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Hidden treasure: Green to solve
No 10 parking problems
DOWNING Street isn’t the easiest place to park.
President Barack Obama’s driver found that out the hard way –
manfully struggling to execute what became a 20-point turn in his armoured limousine “The Beast” when he visited last month.
But the problems outside Number 10 could be a thing of the past after it emerged the
government is increasing the number of parking spaces in Treasury Green, the courtyard next door to Britain’s most famous street.
A planning application has been lodged with Westminster City Council to provide more parking slots between the Prime Minister’s house and the Cabinet Office at 70 Whitehall, as well as sprucing up the scruffy gardens.
The architects tasked with the job, Feilden and Mawson, have called Treasury Green “visually uninteresting”, “confused and uninspiring”, “neglected” and “in danger of being treated as merely a service yard”.
With the current vogue for gardening expenses claims, it’s a wonder nobody thought to touch up the historic green, once part of Henry VIII’s recreation ground, which is directly overlooked by the grand State Dining Room in Number 10.
Proposals involve tearing up the old kerb stones and paving, which were laid in the 1960s, creating three new parking spaces and laying new flower beds.
A report that will go before planners says: “First impressions of Treasury Green from the street [Downing Street] are not favourable, and, as such, the Green is in danger of becoming treated as merely a service yard; large green skips are openly located beside the side entrance to No 10, and escaping rubbish and debris occasionally finds its way into the green, helping to give the area an appearance of neglect.
“Treasury Green has far more potential for use as an attractive open amenity space than is
currently the case.”
Treasury Green has a remarkable history. Sitting within the Whitehall Conservation Area, the last time surfacing work was done, the remains of a large timber Saxon hall dating from the ninth century, now in the Museum of London, were uncovered. Parts of the Tudor wall which made up Henry VIII’s tennis court are still visible.
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