From Norfolk to No. 10: wily Walpole lands Britain’s most coveted doorstep
Published 2 months ago • 13 min read
The King owned a bijou townhouse off Whitehall, and he would like Walpole to accept it as a gift, address: No. 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London. Ever the politician, Walpole politely declined.
The Breezer - the joyride for a curious mind: A weekly newsletter from Steve Winduss at the Batting the Breeze podcast. Spend a few minutes with me discovering historical snippets and fascinating facts related to the forthcoming week. Add to that updates relating to the podcast, a touch of humour and a dash of "lots more".21st September 2025.
Happy Sunday Reader! The President of the United States has been in town this week. Donald Trump was in the UK for his second state visit, the first time such a double honour has been bestowed on any world leader. This time, activities centred on Windsor Castle, the world’s longest-occupied castle and King Charles’s weekend bolt-hole, 20 miles west of London. The only US President to have stayed overnight at the castle previously was Ronald Reagan in 1982.
Out of Curiosity
William the Conqueror built Windsor Castle in the 1070s. It is perched on a chalk cliff providing excellent early warning for approaching enemies and a quick exit down the River Thames if needed. The castle has been a home to 39 different monarchs since Henry I, each adding a little renovation here, a little renovation there.
Aerial view of Windsor Castle.
The President then met with our Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, at Chequers. This is a rather glorious Tudor mansion that serves as the Prime Minister’s grace and favour residence in the Chiltern Hills.
Out of Curiosity
Arthur Lee, the British soldier, diplomat, politician and philanthropist, married the wealthy American, Ruth Moore, in 1899. Lee purchased the 1500-acre Chequers estate in 1912, complete with Tudor mansion, with a little help from his wife. However, he discovered that owning a property built in 1565 - during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I - required a similar budget to running a small city. With the political astuteness that had distinguished him as an MP, Lee recognised that if you can’t afford to maintain a British stately home, you should convince someone else that they desperately need one. This he did. In 1917, Lee gifted Chequers to the British nation to allow Prime Ministers to entertain foreign dignitaries in a manner befitting a head of state.
The delightful Chequers, near Wendover, Bucks, built 1565.
The itinerary left no room for Mr and Mrs Trump to visit central London. This was a shame as tomorrow marks the 290th anniversary of Sir Robert Walpole - Britain’s first Prime Minister - moving into No. 10 Downing Street, 22 September 1735. This move would establish No. 10 as the official residence for all subsequent British Prime Ministers. If you’ve ever visited Westminster, you will have found the Houses of Parliament, Whitehall and Downing Street clustered together within a few minutes’ walk of each other. You may have wondered how the rapidly expanding British Empire ended up with a nerve centre based in an unassuming terraced house, tucked away down a side road off Whitehall.
Robert Walpole was born in 1676 in the unspoilt countryside of Houghton, Norfolk, the fifth of 19 children (yes, nineteen). Walpole’s parents were prosperous landowners, so the daily talk was of sheep, wool and crop yields, a far cry from the chatter of Westminster politics. This was the restoration period in England when religious and constitutional matters permeated every pore of society. King Charles II still wasn’t sure if the English preferred their monarchs with or without their heads. Robert was educated at Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge, although his studies were cut short when his father died in 1700 and, as heir apparent (his two elder brothers had already died), he inherited the family estate in 1700. The draw of politics would soon follow. Walpole entered politics at the age of 25 in 1701 for the constituency of Castle Rising in Norfolk.
Portrait of Sir Robert Walpole, c 1740. Painting by Jean-Baptiste van Loo.
English political life had remained mired in issues of royal succession, religious affiliation and the ongoing struggle for power between monarch and parliament. James II had fled to France in 1688 due to his overly Catholic tendencies, while William III had been invited from the Netherlands to rule England alongside his wife, Mary II. Less than a year after Walpole became a Member of Parliament, Queen Anne would succeed to the throne following William’s death in 1702. Anne was the first monarch to inherit the constitutional framework of the Act of Settlement of 1701, which established Protestant succession and excluded Catholics from the throne.
Over the next two decades, Walpole established a reputation for financial expertise and prudence. It was said he preferred counting money than counting principles. He learned that politics was essentially accounting with more shouting - and he was good at both. The Whigs and the Tories fought tooth and nail over anything and everything. Walpole revelled in it. He rose through the ranks, becoming Treasurer of the Navy and Secretary of War. But Walpole’s opportunity for power presented itself in 1720 with the bursting of the South Sea Bubble. The South Sea Company had been set up in 1711 with a refreshingly honest objective: to make the stakeholders rich beyond their wildest dreams. The business plan was elegant and simple; the company would take over Britain’s national debt in exchange for a monopoly on trade with South America.
Stock certificate of the South Sea Company, issued 22 June 1720.
Investors queued up to participate and the share price soared. For one glorious moment, all involved congratulated themselves on a financial masterstroke. However, a small detail had been overlooked. The Spanish controlled much of South America at the time, and they had no interest in British trade. It was rather like planning an elaborate garden party in your neighbour’s backyard while the said neighbour was not only home, but had already told you to bugger off. After all, Britain and Spain were still engaged in the mutual annihilation of the War of Spanish Succession. Predictably enough, the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720, taking investors’ shareholdings and the life savings of associated worthies to the seabed with it.
This painting by Edward Matthew Ward was created in the style of William Hogarth, the pioneering English painter, and depicts the chaos that followed the crash of the South Sea Bubble. The painting shows figures across the social classes, from investors to the commoners who all suffered as a result of the crash.
The nation was bankrupt, investors lay in ruins and politicians ran for cover. King George I (the first Hanoverian incumbent after Queen Anne died in 1714) needed help in the form of a pragmatic and financially literate Robert Walpole. George, the king of England who couldn’t speak English, was more than happy to leave Walpole to run the country. This was the equivalent of taking charge of the Titanic after Captain Edward Smith had driven it into an iceberg, but Walpole rose to the challenge. Utilising common sense and a thorough understanding of double-entry bookkeeping, Walpole restructured the national debt, ensured carefully selected victims were compensated and even more carefully selected culprits were hung out to dry. Remarkably, Walpole had steadied the ship within a year. In gratitude, George I appointed Walpole as First Lord of the Treasury, the head of finance for the nation. Walpole was now the most important minister in parliament, the prime minister. Walpole’s opponents referred to him as ‘prime minister’ in reference to his dominating authority over Parliament. It was delivered in derogatory fashion, but as often happens, the term stuck. However, it took nearly two centuries for ‘Prime Minister’ to become the formally recognised official title for the head of government.
Sir Robert Walpole chatting to the Speaker of the House of Commons, 1730. Engraving by Anthony Fogg, after William Hogarth, after Sir James Thornhill.
Robert Walpole was a hard-drinking, fun-loving country squire. His style was slow and steady, nurturing the oil tanker to change course, not forcing it. His political style was 'if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it'. Meetings were often incorporated into breakfasts, enormous ones. Colleagues found themselves caught up in marathon eating sessions - a new spin on chewing over the nation’s problems. He was once criticised by a pretentious political opponent in a stream of Latin phrases, to which Walpole wittily replied…
Spare me your Cicero, sir. I never learned Latin, and I thank God for it - it has saved me from many a foolish quotation.
When George I died in 1727, the new king, George II, marginally more fluent in English than his late father, was equally keen to lean on Walpole. In fact, he was so grateful that in 1732 he made a proposal to the First Lord of the Treasury. The King owned a bijou townhouse off Whitehall, and he would like Walpole to accept it as a gift, address: No. 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London. Ever the politician, Walpole politely declined the offer but suggested that the house be designated as the official residence for him and all future holders of his office. Royal patronage was helpful, but to maintain power, Walpole needed the majority support of Parliament and the Treasury. Walpole moved into No. 10 on 22 September 1735.
The Festival of the Golden Rump: satirists cruelly lampooned King George II and Robert Walpole. This image is based on a play – ‘The Golden Rump’. Walpole is depicted as a magician being kicked by the Satyr (King George II and his ‘Golden Rump’). Opposition figures encouraged these images to sew division between the two leading figures of the day. Rather uncharitably, Queen Caroline is depicted administering an enema to King George in cruel reference to his much-documented haemorrhoids.
Out of Curiosity
Sir Christopher Wren designed the terraced houses of Downing Street in the 1680s. Over the years, No. 10 has become rather like Doctor Who’s Tardis. Foreign dignitaries entering through that famous black front door discover far more than the modest Georgian terrace suggests from the street. Behind the front door lies a warren of corridors; 100 rooms, including living quarters, reception rooms, state rooms, meeting rooms and numerous offices. The building achieved this size through progressive expansion into the neighbouring terrace properties.
No. 10, Downing Street, Whitehall.
When Walpole resigned in 1742, he had set a very high bar for longevity. In an era when ministers lasted months, not years, his control of power had lasted 21 years; six years more than Lord Liverpool (1812-1827) and nearly double that of Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990). Walpole is often only remembered as the first incumbent of No. 10 Downing Street. After all, he had established a home for the machinery of Government, a true working headquarters. He is sometimes remembered as the reason today’s head of Government in the UK is known as ‘Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury’. But Walpole had proved that a constitutional monarchy could work. You could maintain a system where the monarch reigned but ministers governed, where Parliament controlled finances but the executive controlled policy. Above all, Sir Robert Walpole demonstrated that competent administration was more valuable than brilliant oratory and that a boring government was usually a good government. Perhaps there’s hope for Keir Starmer yet?
A short break...
I am on my annual pilgrimage to the Grand Union Canal at the end of this week, so I am taking a short break - back on Sunday 5th October. Steve :)
Dates with History
Today…
Cecil Chubb was born in 1876 and attended a rival school to mine, Bishop Wordsworth’s, in Salisbury, Wiltshire. He built a successful career as a barrister and considerable wealth as an investor, racehorse owner and cattle breeder. However, Chubb is most famous for a rather unusual purchase. One hundred and ten years ago today, 21 September 1915, he went to an auction at the Palace Theatre, Salisbury. Anecdotally, he had been sent there by his wife, Mary, to bid for a set of dining chairs. In actual fact, Cecil came home with something quite different. He had bought Lot 15: Stonehenge, 30 acres, 2 rods, 37 perches of adjoining land. In other words, he had bought Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument still standing on Salisbury Plain. I didn’t realise that buying Stonehenge was a thing! The total cost was £6,600, equivalent to approximately £600,000 today.
Stonehenge, Wiltshire.
Out of Curiosity
Stonehenge is a megalithic monument standing about two miles west of Amesbury in Wiltshire. It is one of the world’s most sophisticated prehistoric structures and its earliest phase, the circular earthwork, pre-dates the Egyptian Pyramids. Construction started 5,100 years ago with completion around 1600 BCE. If you live in England, you might think that 1,500 years for a major infrastructure project is quite reasonable - after all, the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail network currently under construction is mounting a spirited challenge to that timeline. The extraordinary construction time period can partly be explained by the fact that the larger stones, weighing up to 50 tons each, were transported from 20 miles away. Even more mind-blowing - the smaller stones, weighing up to four tons each, were brought from Wales, 150 miles away. Although the wheel as a method for easier transport was invented around 3,200 BCE in Mesopotamia, news didn’t reach England until c2500 BCE. That would make the Stonehenge builders' timing spectacularly unlucky, missing out on wheels by mere centuries, at least for the first half of the project.
Only three years after purchasing Stonehenge, Chubb generously donated the monument to the nation. Today, Stonehenge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with more than one million people visiting each year. Cecil Chubb died at home, 22 September 1934, a few miles up the road from me in the centre of Bournemouth.
Sir Cecil and Mary Chubb, 1900.
If you’ve ever heard the expression ‘Stand and Deliver!’ and pictured a dashing horseman in a dark coat, dramatically robbing coaches on moonlit roads, you can thank Dick Turpin, born 320 years ago today, 21 September 1705. Richard Turpin was born during the reign of Queen Anne and the political career of Sir Robert Walpole. At that time, England was a collection of farms, forests and the type of country roads that made highway robbery a viable career option. Dick started out as a butcher but soon realised that stealing cows was a more profitable venture than carving them up. Cattle rustling then evolved into highway robbery. Dick Turpin would become the blueprint for every romanticised outlaw that followed him, but the truth was quite different. He was a brutal murderer, terrorising the area of Epping Forest and stopping at little to gain an extra shilling or two. Dick Turpin was hanged in April 1739 at the age of 33.
An 18th-century illustration of ‘The Loughton incident’, 1735. Dick Turpin is threatening to put an old woman on the fire if she doesn’t tell him where her money is hidden. She survived but lost all her money.
Talk to me...
I am lucky enough to receive some great feedback about The Breezer from readers. We're all curious and find a wide range of historical characters and events fascinating. But occasionally, a specific subject will resonate all the more. If you have any areas of history that resonate with you, I would love to dig deep and include them in future Breezers. Just drop me an email at steve@battingthebreeze.com and let me know. Thanks, Steve
Question of the Week
He was born in Tavistock, Devon in 1518. He was that peculiarly English chap who was both gentleman and rogue. He was the first person to circumnavigate the globe in 1580 while staying alive in the process (Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition had already done so in 1522, but Magellan had died en route). His famous ship was the Golden Hind. He was a ‘privateer’ - essentially a pirate with royal approval, in this case the approval of Queen Elizabeth I. He ‘singed the beard of the King of Spain’ when his fleet set fire to most of Phillip II’s invasion fleet in 1587. Who was he?
And Finally…
I had a successful trip to London last week, sneaking in another trip to the National Gallery before attending my first performance of Les Misérables since 1993. The celebrated musical is currently showing at the Sondheim Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue (originally the Queen’s Theatre when it opened in 1907). Les Mis was celebrating forty years of Cameron Mackintosh’s production, based on the original story by Victor Hugo.
Enjoying a night on the town with my youngest.
The original Les Misérables premiered at the Palais des Sports in Paris 45 years ago this Wednesday, 24 September 1980. This French production ran for about three months and was seen by over 500,000 people. Cameron Mackintosh’s version has now racked up over 15,000 performances. Les Misérables is currently the world’s longest-running musical and the world’s second-longest-running musical of all time, behind 'The Fantastiks', off-Broadway, whose 17,162 performance streak came to an end in 2002. By the way, the new version of Les Mis is sensational.
Thank you for joining me. Have a great week!
Steve
HOST & CHIEF STORY HUNTER
P:S: Incidentally, I am always keen to receive your feedback to help me continuously improve this newsletter and the podcast. Just hit reply to this email and...... let it rip! I respond to every email that I receive.
The English privateer who completed his circumnavigation of the globe in 1580 on the Golden Hind was Sir Francis Drake. Queen Elizabeth knighted him on board his ship the following year.
Portrait of Sir Francis Drake, painted by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, 1591.
In 1588, as the Spanish Armada was approaching, Drake was anecdotally reported to be playing bowls at Plymouth Hoe while commenting…
There’s time to finish the game and beat the Spanish too.
ATTRIBUTIONS
The Festival of the Golden Rump: Unknown author., CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sir Robert Walpole chatting to the Speaker of the House of Commons. Edward Harding, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Portrait of Sir Robert Walpole: Jean-Baptiste van Loo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The delightful Chequers: Cnbrb, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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