Under the current government, the building is being used to house the Prime Minister's Press Office, Strategic Communications Unit and Research and Information Unit. The Chief Whip has his offices in 9 Downing Street.
Other residences in Downing Street are 10 Downing Street, official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury (a position that has been held by the Prime Minister since the early 20th century), and 11 Downing Street, official residence of the Second Lord of the Treasury who in recent years has also held the title of Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Famous quotes containing the words downing street, downing and/or street:
“My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”
—Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)
“The democratic youth ... lives along day by day, gratifying the desire that occurs to him, at one time drinking and listening to the flute, at another downing water and reducing, now practising gymnastic, and again idling and neglecting everything; and sometimes spending his time as though he were occupied in philosophy.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“Think of admitting the details of a single case of the criminal court into our thoughts, to stalk profanely through their very sanctum sanctorum for an hour, ay, for many hours! to make a very barroom of the mind’s inmost apartment, as if for so long the dust of the street had occupied us,—the very street itself, with all its travel, its bustle, and filth, had passed through our thoughts’ shrine! Would it not be an intellectual and moral suicide?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)