AS part of their Citizenship week pupils from Liphook’s Churcher’s Junior School were invited to see what lies behind the famous black door at No. 10 Downing Street. 

The children were welcomed into the Cabinet Room and sat at the famous green table, with a rare opportunity to try out the Prime Minister’s chair.

They learned about some of the important decisions which were made and discussed in this historic room, that have affected British life.

Pupils walked up the grand staircase installed by Sir Robert Walpole when he took up residence as PM in Whitehall in 1735, past portraits of previous Prime Ministers including Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan and Tony Blair. 

They looked at the study – a favourite place for Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron to work, which hosts the table used for the G8 meeting held in County Fermanagh, in Northern Ireland, in 2013.

By entering the White Drawing Room and the Terracotta Room, pupils joined the many international VIPs who have graced Downing Street, and posed for diplomatic handshakes in front of the White Room’s fireplace.

One of the highlights of the trip was to see and stroke Larry the resident cat and mouse catcher who was sleeping on the window sill in the hallway. 

Teacher Sarah Roberts said, "It was a remarkable experience for us all. We have been studying the power of democracy and Parliament, and to visit a place so entwined with British government and British history was a very memorable experience for all the children.”