The Department for (Digital), Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in the Government Offices building, Great George Street is the workplace of Strike and Robin’s client Jasper Chiswell, the Minister for Culture. We first see it when Robin goes to update Chiswell on the case. It is described as a “large white Edwardian building a few minutes away from the Palace of Westminster” with its “stone swags, its columns and its neoclassical façade.”
The interior is described as having contemporary art, a glass sculpture that hangs from the cupola over the central staircase.
A young woman leads Robin to Chiswell’s office, pointing out things of interest, like the Churchill Room.
“That’s the balcony he gave his speech from on VE Day.”
“Smart young people sat at an array of desks in front of lengthy windows to the right, which looked out onto a quadrangle, which, in size and scale, bore the appearance of a colosseum, with its high white windowed walls.”
Robin enters Chiswell’s office, and they talk about the upcoming Olympics and Robin’s undercover work in the House of Commons. As they exit the office, they are interrupted by the Minister for Sport, Della Winn, who mistakenly thinks Robin was a fencer on the English team with Freddie Chiswell.
Robin visits the DCMS a couple more times in the book. On one occasion, Chiswell even asks her if she’d like to take over from Izzy and work as his PA, which Robin declines: “I’m . . . happy where I am”.
You can find the DCMS on Google Maps here: