Editing 10 Downing Street (section)

=== First Lord's house: 1733–1735 ===
[[File:Jean-Baptiste van Loo - Robert Walpole.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Robert Walpole]] accepted [[George II of Great Britain|George II]]'s gift of the house at the back and two Downing Street houses on behalf of the office of [[First Lord of the Treasury]].]]

When Count Bothmer died, ownership of the "House at the Back" reverted to the Crown. George II took this opportunity to offer it to Robert Walpole, often called the first prime minister, as a gift for his services to the nation: stabilising its finances, keeping it at peace and securing the Hanoverian succession.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cKU4lNdIfeAC&pg=PR34|title=Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society|year=1871|page=xxxiv|access-date=18 March 2023|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164818/https://books.google.com/books?id=cKU4lNdIfeAC&pg=PR34|url-status=live}}</ref>

Walpole did not accept the gift for himself.<ref>See letter, dated, "Downing Street, 30 June 1742", from [[Horace Walpole]] to [[Horace Mann]]: "I am writing to you in one of the charming rooms towards the Park: it is I am willing to enjoy this sweet corner while I may, for we are soon to quit it. Mrs. Sandys came yesterday to give us warning; [[Lord Wilmington]] has lent it to them. ''Sir Robert might have had it for his own at first: but would only take it as First Lord of the Treasury.'' He goes into a small house of his own in Arlington Street, opposite to where we formerly lived". (Horace Walpole's Letters, ed. Cunningham, 1857, I, p. 246.) British History Online, From: '[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=67934 No. 10, Downing Street] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140829162757/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=67934 |date=29 August 2014 }}', Survey of London: volume 14: St Margaret, Westminster, part III: Whitehall II (1931), pp. 113–141. Date accessed: 21 July 2008.</ref> He proposed—and the King agreed—that the Crown give the properties to the Office of First Lord of the Treasury. Walpole would live there as the incumbent First Lord, but would vacate it for the next one.{{sfn|Feely|1982|p=34}}

To enlarge the new house, Walpole persuaded Mr Chicken, the tenant of a cottage next door, to move to another house in Downing Street.{{sfn|Bolitho|1957|p=25}} This small house and the mansion at the back were then incorporated into Number 10. Walpole commissioned [[William Kent]] to convert them into one building. Kent joined the larger houses by building a two-storey structure between them, consisting of one long room on the ground floor and several above. The remaining interior space was converted into a courtyard. He connected the Downing Street houses with a corridor. Having united the structures, Kent gutted and rebuilt the interior. He then surmounted the third storey of the house at the back with a pediment. To allow Walpole quicker access to Parliament, Kent closed the north side entrance from St James's Park, and made the door in Downing Street the main entrance.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=966852&resourceID=19191|title=Monument Number 966852|publisher=Heritage Gateway|access-date=15 February 2023|archive-date=15 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230215220349/https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=966852&resourceID=19191|url-status=live}}</ref>

The rebuilding took three years. On 23 September 1735, the ''London Daily Post'' announced that: "Yesterday the Right Hon. Sir Robert Walpole, with his Lady and Family, removed from their House in St James's Square, to his new House, adjoining to the Treasury in St James's Park".{{sfn|Minney|1963|p=50}} The cost of conversion is unknown. Originally estimated at £8,000, the final cost probably exceeded £20,000.{{sfn|Seldon|1999|p=16}}

Walpole did not enter through the now-famous door; that would not be installed until forty years later. Kent's door was modest, belying the spacious elegance beyond. The First Lord's new, albeit temporary, home had sixty rooms, with hardwood and marble floors, crown moulding, elegant pillars and marble mantelpieces; those on the west side with views of St James's Park. One of the largest rooms was a study measuring forty feet by twenty with enormous windows overlooking St James's Park. "My Lord's Study"{{sfn|Jones|1985|p=46}} (as Kent labelled it in his drawings) would later become the [[#Cabinet Room|Cabinet Room]] where prime ministers meet with the Cabinet ministers.{{sfn|Minney|1963|p=47}}

Shortly after moving in, Walpole ordered that a portion of the land outside his study be converted into a terrace and garden. Letters patent issued in April 1736 state that: "...&nbsp;a piece of garden ground situated in his Majesty's park of St James's, & belonging & adjoining to the house now inhabited by the Right Honourable the Chancellor of His Majesty's Exchequer, hath been lately made & fitted up at the Charge&nbsp;... of the Crown".<ref>{{cite web|title='Treasury Books and Papers: April 1736', in Calendar of Treasury Books and Papers, Volume 3, 1735-1738|first=William A.|last=Shaw|location=London|year=1900|pages=165–168|publisher=British History Online|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-treasury-books-papers/vol3/pp165-168|access-date=15 February 2023|archive-date=5 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705130452/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-treasury-books-papers/vol3/pp165-168|url-status=live}}</ref>

The same document confirmed that Number 10 Downing Street was: "meant to be annexed & united to the Office of [[HM Treasury|his Majesty's Treasury]] & to be & to remain for the Use & Habitation of the first [[Lords Commissioners of the Treasury|Commissioner of his Majesty's Treasury]] for the time being".{{sfn|Minney|1963|pp=46–47}}