NO. 10 DOWNING STREET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22901, 2 December 1937, Page 5

NO. 10 DOWNING STREET

MODERNISING THE HOME WORK OF MRS. CHAMBERLAIN An idea which is being used to modernise the kitchen of No. 10 Downinc Street, the Prime Minister's home, has come from the council houses of Manchester. Instead of the old-fashioned gas stoves at present installed, Mrs. Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister's wife, is having stoves with oven doors that open by pressing with the foot 011 11 knob. These stoves are being successfully used at Manchester. The debut' of these stoves in Downing Street forms part of the £15,000 modernisation ischome now in progress which will make No.. 10 a comfortable town house instead of the heart-breakingly old-fashioned, cramped and rather dingy home it has been for so many years. Every Prime Minister's wife in turn has bewailed the way its rooms are planned—with offices and private sitting-rooms almost adjoining. Lady Oxford, who lived there when her husband was Prime Minister, once said it was "squalid and liver-coloured." Other wives have been even less complimentary. , , Changes now being made will move all the bedrooms to the first floor, replace the out-of-date lighting system by modern diffused bulbs and chromium fittings* , »■