: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and the present Prime Minister David Cameron.
There is always a custodian 24/7 on the door at Number 10. When I started working here they had like a permanent doorman; he would be on there most of the day. I think he just took about half an hour for his lunch and occasionally if he wanted to go to the toilet we would relieve him. He normally done Monday to Friday working late into the evening, just covering the receptions. However a few years ago a decision was made that the door duties would transfer over to the guards so which as there were 15 guards at the time so literally on a rota system, and we done an hour each on the door, rotation. The doorman’s post ceased after the retirement of the permanent doorman Bob Jordan. They used to call him Bob the door, in fact every person who's been on the door, if they’re Bob the door or Jim the door, or whatever.
My job as custodian was varied and interesting and my primary responsibilities were assisting the Prime Minister and his family in their home whenever required. Becoming the face of Number 10 for all those who come through the door. Meet and greet Heads of State and visitors to Number 10 when on front door duty. Check all invitations were valid for receptions and other functions being held within Number 10. Ensuring no one gained unauthorised admission to Number 10, performing other security checks around the building. It was always a busy job 24/7, however with the increasing staffing levels it got busier, particularly after the IRA attack on Downing Street as security levels went up and there was a requirement for a larger press office present at the time. Being that the media coverage literally went to 24 hour coverage, in fact, lots of televisions were all put round the building so we could all follow at the present time the main sky news 24 hour channel. Sometimes you didn’t even get time doing the job to even have a break, sometimes it was that busy, people coming and going in Number 10.
There are far too many changes which have happened in Number 10 to list them all but the major ones that affected myself and other custodians were the Prime Minister and his family moved from Number 10 to Number 11 Downing Street because the Number 11 flat was a slightly bigger flat. This was as a result of the next major change in Number 10, babies being born to serving Prime Ministers who had already other young children.
The press office staff increased from a small office with approximately 6 staff to a very much larger press office which I think was roughly between 25 and sort of 30 people: that was the outcome of the 24-hour news channels and whatever.
I have many favourite memories of Number 10; the first is being invited to my very first Christmas party in 1985 where Mrs Thatcher, well what it was I wasn’t actually posted to Number 10, but Mrs Thatcher, when I attended the party I was surprised because I got the invitation sent to my home. I attended the party and what really surprised me most of all, I had only been a couple of weeks at Number 10, is that the Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher she, it was quite a friendly, very friendly, very friendly close knit place in that time and it surprised me because she was walking around assisting the ladies in the kitchen and she put out the sausages on a plate to me and I took a sausage and I was absolutely shocked because being the, well the reputation of the Iron Lady here was the Prime Minister giving me a sausage on a stick, and that’s what really really surprised me and puts you at ease straight away doesn’t it, you know, work at Number 10, what a f...
I’m Brian and I’ve worked at Number 10 for ten years, joining in 2002, and previous to that I supported the Prime Minister’s Office from the Cabinet Office. My background when I first joined was in Secure Communications and when I first joined in 1992 it was based on that we had telephones in Number 10. We also had a variety of secure communications. The biggest one we had, the primary one, was the link to Washington, to the Americans. We had not only connections from Downing Street to the White House, but we were also able to connect it to Chequers and at that time to the constituency office of the Prime Minister, which was at Huntingdon. We used a local RAF Air Force base called Alconbury and we had a little office there where we used to go up to prior to the visit of the Prime Minister when he used to go home and we would set the equipment up so it enabled him to actually do communications with the Americans.
The UK had, in those days, a very, very archaic secure voice system and I do know not only did John Major but also Margaret Thatcher hated using the system because not only was it difficult to use, but the quality of the voice distorted it so much it was very hard to understand who was actually speaking on the phone! I know from speaking to my counterpart at the White House he was actually involved in the first installation of a secure phone between Number 10 and the White House itself. This happened during the Falklands War in 1982.
If you go over to the War Office there is actually a room there which actually shows you the first hotline as it was called, the first hotline between the United States and the UK. It was actually a big, a huge piece of equipment which was actually housed in Selfridges and was used during the War between Churchill and Roosevelt. But by 1982 of course the equipment was much smaller and it was able to be housed in 10 Downing Street. My counterpart, my colleague at the White House, told me that he actually was directed by the President at the time, Ronald Reagan, to come to London to install this piece of equipment. He was there, instrumental in handing the handset to Margaret Thatcher so that she could actually speak to Ronald Reagan for that first call.
My name is Chris and I worked in Number 10 for 25 years. I worked for 17 years on the Switchboard and then I went down to the IT department where I stayed for 8 years.
I worked with 5 Prime Ministers. It was very relaxed at the beginning but with Mrs Thatcher everything was done on time, nobody was ever late for anything, everything was in place at the right time, ready for her to do or go wherever she was going.
We were based on the third floor in the attic, the Switchboard. There were only 8 operators at the time and at the time I started we had just a little keyboard. There were no screens or anything and all our information we used to collate ourselves and write in a little book. Over the years, once we got new technology, we used to transfer it onto the screen but initially that’s how we did it. Everything was by word of mouth and put in the book so that the next person knew where to find the information.
It was the best career decision I ever made because I don’t know what I would have done otherwise. I just loved working there, every moment of it. The job in Switchboard was not like a telephonist where you just answer the phones and put an extension through; you got involved in the calls and the more that you put into the job the more satisfaction you got. Even if you weren’t interested in politics, you became interested in politics because you used to read about the people that you’d spoken to in the paper. It was very nice because it was all a first-name basis; it still is, you don’t call anybody ‘Mr’. I don’t know about now but we never used to call Lords ‘Lord’ or ‘Lady’, they always wanted you to call them by their first name. It made you feel a bit more special.
Once they started using mobile phones, then the Switchboard got busy because people were available at all times of the day or night. There wasn’t anybody that couldn’t be contacted. In fact we even contacted somebody down the Amazon once. I mean not in my time but previously somebody was contacted down the Amazon. The criteria was 'we find anybody anywhere'. You don’t say you can’t find them; you get them and that’s it, that’s your job and we used to do it. Quite amazing really. It was good fun!
Hear the Facilities Manager at Number 10 staff talk about his encounter with the resident ghost in the Small Dining Room at Number 10 Downing Street.
You can see the Small Dining Room here: http://bit.ly/16KMffb
Read the transcript: https://history.blog.gov.uk/2013/10/31/a-ghost-story-from-number-10/