Portland House is a skyscraper in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. It is tall with 29 floors. The building was the central feature of the redevelopment of the six acres old Watney's Brewery site. The architects were Howard, Fairbairn & Partners, and the development took place from 1959 to 1963.Bradley, Simon and Pevsner, Nikolaus, ''The Buildings of England: London 6: Westminster'', Yale University Press, 2003, p. 719 Pevsner notes that the architectural form of Portland House was influenced by the

Pirelli Tower Pirelli Tower (Italian: ''Grattacielo Pirelli'' – also called "''Pirellone''", literally "Big Pirelli") is a 32-storey, skyscraper in Milan, Italy. The base of the building is , with a length of and a width of . The construction used approxim ...

(1955–58) in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

by architect Gio Ponti. The development was known as Stag Place. Today the site is

Cardinal Place Cardinal Place is a retail and office development in London, near Victoria Station and opposite Westminster Cathedral. The site consists of three buildings covering over a million square feet on Victoria Street next door to Portland House, and ...

. The building has two banks of lifts — the first serving the first up to the fifteenth floor, and the second the fifteenth floor upwards. Firms that have at one point occupied Portland House for office space include

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation, multinational corporation specialized in payment card industry, payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Man ...

, Crossrail,

HomeAway HomeAway was a vacation rental marketplace. It operated through 50 websites in 23 languages through which it offered rentals of cabins, condos, castles, villas, barns, and farmhouses. Founded in February 2005 and headquartered in Austin, Texas ...

UK, Owners Direct, Direct Ferries Orbus Software, Increase the Wedge, NetBooster, Somo Global, TradeDoubler, Wunder2,

uSwitch Uswitch Limited is a UK-based price comparison service and switching website founded in 2000. The site allows consumers to compare prices for a range of energy, personal finance, insurance, and communications services. History uSwitch.com w ...

, Upmystreet.com, Reef Television, Rentokil Initial,

AkzoNobel Akzo Nobel N.V., stylized as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational company which creates paints and performance coatings for both industry and consumers worldwide. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, ...

Monica Vinader Monica Vinader Ltd. is a British jewellery brand producing and retailing necklaces, pendants, earrings, rings, and friendship bracelets. It markets itself as crafted demi-fine jewellery positioned and priced in the "gap between fine and fashion je ...

and IWG. The building also once contained the head offices of British United Airways. The building is a five-minute walk from

London Victoria station Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Qu ...

(rail and tube) and a ten-minute walk from Victoria Coach Station. The surrounding area was redeveloped between 2003 and 2005, with a new shopping and refreshments area called

. The building also has a gym in the basement. The building is part of the Cardinal Place Estate, which includes the shopping centre and development around the building. Retail establishments such as

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

, Boots, Thorntons, Zara, Ha Ha Bar and Zizzi have taken retail space in the complex. The ground floor has a portico arrangement of pillars which reflect the octagonal cross-section of the building. The Portland House is substantially similar in design to the MetLife Building in New York City. The two buildings were under construction at the same time. As of June 2021, the building is entirely vacant, with the ground floor behind hoardings, pending renovation by Land Securities.

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Emporis.com entry
{{Land Securities Skyscrapers in the City of Westminster Buildings and structures completed in 1963 Skyscraper office buildings in London

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