Treasury Buildings Treasury Buildings (Cabinet Office And Privy Council Office)

Treasury Buildings (Cabinet Office and Privy Council Office)

This complex on Whitehall comprises remains of Henry VIII's Whitehall Palace, Dorset House, Kent's Treasury, and the Privy Council and Cabinet Offices, all currently in use as government offices.

Whitehall Palace remains date from around 1530. The restored fragments include Cockpit Passage and the gable wall of the Small Close Tennis Court, which were restored to their Tudor state in 1962–63. This is a 2-storey range, 4 windows wide, with square-headed recessed entrances featuring wooden lintels and stone arched doorways with wrought iron hanging hooks and striking plates. The windows are square-headed with stone frames containing 3 arched lights, fitted with wrought iron standards and saddle bars. A stone parapet with moulded coping tops the structure, and a reconstructed stone arched fireplace with decorated spandrels was reinstated on the first floor. The foundations of the Small Close Tennis Court are exposed on Treasury Green. A brick octagonal turret with stone dressings and flint chequers, and a window bay of the Great Close Tennis Court, are preserved within Dorset House up to the former roof level. The window bay contains a small stone arched single-light cellar window and a large stone arched 3-light window with wrought iron standard and saddle bars serving the hall above the cellar.

Dorset House dates from circa 1700–10, with later 18th-century alterations incorporating the Tudor Great Close Tennis Court; its eastern facade was rebuilt by Barry in 1846–47. The rear elevation is of multi-coloured stock brick, 4 storeys tall and one window wide, with a 2-storey canted bay of 3 windows. The windows are recessed glazing bar sashes under flat and segmental gauged brick arches; the first-floor windows are semicircular arched with radial glazing. Plain brick plat bands mark the floor levels, and a parapet with coping crowns the elevation. A continuous wrought iron balcony runs along the first floor of the canted bay. The fine interior, largely restored in 1962–63 to its early 18th-century state, features a cut and carved string staircase with twisted balusters and columnar newels; the compartment and ceiling were redecorated around 1730–40. The Lord President's Room displays grand decoration probably by Kent, contemporary with his Treasury Building, including an elaborate chimney piece with a broken scrolled pediment topped by an eagle and fine plasterwork ceiling. A doorcase of the same date appears in the Clerk's room.

Kent's Treasury, built 1733–36, has its principal front facing north onto Horse Guards Parade, presenting an ashlar rusticated facade. This is a variant on the Burlington–Palladian General Wade's House theme, originally intended to have wings. The completed main block is 3 storeys tall and 7 windows wide, with a 3-window pedimented centre-break. A semicircular arched central entrance to Treasury Passage sits in a low arcaded ground floor. The upper floors feature square-headed recessed glazing bar sashes set within large semicircular arched blank panels, with blind balustrading below the sills. The central first-floor window is pedimented and the central second-floor window is of Venetian design, filling its panel. The second floor of the centre break is articulated by engaged Ionic columns supporting the pediment, which contains a cartouche of Royal Arms and festoons. A plat band runs above the ground floor, an entablature sits beneath the second floor, and a crowning modillion cornice tops the composition. The west return to Treasury Garden rises 4 storeys including a low attic, is 3 windows wide with a recessed portion of 5 windows, and features rusticated ashlar to the ground floor and ashlar above. Ground-floor windows are arcaded, first-floor windows are square-headed, and second-floor windows are set in a blank arcade; small square attic windows light the top storey. A plat band marks the second floor, an entablature and main cornice are returned from the front. An irregular plain brick elevation faces south. The fine interiors, restored 1960–63, retain good plasterwork ceilings, chimney pieces, and doorcases, particularly in the principal first-floor rooms. The Board Room features a very elaborate Kent chimney piece with coupled columns and coupled stone termini pilasters decorated with wreaths flanking the overmantel, and an original suite of furniture. Room No. 65 is lined with cupboards panelled and articulated by Corinthian pilasters.

The Privy Council and Cabinet Offices comprise Soane's building of 1824–27, which was remodelled and enlarged by Barry in 1845–47, reusing Soane's columns and frieze. The facades display richly detailed early Victorian classicism in ashlar above rusticated ground floor. The structure is 3 storeys tall with basement and attics to end pavilions, 23 windows wide including 5-window terminal pavilions, and features 4 doorways in architraves with cornices on consoles. Glazing bar sashes sit in architraves. The first and second floors are evenly articulated by an order of engaged Corinthian columns with pilasters flanking the slightly advanced pavilions. A deep main entablature with enriched frieze and balustraded parapet crowns the composition. The pavilion attics have panelled pilasters, and the balustraded parapets are topped with ornate carved urn finials on dies. A stone balustraded area adjoins the building. The return to Downing Street continues beyond the pavilion with a plain surviving part of Soane's building: 3 storeys tall and 4 windows wide. The interior rebuilding of 1960–64 retains Soane's Judicial Offices in the south wing and his Downing Street and Whitehall entrance lobbies.

The entire complex was gutted and rebuilt internally in 1960–64, with some of Soane's work retained in the process.