It’s perhaps the most famous doorway in the world, number 10 Downing Street. For centuries home of the British Prime Minister and I’m standing in front of it. Except it isn’t and I’m not.
Though until just the 1990’s, one could easily walk up and pose on the doorstep of Number 10, since the IRA tried to blow up the Cabinet, access has been sadly curtailed.
Nevertheless, for those people who want to pretend to stand outside the famous door and fool their friends (who don’t read my blog anyway), then just half a mile or so away is a a near replica door of a very similar house which was built during the same period.
10 Adam Street just off the Strand, designed by the architect Robert Adam as part of a number of neoclassical terraced houses as part of his ‘Adelphi’ development which covers the secret Lower Robert Street which I wrote about on Monday.
As you can see from the actual photo, the two frontages are passably similar though not identical.
Apart from differences in the physical appearance of the two doors, one important difference is that following the IRA attack, the door at number 10 Downing Street was replaces by a bomb proof steel door. In fact it is so heavy that each time it’s refurbished it takes eight people to lift it.
The real number 10 doesn’t have an outside door handle as there is always someone on duty inside the door to open it.
10 Adam Street does have one other thing going for it that Downing Street doesn’t and that is that it is for £650 a month, you can hire a working area here. Presumably the price includes someone on the inside to open the door for you and so you can pretend that you’re the Prime Minister too.
Many of the subjects of my recent posts are places we visit on our Secret London Tour by Ye Olde England Tours.
Stephen Liddell 
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