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Situated on Downing Street in the City of Westminster, London, Number 10 is one of the most famous addresses in the United Kingdom and the world. Almost three hundred years old, the building contains about one hundred rooms. There is a private residence on the third floor and a kitchen in the basement. The other floors contain offices and numerous conference, reception, sitting and dining rooms where the Prime Minister works, and where government ministers, national leaders and foreign dignitaries are met and entertained. There is an interior courtyard and, in the back, a terrace overlooking a garden of 0.5 acre (2023.4 m2). Adjacent to St. James's Park, Number 10 is near the Palace of Westminster, the Houses of Parliament, and Buckingham Palace, the official London residence of the British Monarch. Number 10 was originally three houses. In 1732, King George II offered them to Sir Robert Walpole who accepted on the condition that they be a gift to the office of First Lord of the Treasury rather than to him personally. Walpole commissioned William Kent to join the three houses together. It is this larger house that is known today as Number 10 Downing Street. The arrangement was not an immediate success. Despite its size and convenient location near Parliament, few early Prime Ministers lived there. Costly to maintain, neglected, and run-down, Number 10 was close to being razed several times. Nevertheless, Number 10 survived and became linked with many statesmen and events in British history. In 1985, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said Number 10 had become "one of the most precious jewels in the national heritage." |