It was well known as the main location for the UK Home Office between 1978 and 2004, when it was known as 50 Queen Anne's Gate; it now houses departments including the Ministry of Justice, His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the Government Legal Department.

The site was previously occupied by the 14-storey mansion block Queen Anne's Mansions, which was despised by some architectural commentators: Lord Reigate, speaking in the House of Lords in 1972 against the plans for the new building, used Nikolaus Pevsner's description "that irredeemable horror".

[1] However, the new building's architecture was not favourably received, either,[1] owing to its scale and massing with protruding elements at the upper and lower floors, often being described as a Brutalist design: it was sometimes known to those who worked there as "the Lubyanka".

In spring 2005, the Home Office moved to a new purpose-built building at 2 Marsham Street designed by Terry Farrell.

The Queen Anne's Gate building had major refurbishment work carried out on it, whilst being under the ownership of Land Securities.