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There’s No Place like Home: Margaret Thatcher at Number 10 Downing Street

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Thatcher & After

Abstract

In 1985, marking the 250th anniversary of Downing Street as the official seat of government, Margaret Thatcher proclaimed that Number 10 is “above all, a home—and it is a house of history” (cited in Jones 1985, p. 184). Elevating the status of Number 10 to that of a national symbol, Thatcher hinted at the complex position the building holds in the discourse of public and private space. Throwing open the doors of both the offices and the residence to the British Broadcasting Corporation for a two-part televisual documentary, “No. 10 Downing Street” and “Living Above the Shop,” as well as a book, Number 10 Downing Street: The Story of a House, Thatcher declared that behind the building’s “modest façade” is a “delightful interior” that reflects Britain’s “historic greatness” (1985). In so doing she revealed a conception of Britishness as a particular kind of ornamented space. What is at stake for Britishness if national identity is equated with interior decorating?

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Authors
  1. Kevin A. Morrison
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Edinburgh, UK

    Louisa Hadley

  2. Grant MacEwan College and Concordia, University College of Alberta, Canada

    Louisa Hadley

  3. Ursinus College, USA

    Elizabeth Ho (Assistant Professor of English) (Assistant Professor of English)

Copyright information

© 2010 Kevin A. Morrison

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Morrison, K.A. (2010). There’s No Place like Home: Margaret Thatcher at Number 10 Downing Street. In: Hadley, L., Ho, E. (eds) Thatcher & After. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230283169_6

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