Green room at 11 Downing Street, City of Westminster. Downing Street was originally built in 1682 by Sir George Downing. A notorious spy for Oliver Cromwell and later Charles II, he invested in property and acquired considerable wealth. Number 11 now incorporates one house and part of another, the remainder of which is occupied by Number 10. It is the official residence of Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer. The first Chancellor to live there was Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice in 1806, but Number 11 did not become the Chancellor's official residence until 1828. Three storeys with a basement and dormered mansard, it is Grade I listed, number 1356989. The Green Room was the main reception room, adjacent to the library. A marble chimneypiece with a frieze of vines, a ewer and staff, with a star on either side. An egg and dart decoration beneath the mantle shelf and decorative cornicing around the ceiling. A coal fire burns in the cast-iron grate and there are irons in the hearth. On the mantle shelf are four Napoleon War porcelain figures, two on horseback. On the chimneybreast is a framed naval scene. On either side, watercolours of a ruined monastery. Furniture includes a chair upholstered in striped fabric, a settee, occasional tables with a lamp and framed pictures above. In 1927 the Chancellor was Winston Churchill.
