The original St Paul’s Cathedral was ruined in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned by King Charles II to rebuild it. Wren’s design was for a far grander St Paul’s than the original building, so he set about finding materials that would help him achieve this objective. Wren considered several different building stones before choosing Portland Stone because while it has the advantage of being easy to work with, (in those days all cutting and carving was done by hand by skilled stone masons) it was also strong enough to bear the load of the huge, heavy lead dome crowning the cathedral. But that’s not all. Other advantages that contributed to Wren’s choice are Portland Stone’s inherent resistance to pollution and the British climate, the white/cream colour which provided a perfect contrast to London’s narrow, poorly-lit streets, and Portland’s location on the coast which made it easier to transport the quarry blocks to London by sea. Whatever his reasons, using Portland Stone to rebuild St Paul’s was a roaring success which has contributed to St Paul’s position as an iconic landmark, and Wren’s reputation as a visionary architect. Wren’s choice of Portland Stone proved so popular, architects throughout Britain soon followed his lead.

Following the rebuilding of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Portland Stone earned a reputation among clients and architects alike for being the first choice when a building needed to convey grandeur. Where other building stones or brickwork were used for lower profile buildings, Portland Stone was, and still is, seen as the only option for prestigious, high-profile buildings. This explains why Portland Stone was used in the construction of several law courts and practically every town hall in Britain built during a certain period. Reinforcing it’s pedigree even further, Portland Stone was selected as the world’s first Heritage Stone approved by Global Heritage Stone Resource https://www.stone-ideas.com/64790/global-heritage-stone-resource-ghsr/. Portland Stone’s reputation is so revered internationally that it has become the unofficial benchmark for future natural stones to be added to the Global Stone Heritage register

When you visualise London's West End or the City, you'll notice familiar, off-white Portland Stone buildings are the backdrop to almost every picture. So many of the buildings and monuments in Central London are built from Portland Stone we could list hundreds. For brevity, our list only includes the most well-known. Central London St Paul’s Cathedral The Tower of London The British Museum The Bank of England The Cenotaph Buckingham Palace Westminster Abbey Admiralty Arch The Guildhall The Old Bailey The Royal Courts of Justice The Royal Opera House The National Gallery The National Portrait Gallery Tate Britain BBC Broadcasting House Senate House, University of London Covent Garden Piazza Nova Victoria The Ritz Bvlgaria Hotel, Knightsbridge Chanel Flagship, Bond Street Apple Flagship, Regent Street Ralph Lauren Flagship, New Bond Street Mui Mui Flagship, New Bond Street Selfridges, Oxford Street Around Britain Belfast City Hall Royal Courts of Justice, Belfast Stockport Town Hall Manchester Central Library Cunard Building, Liverpool Port of Liverpool Building Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral Leeds Civic Hall Islington Town Hall Chelsea Town Hall Shoreditch Town Hall Colchester Town Hall Barnsley Town Hall Crawley Town Hall Sheffield City Hall Sheffield Central Library Cardiff City Hall Swansea Guildhall Nottingham Council House Coventry War Memorial Armed Forces Memorial, Lichfield Southport War Memorial National Maritime Museum, Greenwich Queen's House, Greenwich Queen Mary Building, University of Greenwich Trent Building, University of Nottingham Nancy Astor Building, University of Plymouth Parkinson Building, University of Leeds St John’s College, Cambridge University St John’s College, Oxford University Brasenose College, Oxford University Ashmolean Museum, Oxofrd House of Fraser, Bristol International United Nations (UN) Headquarters, New York National September 11 Memorial & Museum, New York Auckland War Memorial Museum, New Zealand Burberry Flagship, Shanghai The Custom House, Dublin National Gallery, Dublin City Hall, Dublin Casino Ostend Kursaal, Belgium St. Lawrence (Sint-Laurenskerk) Church, Rotterdam While Portland Stone is the primary building stone for the majority of the buildings and monuments listed above, in some cases it is used as a complementary stone or as a replacement during refurbishment, modification or improvement work.