Admiralty House, London

Admiralty House
The Music Room of Admiralty House The Music Room of Admiralty House
General information
Location	Westminster
Address	26 Whitehall
Town or city	London
Country	United Kingdom
Coordinates
Construction started	1786
Completed	1788
Client	First Lord of the Admiralty
Owner	Her Majesty's Government
Technical details
Floor count	3
Design and construction
Architect	Samuel Pepys Cockerell
Awards and prizes	Grade I listed building

Admiralty House in London is a Grade I listed building facing Whitehall, currently used for UK government functions and as ministerial flats. It was opened in 1788 and until 1964 was the official residence of the First Lords of the Admiralty.

Description

File:Whitehall sketch map.png

2005 sketch map of Whitehall, London, noting the positions of major UK Government buildings. Admiral House is one of the "Old Admiralty Buildings" located in the upper left of the map.

Admiralty House is a four-storey building of yellow brick. The front facade has a symmetrical facade of three broad bays and one additional small bay at the southern end. The rear facade is of five bays and faces Horse Guards Parade, with a basement-level exit under the corner of the Old Admiralty Building.

The front of the house faces Whitehall; its main entrance is in the corner of the Ripley Courtyard, cutting through the corner of the older Ripley Building, to which it is connected on the first and second floors.

History

Admiralty House was designed by Samuel Pepys Cockerell, a protégé of Sir Robert Taylor, and opened in 1788. Built at the request of Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Howe, First Lord of the Admiralty, in 1782–83 for "a few small rooms of my own", it was the official residence of First Lords of the Admiralty until 1964, and has also been home to several British Prime Ministers when 10 Downing Street was being renovated. U.S. President John F. Kennedy attended a meeting there with Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1962 to discuss the allies' reaction to the communist threat and more wide-ranging matters.

Winston Churchill lived in the house while serving as First Lord of the Admiralty for two terms, 1911–15 and 1939-40. It now contains government function rooms and three ministerial flats.

Admiralty House is part of a complex of former Admiralty buildings and is sometimes confused with the more visible Ripley Building (also known as the Old Admiralty Office), built in 1726, or the Admiralty Extension, built between 1898 and 1904, and also with Admiralty Arch (1910).

The interior of Admiralty House is decorated in its original style. Depicted is the Music Room.

In recent times, Lord Malloch-Brown used one of the flats in Admiralty House while he was Minister of State for Africa, Asia and the United Nations. There was speculation as to whether the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, would take up residence at an Admiralty House flat as John Prescott did when he was Deputy P.M.

External links

• Admiralty House entry from the Survey of London online, including plans of each floor as of 1935

• House of Commons - Ministerial residences(PDF) from the UK Parliament website
• Parliament — Ministerial Residences (8 July 2008)
• The Mirror — Nick Clegg to pick plush pad and office for role as Deputy Prime Minister.