Government Offices Great George Street (GOGGS) is a large UK government office building situated in Westminster between Horse Guards Road, Great George Street, Parliament Street, King Charles Street and Parliament Square. The western end of the building, on Horse Guards Road, is known as 1 Horse Guards Road (1HGR). The Parliament Street end is referred to as 100 Parliament Street (100PS).
GOGGS was designed by John Brydon following a competition in 1898; the design was "derived from Inigo Jones’ design for a new Whitehall Palace" in the 1630s. [1] Construction took place in two phases: the East end was completed in 1908 and the West end was completed in 1917. [1] It was originally built as offices for the Board of Education, the Local Government Board and the local Ministry of Works Office; HM Treasury moved into the building in 1940. [1] In the early 1970s, the building also housed several departments of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, primarily in the west half of the building.
A major refurbishment of the building was procured under a private finance initiative contract in 2000. The works, which were designed by Foster and Partners together with Feilden and Mawson and carried out by Bovis Lend Lease at a cost of £140 million, were completed in 2002. [2] The refurbishment of 1 Horse Guards Road added floor space which allowed the entire Treasury staff to be housed in the same building for the first time for some 50 years. [3]
By the end of 2004 HM Revenue and Customs was relocated into 100 Parliament Street from Somerset House. In 2013 the Northern Ireland Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport moved into 1 Horse Guards Road and 100 Parliament Street respectively. [4] [5]
The western end of the building, on Horse Guards Road, is known as 1 Horse Guards Road (1HGR) and is occupied by HM Treasury, UK Export Finance, the Government Internal Audit Agency, the Northern Ireland Office, the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons, the Office of the Leader of the House of Lords and parts of the Cabinet Office, including the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel.
The headquarters of HM Revenue and Customs, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, [6] and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology [7] occupy the Parliament Street end, referred to as 100 Parliament Street (100PS).
The basement houses the Churchill War Rooms, a branch of the Imperial War Museum. Civil servants working in the building are entitled to visit the War Rooms for free.
GOGGS is listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England, meaning it is of "exceptional interest and of outstanding importance". [8] It was described by the Victorian Society as an early monument of the Edwardian Baroque Revival. [9]
An aerial shot of the building is used in the TV series Spooks to accompany a sub-title portraying it as the Home Office – therefore serving as stand-in to match the distinctly period appearance of the fictitious Home Office accommodation interiors the series uses, rather than the far more modern real Home Office headquarters at 2 Marsham Street.
The character James Bond is seen in a courtyard of GOGGS in the movie Spectre . The building serves as MI6 headquarters after a terrorist attack on the SIS Building in Skyfall . [10]
The GOGGS central circular courtyard and King Charles Street outside were used as the start of a London streetrace in Fast & Furious 6 . [11]
The GOGGS King Charles Street facade and central circular courtyard were used in the film Darkest Hour showing the character Elizabeth Layton entering the War Rooms for the first time. Later in the film GOGGS is shown in an aerial shot.[ citation needed ]
Downing Street is a street in Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In a cul-de-sac situated off Whitehall, it is 200 metres (660 ft) long, and a few minutes' walk from the Houses of Parliament. Downing Street was built in the 1680s by Sir George Downing.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom.
Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Square. The street is recognised as the centre of the Government of the United Kingdom and is lined with numerous departments and ministries, including the Ministry of Defence, Horse Guards and the Cabinet Office. Consequently, the name "Whitehall" is used as a metonym for the British civil service and government, and as the geographic name for the surrounding area.
His Majesty's Treasury, occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and economic policy. The Treasury maintains the Online System for Central Accounting and Reporting, the replacement for the Combined Online Information System, which itemises departmental spending under thousands of category headings, and from which the Whole of Government Accounts annual financial statements are produced.
The Home Office (HO), also known as the Home Department, is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for immigration, security, and law and order. As such, it is responsible for policing in England and Wales, fire and rescue services in England, Border Force, visas and immigration, and the Security Service (MI5). It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counterterrorism, and immigration. It was formerly responsible for His Majesty's Prison Service and the National Probation Service, but these have been transferred to the Ministry of Justice.
10 Downing Street in London is the official residence and office of the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Colloquially known as Number 10, the building is in Downing Street, off Whitehall in the City of Westminster.
The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at which point its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). Equivalent to the Admiralty at that time, the War Office was responsible for the Royal Navy (RN) and the Air Ministry, which oversaw the Royal Air Force (RAF). The name 'Old War Office' is also given to the former home of the department, located at the junction of Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall in central London. The landmark building was sold on 1 March 2016 by HM Government for more than £350 million, on a 250-year lease for conversion into a luxury hotel and residential apartments.
The Cabinet Office is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and coordinate the delivery of government objectives via other departments. As of December 2021, it had over 10,200 staff, mostly civil servants, some of whom work in Whitehall. Staff working in the Prime Minister's Office are part of the Cabinet Office.
The Scotland Office, known as the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland from 2018 to 2024, is a department of His Majesty's Government headed by the secretary of state for Scotland and responsible for Scottish affairs that lie within HM Government's responsibility.
Somerset House is a large building complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle was built on the site of a Tudor palace originally belonging to the Duke of Somerset in 1547. The present Somerset House was designed by Sir William Chambers, begun in 1776, and was further extended with Victorian era outer wings to the east and west in 1831 and 1856 respectively. The site of Somerset House stood directly on the River Thames until the Victoria Embankment was built in the late 1860s.
A number of military citadels are known to have been constructed underground in central London, dating mostly from the Second World War and the Cold War. Unlike traditional above-ground citadels, these sites are primarily secure centres for defence coordination.
Horse Guards Parade is a large parade ground off Whitehall in central London. It is the site of the annual ceremonies of Trooping the Colour, which commemorates the monarch's official birthday, and the Beating Retreat.
Parliament Square is a square at the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Laid out in the 19th century, it features a large open green area in the centre with trees to its west, and it contains twelve statues of statesmen and other notable individuals.
Thames House is an office building in Millbank, London, on the north bank of the River Thames adjacent to Lambeth Bridge. Originally used as offices by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), it has served as the headquarters of the United Kingdom's internal Security Service since December 1994. It also served as the London headquarters of the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) until March 2013.
Horse Guards Road 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.
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.
The Cockpit-in-Court was an early theatre in London, located at the Palace of Whitehall, next to St. James's Park, now the site of 70 Whitehall, in Westminster.
The Government Art Collection (GAC) is the collection of artworks owned by the UK government and administered by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The GAC's artworks are used to decorate major government buildings in the UK and around the world, and to promote British art, culture and history. The GAC now holds over 14,000 works of art in a variety of media, including around 2,500 oil paintings, but also sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, textiles and video works, mainly created by British artists or artist with a strong connection to the UK, from the sixteenth century to the present day. 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 outside the UK.
The Ministry of Defence Main Building or MOD Main Building, also known as MOD Whitehall or originally as the Whitehall Gardens Building, is a grade I listed government office building located on Whitehall in London. The building was designed by E. Vincent Harris in 1915 and constructed between 1939 and 1959 on part of the site of the Palace of Whitehall, specifically Pelham House, Cromwell House, Montagu House, Pembroke House and part of Whitehall Gardens. It was initially occupied by the Air Ministry and the Board of Trade before becoming the current home of the Ministry of Defence in 1964.
The Admiralty buildings complex lies between Whitehall, Horse Guards Parade and The Mall and includes five inter-connected buildings.
51°30′6″N0°7′42″W / 51.50167°N 0.12833°W
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