Whitehall

The street called Whitehall stretches from Parliament Square to Trafalgar Square. Just as Westminster or the Palace of Westminster frequently stands for the Houses of Parliament, so Whitehall is often used as a name for the Civil Service.

Downing Street, which is a small side street off Whitehall, is the home of the Prime Minister, who lives at number ten. Next door at number eleven lives the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is responsible for financial planning and the British economy. Just around the corner in Whitehall itself are all the important ministries: the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and the Treasury.

In the middle of Whitehall is the Cenotaph where the Queen lays the first wreath of poppies on Remembrance Day. On that day each year the people of Britain remember their dead from the two world wars by wearing a red paper poppy.

Susan Sheerin, Jonathan Seath, Gillian White: Spotlight on Britain; Oxford University Press, 1985, page 26