THE LOCARNO SUITE Early diplomatic entertainment by the Foreign Secretary took place in local taverns or at his home but, by the 1850s, the London Diplomatic Corps had increa ed so greatly that there were very few noblemen's houses which had rooms sufficiently large to contain it. Furthermore, diplomatic business was broadening in scope as well as in size and the Office needed conference accommodation. The London Conference of 1831 on Belgium, for instance, had taken place at the old Foreign Office, but the Secretary of State had had to vacate his room for the duration, as it was the only one big enough for the delegate . In 1858 therefore, the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Office Reconstruction was told by Edmund Hammond, the Permanent Under Secretary, that in any new building, it was 'essential that the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs should have the means of giving large dinners ... and that he should have reception rooms of holding capable 1,200 or 1,500 people' . Following these representation, the architect of the new Foreign Office, George Gilbert Scott, designed a magnificent suite of three rooms on the first floor. This consisted of the lofty 'Cabinet Room', (now known as the Grand Reception Room) with its barrelvaulted roof and windows looking out on The Grand Reception Room to the Main Quadrangle and the Foreign Office courtyard the maIler square Dining Room, and the Conference Room with it gilded ceiling supported by brackets embellished with emblems of foreign countrie . The uite was approached by the left-hand branch of the Grand Stairca e, with the right-hand branch leading to the Secretary of State's Room.
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