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The Foreign, Commonwealth and
Development Office occupies a building which originally provided
premises for four separate government departments: the Foreign
Office, the India Office, the Colonial Office, and the Home
Office. Construction on the building began in 1861 and finished
in 1868, on the plot of land bounded by Whitehall, King Charles
Street, Horse Guards Road and Downing Street. The building was
designed by the architect George Gilbert Scott.[ Its
architecture is in the Italianate style; Scott had initially
envisaged a Gothic design, but Lord Palmerston, then prime
minister, insisted on a classical style. The English sculptors
Henry Hugh Armstead and John Birnie Philip produced a number of
allegorical figures ("Art", "Law", "Commerce", etc.) for the
exterior.
In 1925 the Foreign Office played host to the signing of the
Locarno Treaties, aimed at reducing tension in Europe. The
ceremony took place in a suite of rooms that had been designed
for banqueting, which subsequently became known as the Locarno
Suite. During the Second World War, the Locarno Suite's fine
furnishings were removed or covered up, and it became home to a
Foreign Office code-breaking department.
Due to increasing numbers of staff, the offices became
increasingly cramped and much of the fine Victorian interior was
covered over—especially after the Second World War. In the
1960s, demolition was proposed, as part of major redevelopment
plan for the area drawn up by the architect Sir Leslie Martin. A
subsequent public outcry prevented these proposals from ever
being implemented. Instead, the Foreign Office became a Grade I
listed building in 1970. In 1978, the Home Office moved to a new
building, easing overcrowding.
With a new sense of the building's historical value, it
underwent a 17-year, £100 million restoration process, completed
in 1997. The Locarno Suite, used as offices and storage since
the Second World War, was fully restored for use in
international conferences. The building is now open to the
public each year over Open House Weekend.
In 2014 refurbishment to accommodate all Foreign and
Commonwealth Office employees into one building was started by
Mace.
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