Westminster House is a commercial facility on the south east side of

Portland Street Portland Street is a popular street in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The street is known for its business and retailing skyscraper complex Langham Place, numerous restaurants and its red-light district. Geography Running north-south and parallel to (an ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. As "County Hall", it was the headquarters of

Greater Manchester County Council The Greater Manchester County Council (GMCC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater Manchester from 1974 to 1986. A strategic authority, with responsibilities for roads, public transport, planning, emergency services ...

from its formation in April 1974 to its abolition in March 1986.

History

In the mid-19th century the site on the south east side of Portland Street had been occupied by a row of residential and retail properties which included the Portland Street Silk Mill; the area in the next block to the south east of the site (on the south east side of Major Street) was known at that time as Westminster Place and this may have been, in part, the origin of the name. The site itself continued to be occupied by the same aging residential and retail properties until the mid-20th century. The building, which was designed by Fitzroy Robinson & Partners and built at the cost of £4.5 million (£ as of ), was completed in 1973. The design for the seven-storey building involved a main frontage on Portland Street with wings stretching back along Minshull Street and Aytoun Street; the ground floor was designated for retail use and the windows on the first floor were slightly recessed; the upper floors featured a continuous bands of glazing with red brick above and below the glazing. The building was acquired for use as the headquarters of

on the county council's formation in April 1974. It was originally referred to as County Hall and, although the county council officers and their departments were based at County Hall, the full county council would meet at Manchester Town Hall. The building was vacated by Greater Manchester County Council on its abolition in March 1986. In 1988 the building was sold for circa £5 million to Parc Securities who refurbished it and converted it for commercial use. It was then sold on, in 1990, for circa £22 million to County Hall Properties who renamed it "Westminster House"; it was suggested in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' that this may have been, in part, to honour the Westminster Government of

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

which had abolished the Greater Manchester County Council. The building was later acquired by Aviva Investors, who commissioned an extensive programme of refurbishment works costing £18 million which were carried out by contractors, Styles & Wood, to a design by BDP and completed in summer 2017. Following completion of the refurbishment works, the building was renamed again, this time simply to 11 Portland Street. Notable residents as of 2022 include

Arm Limited Arm is a British semiconductor and computer software, software design company based in Cambridge, England. Its primary business is in the design of ARM architecture family, ARM central processing unit, processors (CPUs). It also designs other c ...

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Manchester County halls in England Government buildings completed in 1973