| Wikipedia: Portland House |
Coordinates: 51°29′51.3″N 00°8′30.1″W / 51.497583°N 0.141694°W
Portland House is a skyscraper in Westminster, London. It is 101 metres (331 ft) 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, TradeDoubler, uSwitch, Upmystreet.com, Rentokil Initial, AkzoNobel[1] and Regus.
The building is a two minute walk from London Victoria station (mainline and tube) and Victoria Coach Station. The surrounding area has been redeveloped over the last two years with new a new shopping and refreshments area called Cardinal Place. The building also has a gym in the basement.
Portland House is the highest building in Victoria and Westminster, and can be see from as far away as Battersea. Rumour has it that Queen Elizabeth II demanded the building be pulled down shortly after completion, as it can be seen from — and see into — the grounds of Buckingham Palace.[citation needed] The building tenants have to agree that no photography will be allowed of the Palace. When in the mid 80s a tenant placed a microwave receiver dish aimed at the BT Tower to receive a live broadcast of an oil field opening, the Palace Security Squad spotted it and were on the scene in minutes.
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 Zizi 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.
This building was successfully climbed by French urban climber Alain Robert in 2007.
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