page_title: Portland stone
section_title: Portland stone buildings
hierarchical_section_title: Portland stone / Portland stone buildings
caption_attribution_description: An aerial view of St Paul's Cathedral.
context_page_description: Portland Stone or Portland Stone Formation is a limestone formation from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building stone throughout the British Isles, notably in major public buildings in London such as St Paul's Cathedral and Buckingham Palace. Portland Stone is also exported to many countries—being used for example in the United Nations headquarters building in New York City.
context_section_description: Portland's freestone has almost certainly been used as a building material since Roman times. The many well crafted Roman sarcophagi (stone coffins and matching lids, hewn from single large blocks of Portland stone) that have been unearthed locally over the years, testify to the skill of their makers.
  The earliest known building to be constructed using Portland stone is Rufus Castle at Church Ope Cove, Portland. The original structure was probably built around 1080, rebuilt around 1259 and rebuilt yet again around 1450, which is the likely date of the walls seen today. The first known Portland stone quarries were situated on the northeastern coast of the Isle, close to Rufus Castle, where huge landslips made the stone more easily accessible, and the proximity of the sea allowed the quarried stone blocks to be moved over relatively large distances by barge.
  Portland stone was used to build the Palace of Westminster in 1347, the Tower of London in 1349 and the first stone London Bridge in 1350. Exeter Cathedral and Christchurch Priory, also constructed during the 14th Century are built of Portland stone. Its superb characteristics have ensured a popularity amongst masons and architects that has endured ever since. The East side of Buckingham Palace, the official London residence of Queen Elizabeth II, including the balcony, was faced with Portland stone, first in 1854 and again in 1913. The Victoria Memorial (unveiled 1911) is also made of it.
  Inigo Jones (1573–1652) used Portland stone to build the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall in 1620. Sir Christopher Wren used nearly one million cubic feet to rebuild St. Paul's Cathedral and many other minor churches after the Great Fire of London in 1666.
  All of the stone used by Wren was transported by sailing barge from Portland to the centre of London via the sea and then up the Thames. Wren's widespread use of Portland stone firmly established it as London's "local stone" and as one of the best-loved British building stones. Other famous London buildings constructed of Portland stone are The British Museum (1753) with the new WCEC extension in Portland Roach which was short-listed for the Stirling Prize in 2017, Somerset House (1792), the General Post Office (1829), the Bank of England, the Mansion House and the National Gallery. The Tower Bridge is clad in Portland stone (as well as Cornish granite). Portland stone was used in 1923 to build the supporting pillar of the Grace Gates at Lord's Cricket Ground.
  Recently, Portland Stone has been used in the building of Chelsea Barracks, Wilkins Terrace at UCL University College London, St James's Market Haymarket, London and Green Park tube station.
  Portland stone is prevalent in Manchester despite the historical preferred use of hard-wearing materials, such as Burmantofts and sandstone to resist the harsh industrial environment. Portland stone was mostly used in Manchester during the 1930s. Manchester buildings with Portland stone exterior include 100 King Street (1935), Arkwright House (1937), St. James Buildings (1912), Manchester Central Library (1934), Kendal Milne (1939) and Sunlight House (1932).
  Two of Liverpool's Three Graces, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building, are clad in Portland stone which surrounds their reinforced concrete frames.
  The Nottingham Council House, completed in 1929, is also built with Portland stone, as are the public buildings in Cardiff's civic centre. Architect Charles Holden significantly used the stone in his major commissions of the 1920s and 1930s, including Senate House and 55 Broadway, the home of the London Underground. The 1929 steel framed building (one of the first erected in the United Kingdom) of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, based in Keppel Street, has a Portland stone façade to complete its stripped Classical design. After the Second World War (1939–1945), the bombed out centres of many English towns and cities, such as Plymouth, Bristol, Coventry and London were reconstructed using vast facades of Portland stone.
  Many of the buildings surrounding the f
caption: St Paul's Cathedral, London by Christopher Wren, built 1677.
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FZ5", "Image Software": "Ver.1.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:08:17 10:39:09", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "354", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:08:17 10:39:09", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:08:17 10:39:09", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "401/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2560", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1920", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "240", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Soft", "EXIF Sharpness": "Soft"}