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History helps put it all in perspective
SINCE May, I've had the pleasure of getting to know No 70 Whitehall, the main Cabinet Office building, and I thought I'd share with readers a few of the snippets I've picked up from its fascinating history.
Walking through the rather prosaic main entrance, visitors soon step up into a passageway, whose small red bricks and mullioned windows immediately give away its Tudor origins – it's the Cockpit Passage, one of the few remaining parts of Henry VIII's Palace of Whitehall.
Henry's sports facilities, an area called Parkside, were located on and around what is now the Cabinet Office and included a number of tennis courts – a tower from one court is still in existence within the building - and a cockpit for cock-fighting and bearbaiting.
He used the Cockpit Passage to reach the cockpit and the indoor courts.
I must admit it gives me a frisson of excitement and wonder to think of Henry striding along, in his tennis garb, racket in hand.
My office looks out on to Horseguards Parade, where Henry also organised bearbaiting and another of his favourites – jousting.
Just across from the main entrance to the Cabinet Office on Whitehall is where Whitehall Palace's Holbein Gate would have stood and which is believed to be the venue of Henry's secretive marriage to his second and ill-fated wife, Anne Boleyn.
When I first explored the Cabinet Office, I was amazed to be shown, just behind my Special Adviser's office, bars surrounding the top of a very narrow and steep flight of stairs.
In 1688 these were used to imprison Princess - later Queen - Anne and her friend and confidante Lady Sarah Churchill.
Indeed, a slightly larger gap between two of the bars can still clearly be identified as where Anne and Sarah were passed food by their captors.
The pair were held by James II as one of his final desperate acts before being forced to give the throne up to Prince William of Orange.
Anne's marriage to one of William's supporters was the reason for her imprisonment.
The fact that she was James' own daughter indicates the depth of his desperation.
The building also contains some history for me and my family as my father, when he was appointed Margaret Thatcher's first Paymaster General in 1979, occupied the same office as I have now.
The last few months since May's election have been incredibly exciting and fast moving but sometimes it's good to take a minute to reflect on history and what has come before – in times of stress, it sometimes helps to put things in perspective.
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Weather for Horsham
Thursday 09 February 2012
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