Monuments & Ruins

Not every statue in London. The ones worth crossing the road for: Roman wall, medieval ruins, and the monuments that earn a detour.

Tell us what we can do better, or what you’re trying to discover.

Whitehall & Downing Street

The government's own street: mounted sentries at Horse Guards, the Cenotaph in the middle of the road, and the gates of Downing Street.

WalksFree

The door at Number 10, which the gates keep you from. Photo by Number 10, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Also in Power & Politics.

Whitehall is named after a palace that has gone. The Palace of Whitehall was the monarch's London home from Henry VIII to William III and the largest palace in Europe, and it burned down in 1698. The Banqueting House is the only part still standing, and Charles I was beheaded on a scaffold outside its windows in 1649. Government filled the space the palace left, and the word Whitehall now means the civil service as much as the street.

Walking down from Trafalgar Square you pass Horse Guards, where two mounted troopers of the Household Cavalry sit in the archway from ten until four and change every hour, with the guard itself changing at eleven and an inspection at four; the Women of World War II memorial, a bronze block hung with the uniforms and overalls that women put down in 1945; and the Cenotaph, standing in the middle of the road. The black gates have closed Downing Street to the public since 1989. Behind them stand the last four houses of the row George Downing built in the 1680s: number 10 has been the Prime Minister's since 1735, and number 11 the Chancellor's since 1828.

Where
Whitehall, from Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square
Nearest station
Westminster · 3 min walk

NearbyMonuments & Ruins

NearbyOther Categories

See more nearby listings

Submit a correction for this listing.

Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

Which area are you in?