An Irishman's Diary

Tony Blair went house-hunting in London two years ago looking for a nice family home in a respectable area. Isn't it a good thing he wasn't looking in Dublin? He would have been hard pushed to find anything suitable on his salary.

Aware that he can't stay in Downing Street forever - he has already announced that he will not seek re-election for a fourth term - the British prime minister was conscious of the need to have a house ready to move into when he finally leaves No 10.

The Blairs already own a house, in his far-flung Co Durham constituency of Sedgefield, which is not the most convenient hub for a glittering second career on the international circuit - along with the likes of Bill Clinton and Albert Reynolds - which presumably lies ahead. But they sold their London home, after winning power in 1997, for £615,000 - a decision apparently much regretted. Prices in their old neighbourhood - the once dodgy borough of Islington - have risen sharply since then and the house today is worth about £2 million.

The Independent-reading, Fairtrade-skinny-latte-drinking, chattering classes who gravitate to Upper Street might have hoped that "Tony" would return to his roots. Mr Blair, however, has outgrown all that and opted instead for a solid Georgian house in the rather dull, and thoroughly conservative, confines of Connaught Square. Located north of Oxford Street, it's the sort of place where you might expect to find a perma-tanned plastic surgeon, an ageing impresario or a down-at-heels duke who had sold off rather too much of the family silver. Mr Blair ended up paying a reported £3.6 million - necessitating a hefty mortgage - so he and Cherie will need all the lecture tours they can get.

You'd have thought the neighbours would be thrilled that such a star had selected their little backwater. But this is England we're talking about. One resident told the Daily Telegraph: "It's come as a dreadful shock. He's not the sort of person one would choose to live next door to".

Sounds like a friendly sort of place to live, doesn't it? Thank goodness we live in a republic where Taoiseach and taxi-driver, barman and barrister can live cheek by jowl without a hint of envy or snobbery.

Mr Blair's dilemma was one which faces every incumbent of his office, providing, as it does, an official residence at No 10 Downing Street. Some, like his predecessor John Major, hold on to their old homes - in his case in Huntingdon, Oxfordshire - and after leaving office happily return there. Margaret Thatcher, who spent 11 years at No 10 (which she described as "living above the shop"), had no other home as her premiership drew to a close. So she and Denis bought a house in the bourgeois suburb of Dulwich, marooned in deeply unfashionable south London. By tradition, the "best" addresses in the British capital are "north of the river [ Thames] and south of the Park [ Hyde]" - an area which includes Mayfair, Knightsbridge and the sprawling Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

After her tearful departure from office, the iron lady found the hyacinth bucket gentility of suburbia stifling and soon moved back to central London and a house lent to her by a political admirer. She now lives alone in a grand square in Belgravia.

No 10, presented by King George II in 1730 to the first holder of the office, Sir Robert Walpole, is not the only official residence of British prime ministers. Mr Blair also has the use of a country house at Chequers in Buckinghamshire. Other ministers in Her Majesty's government enjoy comparable perks. The Chancellor of the Exchequer enjoys the use of town and country houses (no 11 Downing Street and Dorneywood, a Queen Anne-style house, also in Buckinghamshire) while the Foreign Secretary has the pleasure of Chevening - a 115-room house on a 3,500-acre estate in Kent.

Admiralty House in central London contains three grand flats currently occupied by cabinet ministers. And in Edinburgh, the Scottish First Minister has an official residence at the magnificent Bute House - designed by architect Robert Adam - at No 6 Charlotte Square.

No homes come with the jobs of our own Government Ministers. But now, as reported in The Irish Times recently, the Steward's House in the grounds of Farmleigh Estate in the Phoenix Park is being renovated by the Office of Public Works to create a potential future official residence for An Taoiseach. The "domestic-scale building" has four bedrooms and is close to the big house which is used to accommodate visiting dignitaries.

The Steward's House would be an appropriate address for someone whose job it is to manage us all. Mr Ahern has reportedly no intention of leaving his home in Drumcondra - even if he wins the next election. But the prospect of an official residence in the capital may appeal to taoisigh-in-waiting. Two such TDs - currently deemed "papabile" - live outside the commuter belt, in counties Offaly and Mayo.