A group of 5 politics students were invited along for a tour of the Foreign Office.  We were met by our hosts, Jess and David Lewis who had both worked at the Foreign office for over 20 years.  After security, we were taken on a walk around the grand and historical parts of the building including the Durbar Court, The Grand Staircase and Locarno Suites.  Both the architecture and history around these halls and rooms were fascinating.

Jess and David were very generous with their time, telling us about their working journey and experiences at the Foreign Office as well as introducing us to their colleagues to explain the huge variety of roles and departments within the building.

We were shown many working offices and departments and invited to the crisis centre to see where teams worked when major disasters took place.

A highlight was being invited in to see the Foreign Secretary’s office, admire his artwork and see where major decision making took place.

We were kindly treated to lunch in the canteen, so experienced the real life working atmosphere.

We all left having soaked up some amazing stories and having our eyes opened to both the history of the Foreign Office as well as the diverse range of activities that are dealt with in the day to day for their employees.

A huge thank you to Jess and David for a memorable day.

 

 

Here are a couple of the students comments

‘I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, especially visiting the foreign secretary's office! I thought that the building visually looked amazing, and it was interesting to listen to the civil servants' perspectives on their roles etc. I enjoyed listening to the stories about the employees being posted to different parts of the world, and overall the trip was very informative’

‘Going to the Foreign Office was a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime experience which I shall always remember.  Our hosts were amazing people who were clearly passionate about their roles’