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Admiralty House in London is a
Grade I listed building facing Whitehall, currently used for UK
government functions and as ministerial flats. It was opened in
1788 and until 1964 was the official residence of the First Lord
of the Admiralty.
Admiralty House is a four-storey building of yellow brick. The
front has a symmetrical facade of three broad bays and one
additional small bay at the southern end. The rear facade is of
five bays and faces Horse Guards Parade, with a basement-level
exit under the corner of the Old Admiralty Building.
The front of the house faces Whitehall; its main entrance is in
the corner of the Ripley Courtyard, cutting through the corner
of the older Ripley Building, to which it is connected on the
first and second floors.
Admiralty House was designed by Samuel Pepys Cockerell, a
protégé of Sir Robert Taylor, and opened in 1788. Built at the
request of Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Howe, First Lord of the
Admiralty, in 1782–83 for "a few small rooms of my own", it was
the official residence of First Lord of the Admiralty until
1964, and has also been home to several British Prime Ministers
when 10 Downing Street was being renovated. U.S. President John
F. Kennedy attended a meeting there with Prime Minister Harold
Macmillan in 1962 to discuss the allies' reaction to the
communist threat and more wide-ranging matters.
Winston Churchill lived in the house while serving as First Lord
of the Admiralty for two terms, 1911–15 and 1939–40. It now
contains government function rooms and three ministerial flats.
Admiralty House is part of a complex of former Admiralty
buildings and is sometimes confused with the more visible Ripley
Building (also known as the Old Admiralty Office), built in
1726, or the Admiralty Extension, built between 1898 and 1904,
and also with Admiralty Arch (1910).
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