Great Portland Street


Great Portland Street in the West End of London links Oxford Street with Albany Street and the A501 Marylebone Road and Euston Road. A commercial street including some embassies, it divides Fitzrovia, to the east, from Marylebone to the west. It delinates areas with contrasting identities, the west at strongest in grandiose Portland Place and Harley Street, the east at strongest in artists' and independent businesses of Fitzrovia. The street has its own unique character, due in part of the unusual combination of small shops combined with its strongly rectilinear character.
Electorally it is split between the City of Westminster's Marylebone High Street and West End wards.

Overview

Long sections of Great Portland Street are in two Westminster City Council conservation areas, named after Harley Street and East Marylebone. It was gradually developed by a senior branch of the Cavendish-Bentinck family, the Dukes of Portland, who owned most of the eastern half of Marylebone in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was first rated as John Street in 1726.
A campaign to add to its trees began in 2009.

Historic influences

Different owners and interests influenced development; these shaped the street's layout and character. Edward Harley – Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, who married Lady Henrietta Cavendish – was responsible for the development of the Portland Estate, building up Cavendish Square in 1717 then the rest of its land to the north and east. Great Portland stresses the descent of the land and buildings through Dukes' successive ownerships. Many local street names reflect their overall ownership, albeit less obviously.
Development up to Great Titchfield Street was through the Portland Estate, competing against adjoining estates. The Berners family owned land to the east; they developed Wells Street and Rathbone Place in the mid-18th century. At the same time the Middlesex Hospital expanded on land on a 99-year lease around Mortimer Street, encroaching on Riding House and Cleveland Streets. These unrelated developers with different designs explains the assymetrical street grid using the street as a basis; from the street many others start or end.
Great Portland Street runs straight, north-south. The layout, combined with its width and the concentration of shops along its length, means it has for a long time been a local centre and thoroughfare, connecting the residential areas around Regent's Park with the West End. It has also resulted in it becoming a divider, emphasising the contrasting areas to either side. To the east, are artistic areas such as Fitzrovia, which have historically been less well-to-do than the west, with its grand parade of Portland Place, residential areas for the gentry, and doctors and medical institutions on Harley Street.

Development and redevelopment

Development of the estate was gradual but particularly so on Great Portland Street. This had an effect during its redevelopment in the late-19th/early-20th centuries when rebuilding was dictated by the expiration of individual 99-year leases, and is evident in the buildings in existence today.
The most coherent element to the architecture is the predominance of Edwardian buildings to the north and Victorian buildings towards Oxford Street, particularly noticeable when there has been occasional consolidation of plots, leading to consistent façades above street level such as in the block between Clipstone and Carburton Streets. The trend of period groupings is another result of the slowness of the first development. As buildings in the south were built earlier than those in the north, their leases expired earlier, setting off a wave of redevelopment which meant that rebuilding in the south took place in the late-Victorian era, whilst that in the north was delayed until the Edwardian.
The Blitz made it necessary for further re-building after the war, although the damage incurred along the street was not particularly extensive so there are few modern buildings, and although the aesthetic today is a jumble of architectural styles and eras, the overall feel is that of an historic street.

Development over time

Maps from close to the outset of building help to identify the street's changes.

1746 (John Rocque's Map)

1793 (Richard Horwood's Map)

1827 (Christopher Greenwood's Map)

1870 (Ordnance Survey Map)

1889 (Booth's Poverty Map)

1916 (Ordnance Survey Map)

1945 (London Council Bomb Damage Maps)

Broadcasters and media entities

The BBC Trust is based at №180 and until December 2012 BBC Radio 1's headquarters were on Great Portland Street in Yalding House. Radio 2 and 6 Music are also adjoin the street at № 99. Virgin Media was based at № 160 Great Portland Street, which also at one time housed UKTV, Virgin Media Television and IDS during Virgin's presence on the street. Discovery Channel Europe and Mac 7 TV, among some other TV channels are based here. Double Negative, a British full-service motion picture company is also.

Motor cars

Great Portland Street, also known as "Motor Row", was a primary street for cars and related accessories in the early years of the 20th century. The Benz Motor dealership was located in the very early 20th century on the street at its intersection with Weymouth Street where Villandry Restaurant is now located. By the mid-Twenties Great Portland Street had become a dominant motor vehicle trading venue—with no less than 33 showrooms located along the street. Other manufacturers, including the big names of Vauxhall, Jaguar, Austin and Auto-Union DKW were also represented on the street in the first decades of the last century. Other manufacturers with offices and or showrooms on Great Portland Street, included the Beardmore Motors Limited as well as the Maxwell, Morgan Motor and Phoenix Car companies. The Indian Motorcycle Company opened its showroom at №s 168-202 in 1908.
Coach builders in Great Portland Street were a crucial prerequisite for the development of the motor trade on the street. They were represented by the Carlton Carriage Co; and well-established firms included light car specialists Mebes & Mebes, founded in 1893 amongst numerous others.
Speedometer House, built in 1913 at №179, was a London motor industry landmark. Its top two floors were devoted to the production of Smiths speedometers, gauges and other instruments, while the basement was given over to the production of carburettors. John Donald "Jack" Barclay, after leaving the Royal Flying Corps at the end of the First World War, set up the Barclay & Wyse partnership at №91 in 1922 to sell Vauxhall automobiles. The head offices of the UK's Retail Motor Industry Federation are at №201.

The arts

The German composers Felix Mendelssohn and Carl Maria von Weber both lived and worked on Great Portland Street. №103 is cited as one of "London's 50 Outstanding Classical Music Landmarks" because Felix Mendelssohn lodged there during the premiere of Fingal's Cave. Other notables living on the street include James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck, biographer at №122, Leigh Hunt the essayist and poet at №98, and the artist David Wilkie at №117. Sir Charles Barry, the architect, lived at №94Great Portland Street from 1828 to 1841.
Pagani's restaurant, with its art nouveau frontage by Beresford Pite, was a favourite gathering place for many artists and musicians. This was perhaps due in part to the restaurant's proximity to Queen's Hall on Langham Place. Its Artist Room walls were decorated by over 5,000 notes and signatures of its many important artists of the period who included Paderewski, Puccini, Chaminade, Chevalier, Calvé, Piatti, Plançon, De Lucia, Melba, Menpes, Tosti, Sarah Bernhardt, Whistler amongst numerous others. Pagani's was bombed during the Blitz but survived for a time after the war. It had first opened in 1871. The Philharmonic Hall was erected on the site of the new St. James Hall on Great Portland Street in 1907. Sir Ernest Shackleton appeared in person there in 1920 when he presented a film of his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Some of the artistic and entertainment energy of the area dissipated after Queen's Hall was destroyed by incendiary bombs in May 1941.

Clothing trade

Great Portland Street still hints at its past when it was a major centre for London's women's clothing industry. During the late 1950 and 1960s, garment related businesses could be found all along the length of the street.
The clothing trade took to this street, setting up small stock- and work rooms in the early 1900s. Over time, these grew into larger showrooms which represented the English textile industry to many West End stores. The sector's activities were most pronounced where the street intersects with Mortimer and Margaret Streets. Its proximity to buying officers working for the big stores on Oxford Street gave businesses in the area a competitive edge.
The sector's local presence declined in the late 1970-80s with the disappearance of both the UK's independent retailer and the British textile industry. The growing dominance of UK chain stores, with their requirement for supply chain efficiencies from foreign low-cost suppliers, meant that new orders by-passed the showrooms and manufacturer's agents on the street and its vicinity.
Major names of the garment industry associated with the street include Shubette of London, Coppernob, Alfred Young, Hildebrand and French Connection. Though some specialist niche market wholesalers survive the sector is now mainly represented on the street by garment importers.

Buildings and companies

The street is split among Westminster Council's Harley Street Conservation and East Marylebone Conservation Areas. The street has a commercial character with a majority of its buildings dating from the late Victorian or Edwardian period. The street has four Grade II listed buildings, the most common category:
Most of the remaining structures on Great Portland Street have been designated as 'Unlisted Buildings of Merit' by Westminster.
;Other buildings of note:
The Portland Hospital for Women and Children, at №s 205-209.
The street has larger Edwardian buildings in the Marylebone Conservation Area such as №s 160-180; №206; and №228.
№s45-49 host the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
№229 houses International Students House, London, where the John F. Kennedy memorial bust adorns the lobby.

Transport

The street is served at the northern end by Great Portland Street station and at the southern end by Oxford Circus.
Great Portland Street Station opened as Portland Road on 10 January 1863 as a station on London's then Metropolitan Railway. The station was renamed Great Portland Street in March 1917. The present station building, designed by Charles Clark, is of 1930 date and is constructed from cream faience tile with a slate mansard roof.
Regents Park tube station is also close to the north end of the street. Buses numbered 88, C2, 18, 27, 30, 205, 189, 3, 12, and 55 stop on or within a close distance of the road.