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, Bu ...

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. 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 Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...

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 approxima ...

(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 h ...

by architect

Gio Ponti Giovanni "Gio" Ponti ( ͡ʒo18 November 1891 – 16 September 1979) was an Italian architect, industrial designer, furniture designer, artist, teacher, writer and publisher. During his career, which spanned six decades, Ponti built more than a ...

. 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 specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway ...

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 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 ...

Direct Ferries Direct Ferries is a UK based ferry travel aggregator service that provides bookings for ferry crossings across the globe. Its main crossings include mainland Europe, such as the France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Germany; North Afr ...

Orbus Software,

Increase the Wedge Increase may refer to: *Increase (given name) *Increase (knitting) In knitting, an increase is the creation of one or more new stitches, which may be done by various methods that create distinctive effects in the fabric. Most knitting increases ...

, 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 A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic processes—deposition (geology), deposition of ...

Rentokil Initial Rentokil Initial is a British business services group based in Crawley, England. It was founded in 1925 as a pest-control business but subsequently expanded and diversified, in part through organic growth under the leadership of Sir Clive Thom ...

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 British United Airways (BUA) was a private, independentindependent from government-owned corporations British airline formed as a result of the merger of Airwork Services and Hunting-Clan Air Transport in July 1960, making it the largest whol ...

. The building is a five-minute walk from

London Victoria station Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a London station group, central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, London, Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after ...

(rail and tube) and a ten-minute walk from

Victoria Coach Station Victoria Coach Station is the largest coach station in London, located in the central district of Victoria in the City of Westminster. It serves as a terminus for many medium- and long-distance coach services in the United Kingdom, and is al ...

. 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 A boot is a type of footwear. Boot or Boots may also refer to: Businesses * Boot Inn, Chester, Cheshire, England * Boots (company), a high-street pharmacy chain and manufacturer of pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom * The Boot, Cromer St ...

Thorntons Thorntons Limited is a British chocolate manufacturer owned by the Italian confectionery company, Ferrero. It was established in 1911 by Joseph William Thornton and his father in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. When Cadbury became part of the ...

, Zara,

Ha Ha Bar Ha may refer to: Agencies and organizations * Health authority * Hells Angels Motorcycle Club * Highways Agency (now ''National Highways''), UK government body maintaining England's major roads * Homelessness Australia, peak body organisation fo ...

and

Zizzi Zizzi is a chain of Italian-inspired restaurants in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In February 2015, Bridgepoint Capital completed a £250 million acquisition of '' ASK Italian'' and ''Zizzi'', and subsequently bought by TowerBrook Capital Partn ...

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 The MetLife Building (also 200 Park Avenue and formerly the Pan Am Building) is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed in the Internation ...

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.

References

Sources

External links

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

See also

References

Sources

External links