Unlike 10 Downing Street or the White House, 24 Sussex Drive has been used almost exclusively as a place of residence. The prime minister's work is carried out by the Office of the Prime Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council building, near Parliament Hill. However, prime ministers have conducted some work at 24 Sussex Drive over the years, and informal meetings between prime ministers and other government or foreign officials have taken place in the house (foreign heads of state on state visits are officially hosted by the monarch or Governor General of Canada at Rideau Hall). One consequence of the building's lack of official bureaucratic function is that "24 Sussex Drive" has never been widely used as a metonym for the Office of the Prime Minister.