 At the Restoration, therefore, Downing was knighted (May 1660), was reappointed to the embassy at the Hague, was confirmed in his tellership of the exchequer, and was further rewarded with a valuable piece of land adjoining St. James's Park for building purposes, now known as Downing Street.During the Restoration period, Downing was instrumental organising the spy-rings which hunted down many of his former comrades.He engineered the arrest in Holland of the regicides John Barkstead, Miles Corbet and his former commander and sponsor John Okey, and their removal to England against considerable Dutch popular opposition, where they were speedily tried and executed.