Downing Street, London

Downing Street on Google Street View

(Sep 2014)

Downing Street is a historic street in the City of Westminster in London. It was named after Sir George Downing (1623-84), a diplomat under Oliver Cromwell and King Charles II.

In 1653, George Downing bought the land where Downing Street is located today. He built a row of townhouses to be sold to the rich, as it was prime property close to the Palace of Westminster and St James's Park. Historians believe Downing built some fifteen such townhouses along a road ending in a cul-de-sac. These are houses intended for the wealthy. They include coach-houses and stables.

Today Downing Street is most famous for house number 10, which is the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury. As this position is also that of the prime minister since 1735, 10 Downing Street by extension is the official residence of the British Prime Minister.

How to reach Downing Street

For the purpose of security, Downing Street is now closed to the public with a grill gate. You can view it from the outside along Whitehall, which you can reach by taking the Circle Line, District Line or Jubilee Line of the London Underground to the Westminster Tube Station.

Map of Downing Street, London

 Map of Streets in London

The streets that I have described are marked in the map below in red. To read about the street, point your cursor to the red line and click.

List of Streets in London

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Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

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