List of residents of 10 Downing Street

Last updated November 28, 2024

Number 10 Downing Street is the residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The headquarters of His Majesty's Government, it is situated on Downing Street in the City of Westminster in London, England.

Number 10 was originally three houses: a stately mansion overlooking St James's Park called "the house at the back" built around 1530, a modest townhouse behind it located at 10 Downing Street and a small cottage next to Number 10. The townhouse, from which the modern building gets its name, was one of several built by Sir George Downing between 1682 and 1684.

Below is a list of the residents of Number 10 and the House at the Back from 1650 to the present.^[1]

Residents of Number 10 Downing Street and The House at the Back, 1650–present

Prime Ministers are indicated in bold.

Name of resident(s)		Offices(s) held while in residence (if any)	Year(s) in residence
The House at the Back: Before 1733
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham		Member of the Cabal Ministry	1673–1676
Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield		Master of the Horse	1677–1690
Henry Nassau, Lord Overkirk (formerly Auverquerque)		Master of the Horse	1690–1708
Frances Nassau, Lady Overkirk		Widow of Lord Overkirk	1708–1720
Johann Caspar von Bothmar, Count Bothmar		Envoy from Hanover; advisor to George I and George II	1720–1732
Number 10 Downing Street: Before 1733
The Countess of Yarmouth		—	1688–1690
Lord Lansdowne		—	1692–1696
Henry Nassau, Lord Overkirk, 1st Earl of Grantham		Master of the Horse	1699–1703
Number 10 Downing Street, including the House at the Back: 1735 and After
	Between 1733 and 1735, the architect William Kent, under a commission from Sir Robert Walpole, combined Litchfield House and one of the Downing Street townhouses into one house, known since as Number 10 Downing Street, officially the residence of the First Lord of the Treasury.
Sir Robert Walpole		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1735–1742
Samuel Sandys, later Baron Sandys		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1742–1744
Earl of Lincoln		Prime Minister Henry Pelham's nephew and son-in-law	1745–1753
Lewis Watson		Prime Minister Henry Pelham's son-in-law	1753–1754
Henry Bilson-Legge		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1754–1761
Thomas Pelham		Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty	1762
Sir Francis Dashwood		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1762–1763
George Grenville		First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer	1763–1765
William Dowdeswell		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1765–1766
	During 1766, Number 10 underwent extensive repairs and reconstruction.
Charles Townshend		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1766–1767
Frederick North, Lord North		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1767–1770
Frederick North, Lord North		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1770–1782
Sir John Cavendish (doubtful)		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1782
William Pitt the Younger		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1782–1783
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland		First Lord of the Treasury	1783
	During 1783, Number 10 again underwent extensive repairs and alterations.
William Pitt the Younger		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1783–1801
Henry Addington		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1801–1804
William Pitt the Younger		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1804–1806
	William Pitt lived in Number 10 for a total of twenty years, more than any Prime Minister before or since. This long residency helped to establish an association in the public mind between the house and the office.
William Wyndham Grenville, Lord Grenville		First Lord of the Treasury	1806–1807
William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland		First Lord of the Treasury	1807
Spencer Perceval		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1807–1809
Spencer Perceval		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1809–1812
Charles Arbuthnot		Joint Secretary to the Treasury	1810
Nicholas Vansittart		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1812–1823
Frederick John Robinson		Chancellor of the Exchequer	1823–1827
George Canning		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer	1827–1828
F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich		First Lord of the Treasury	1827–1828
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington		First Lord of the Treasury	1828–1830
	For the first seven months of his ministry, Wellesley refused to live in Number 10 because he thought it too small. He moved in only because his home, Apsley House, required extensive repairs. He returned to Apsley House eighteen months later.
Earl of Bathurst		Lord President of the Council	1830
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey		First Lord of the Treasury	1830–1834
Sir Thomas Fremantle		Secretary to Sir Robert Peel	1835
	The residential part of Number 10 was vacant for three years from 1835 to 1838 during the Melbourne Ministry.
The Hon William Cowper and G. E. Anson		Private secretaries to Lord Melbourne	1838
G. E. Anson		Private secretary to Lord Melbourne	1839–1840
Edward Drummond		Private secretary to Sir Robert Peel	1842
Edward Drummond and W. H. Stephenson		Chief private secretary and junior private secretary to Sir Robert Peel	1843
W. H. Stephenson and George Arbuthnot		Chief private secretary and junior private secretary to Sir Robert Peel	1844–1846
George Keppel, Charles Grey, and R.W. Grey		Private secretaries to Lord John Russell	1847
	The residential part of Number 10 was vacant for the next thirty years and the house was used only for Cabinet meetings and office space.
	In 1877, Disraeli ordered extensive repairs and redecorating of Number 10 so that he could live there, as did Gladstone during his 1880–85 ministry. From this time, every First Lord has lived in Number 10, although not all were also Prime Minister.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield		First Lord of the Treasury	1877–1880
William Ewart Gladstone		First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer (April 1880 – December 1882)	1880–1885
Sir Stafford Northcote		First Lord of the Treasury	1885–1886
William Ewart Gladstone		First Lord of the Treasury	1886
Lord Salisbury		First Lord of the Treasury	1886–1887
	Salisbury lived at his home at 20 Arlington Street in St James's in 1887–92 and 1895–1902.
William Henry Smith		First Lord of the Treasury	1887–1891
Arthur Balfour		First Lord of the Treasury	1891–1892
William Ewart Gladstone		First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Privy Seal	1892–1894
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery		First Lord of the Treasury, Lord President of the Council	1894–1895
Arthur Balfour		First Lord of the Treasury, Leader of the House of Commons	1895–1902
	Since 1902, every Prime Minister has officially resided in Number 10 although several actually lived elsewhere as noted below. Also, since then, all have held the official legal office of First Lord of the Treasury; none have held the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer while PM as was often the case previously, with the exception of Stanley Baldwin between May and August 1923.
Arthur Balfour		First Lord of the Treasury	1902–1905
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman		First Lord of the Treasury	1905–1907
H. H. Asquith		First Lord of the Treasury (and Secretary of State for War: January–August 1914)	1907–1916
David Lloyd George		First Lord of the Treasury	1916–1922
Bonar Law		First Lord of the Treasury	1922–1923
Stanley Baldwin		First Lord of the Treasury (and Chancellor of the Exchequer: May–August 1923)	1923–1924
Ramsay MacDonald		First Lord of the Treasury and Foreign Secretary	1924
Stanley Baldwin		First Lord of the Treasury	1924–1929
Ramsay MacDonald		First Lord of the Treasury	1929–1935
Stanley Baldwin		First Lord of the Treasury	1935–1937
Neville Chamberlain		First Lord of the Treasury	1937–1940
Winston Churchill		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister of Defence	1940–1945
	For his safety, Churchill lived in the heavily bunkered Annex of Number 10 during most of the Second World War. However, he did insist on using Number 10 for work and dining.
Clement Attlee		First Lord of the Treasury	1945–1951
Sir Winston Churchill		First Lord of the Treasury	1951–1955
Sir Anthony Eden		First Lord of the Treasury	1955–1956
Harold Macmillan		First Lord of the Treasury	1957–1960
	Macmillan lived in Admiralty House from 1960 to 1964 while Number 10 was restored. Completely gutted, and carefully dismantled, the house was then meticulously rebuilt on deep foundations using as much of the original materials as possible.
Sir Alec Douglas-Home		First Lord of the Treasury	1964
Harold Wilson		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service	1964–1970
Edward Heath		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service	1970–1974
Harold Wilson		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service	1974–1976
	During his second ministry, Wilson maintained the public illusion of living in Number 10 even though he actually lived in his house at 5 Lord North Street in Westminster.
James Callaghan		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service	1976–1979
Margaret Thatcher		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service	1979–1990
John Major		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service	1990–1997
	In 1991, the Provisional IRA launched a mortar bomb at Number 10, blowing out windows and leaving a large crater in the back yard. Major vacated the house during repairs.
Tony Blair		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service	1997–2007
	Shortly after taking office in 1997, Blair agreed to swap apartments with his Chancellor, Gordon Brown, since the flat at Number 11 was larger and more suited to his larger family.^[2] Brown remained at Number 10 after he succeeded to the premiership in 2007,^[3] thus spending a full calendar decade, the 2000s, resident in the house, as Thatcher had done in the 1980s.
Gordon Brown		Chancellor of the Exchequer (1997–2007) First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service (2007–2010)	2007–2010^[3]
David Cameron		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service	2010–2016
	Cameron agreed to swap apartments with his Chancellor, George Osborne, for similar reasons to Blair.^[4]
Theresa May		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service	2016–2019
	May chose to live in Number 11 while her Chancellor, Philip Hammond, resided at Number 10.^[4]
Boris Johnson		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Minister for the Union	2019–2022
	Prime Minister Boris Johnson lived in the flat above Number 11, while his first Chancellor Sajid Javid lived in Number 10.^[5]
Liz Truss		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Minister for the Union	2022
Rishi Sunak		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Minister for the Union	2022–2024
	In a break with recent tradition, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak moved into the Number 10 flat where he previously resided as Chancellor, while his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt moved into the Number 11 flat.^[6]
Keir Starmer		First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, Minister for the Union	2024–present
	Starmer chose to live in the flat above Number 11 while his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, resided at Number 10.^[7]

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References

↑ Minney, pages 441–43. This chart was adapted from Minney and updated.
↑ "Brown to stay put at No 10". BBC News. 7 January 2000. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
1 2 "Goodbye from him: Brown moves out of Number 10". The Independent. 23 October 2011.
1 2 McCann, Kate (19 July 2016). "Theresa May to move into Downing Street this week after giving David Cameron extra time to leave". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
↑ Buchan, Lizzy (29 July 2019). "Boris Johnson to move into bigger Downing Street home with girlfriend, leaving Sajid Javid and four children smaller flat at No 10". The Independent.
↑ Martin, Daniel (26 October 2022). "Rishi Sunak to move back to Number 10". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235 . Retrieved 26 October 2022.
↑ "Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament". questions-statements.parliament.uk. Retrieved 27 November 2024.

List of residents of 10 Downing Street

Contents

Residents of Number 10 Downing Street and The House at the Back, 1650–present

See also

Related Research Articles

References

Further reading