THE SECRET MAP OF WHITEHALL

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2022

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Centuries of British political history has played out across Whitehall, with key decisions taken in the many government buildings that line the streets around the Palace of Westminster. But what secrets are contained within their walls and behind their doors? How have the buildings changed over the years? And what secret tunnels lie beneath the basements of Whitehall? Special guest Gus O'Donnell joins the IfG’s Cath Haddon and Alex Thomas to reveal the secret map of Whitehall. Presented by Hannah White Produced by Candice McKenzie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this special Inside Briefing summer podcast, in which we take a deeper dive into different aspects of government.
0:17.5	I'm Hannah White and I'm acting director of the Institute of Government.
0:22.8	Today's topic is Whitehall. What is Whitehall? Where is Whitehall? Both a street in the heart of London and for many
0:29.0	years shorthand to talk about UK central government. What we want to talk about today are the
0:34.5	buildings that make up the heart of our government, the geography of Whitehall. An increasing number of civil servants are being relocated to far-flung places like Leeds.
0:43.9	That was a joke. And we thought it would be worth delving into Whitehall the place and the impact
0:49.4	it has on Whitehall the people. How did the location of the Palace of Whitehall develop into the
0:54.8	small of government buildings around SW1? What are the buildings actually like to work in?
0:59.9	How do those buildings shape the culture of the departments that inhabit them? What are the
1:04.2	secrets of Whitehall's geography that only its inhabitants know? To discuss all that and much more,
1:10.0	I'm joined by an excellent panel of Whitehall
1:12.2	Officianados. Gus O'Donnell, Lord O'Donnell of Clapham, used to be head of the civil service
1:17.2	and Cabinet Secretary. Gus started work in Whitehall in 1979 and has seen many changes to its
1:23.0	internal and external geography over the years. Gus, thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me.
1:28.9	Alex Thomas, our civil service program director,
1:31.4	reckons he has been based in at least eight different department buildings
1:34.7	during his time in government.
1:36.4	Alex, I won't ask you to list them all now, but which was your favourite?
1:40.4	Oh, good question.
1:41.8	I'm not going to pick one of the sort of show pony buildings that we'll probably come on to talk about later. I think I'll go for Nobel House, which is where Deferra was based until a few years ago. It used to be called Imperial Chemical House because it was where ICI was headquartered for a long time. It's a bit out of Whitehall, the other side of Parliament Square,
2:01.7	so it's a little bit quieter, beautiful building from the outside, some lovely kind of wood-panelled
2:06.7	corridors inside, and also, crucially, there are a lot more cafes and places to, you know, refresh
	...

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