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A political history of Britain in the places where it happened: parliament and palace, courts and counting houses, and the streets where people pushed back.
A duchess's mansion handed to the Commonwealth as the empire was ending.
Empire
Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough and Queen Anne's closest confidante, took charge of the building herself and wanted a house that was “strong, plain and convenient and good”. Christopher Wren and his son designed it and it was finished in 1711. It spent the nineteenth century as a royal residence, and then its meaning changed entirely: Elizabeth II put it at the government's disposal as a Commonwealth centre in 1959, and since 1965 it has housed the Commonwealth Secretariat. Independence talks and heads-of-government meetings have been held in a ducal house a few yards from St James's Palace - a fair picture of how Britain rewrote its imperial relationships rather than simply ending them. It has none of Whitehall's security theatre, and is easy to walk past.
Tours are suspended while the Secretariat reviews its policy, so this one is from the road for now.
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.