State dining room
The ground floor sitting room also connects to perhaps the most architecturally significant room in Number 11 – the Dining Room, a long oak-panelled room designed by the renowned 18th century architect Sir John Soane. Best known for his designs for the Bank of England, Soane created a bold and imaginative room with a spectacular vaulted ceiling, decorated with elegant mouldings.
He also devised an imaginative method of illuminating the long room, making as much use as possible of natural light by designing long, narrow skylights to run the length of the room between the ceiling and walls. The ceiling therefore remains an impressive and uninterrupted span, but daylight can still pour down the walls thanks to the innovative light wells.
The Soane Dining Room is used nowadays for meetings such as business breakfasts with heads of industry and finance. As with the other rooms used for official entertaining, the walls are decorated with selections from the Government Art Collection which are changed regularly.
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11 Downing Street Index