Sir George Downing built a terrace of town houses off Whitehall between 1682 and 1684, and the article names Christopher Wren as architect of the original houses. Robert Walpole moved into the house on September 23, 1735. William Kent designed its conversion, which took three years.
John Soane designed the State Dining Room, built in 1825 and 1826. In the 1960s Raymond Erith rebuilt the house on deep pilings, a job that took almost three years, and dry rot forced more work in the late 1960s. Builders found the bricks were yellow beneath two centuries of pollution, and they were painted black to match the familiar look.
After the IRA mortar attack of 1991, the original black oak door was replaced by a blast-proof steel door that takes eight men to lift. It cannot be opened from outside, because someone is always inside to admit visitors.
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