Portland House
Portland House is a skyscraper in Westminster, London. It is tall with 29 floors and was completed in 1963.
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 currently use Portland House for office space include American Express, Crossrail, Caxton FX, HomeAway UK, Owners Direct, Direct Ferries Orbus Software, Increase the Wedge, NetBooster, Somo Global, TradeDoubler, Wunder2, uSwitch, Upmystreet.com, Reef Television, Rentokil Initial, AkzoNobel, Monica Vinader and IWG. IWG provides serviced offices to a number of companies. The building once contained the head offices of British United Airways.
The building is a five-minute walk from London Victoria station 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 Cardinal Place. 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, 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.
