11 Downing Street

• brief history
• hallway
• sitting room and study
• state dining room
• state drawing room
• staircase
• budget box
• Sir John Soane

The front door of Number 11 will always be associated with the countless Budget Day photocalls when the Chancellor holds up the red Budget box containing his speech before he makes his way to the House of Commons.

Since the 1860s, the Budget box has almost invariably been the one known as the Gladstone box, now displayed in the lobby of HM Treasury. The use of the Gladstone box became one of several Budget Day traditions (another is the only the Chancellor is allowed to drink alcohol in the House of Commons – and only during his Budget speech). James Callaghan used a new box during his time as Chancellor in the 1970s, but the frail Gladstone box was later restored to duty once more. In 1997, Gordon Brown marked his first Budget by breaking from tradition – using a new box made by four young apprentices from his Dunfermline constituency and bringing the four to the steps of Number 11 to share his photocall.

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11 Downing Street Index