ThePortman Estate, covering 110 acres ofMarylebone inLondon’sWest End, was founded in 1532 when the land was first leased toSir William Portman.[1]
The Portman Estate also has two rural estates inBuckinghamshire andHerefordshire.[2] In addition to its core landlord operation, The Portman Estate runs The Portman Foundation, acharitable trust which supportscharities and other causes which are located in or benefit the Marylebone area.[3]
The London Estate in Marylebone covers 110 acres fromEdgware Road in the west to beyondBaker Street in the east, and north almost as far asCrawford Street. It covers 68 streets, 650 buildings and four garden squares.
The estate'sChiltern Street was voted “London’s Coolest Street” byCondé Nast Traveler in 2016.[4] Characterised by a row of red brick frontages and a Grade II listed Victorian fire station, the street is now aboutique hotel by American hotelier Andre Balazs;The Chiltern Firehouse.
The Portman Estate owns and manages two farms with very different characteristics. Portman Burtley in Buckinghamshire covers 2,000 acres of farmland and woodland which have anorganic beef enterprise of 200South Devon cattle. Portman Wilmaston in Herefordshire is a 1,000 acre mixed farm of sheep, cattle, arable land and woodland.
The Portman Estate dates back to the 16th century, when Sir William Portman,Lord Chief Justice toKing Henry VIII,[5] and originally fromOrchard Portman inSomerset, leased 270 acres of the Manor of Lileston (Lisson). He acquired thefreehold in 1554, but most of the land remained farmland and meadow until the mid-18th century and the building boom after the end of theSeven Years' War in 1763.
In the 1750s William Baker had leased land from the family to lay out Orchard and Portman Streets, and the north side ofOxford Street.Henry William Portman, a descendant of Sir William, continued the development in 1764 with the creation ofPortman Square, with buildings byJames Wyatt,Robert Adam andJames 'Athenian' Stuart, includingMontagu House, built in the north-west corner for the famed literary hostessElizabeth Montagu and later used by the Portman family as their London town house.
Portman Square was the focus of the new estate and was followed by the building ofManchester Square during the 1770s andBryanston andMontagu Squares 30 years later. These were laid out by the Estate's architect, James Thompson Parkinson. The area remained largely residential, attracting the prosperous middle class who wanted to live near the centre of London. There were also mews for tradesmen and servants. At the southwest corner of the Estate, whereMarble Arch now stands, was theTyburn gallows, London's principal place of public execution until 1783.
Development of the area north of theMarylebone Road aroundDorset Square continued after 1815, and to the North West in Lisson Green, workers’ cottages were built from 1820 to 1840. Many of the original Georgian houses north of Portman Square were redeveloped as mansion blocks, which were let on long leases. This development spread along the major traffic routes of Edgware Road and Baker Street.
In 1948 the Estate, then valued at £10 million, was subject to death duties of £7.6 million on the death of the seventh Viscount Portman, resulting in the sale of all the family's West Country estates as well as the northern part of the London Estate in 1951, and the area around Crawford Street the following year. In the later 1950s and 1960s the Estate collaborated with the developerMax Rayne to redevelop the frontage of Oxford Street and Baker Street, as well as the south and west sides of Portman Square.
| Building | Location | Architect | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home House | 20 Portman Sq. | Robert Adam | 1773-77 |
| Montagu House (destroyed 1941) | 22 Portman Sq. | James Stuart | 1777-1781 |
| Churchill Hotel | 30 Portman Sq. | ||
| Church of the Annunciation | Bryanston St. | Walter Tapper | 1912-13 |
| Wallace Collection (Hertford House) | Manchester Square | 1776-88 | |
| Selfridges | Oxford Street | Daniel Burnham | 1909 |
The Estate is held in trust for the benefit of the wider family, with over 130 beneficiaries. The ancestral title is held by TheViscount Portman who leads the family's management of the Estate through the Estate Trustees and the management company, Portman Settled Estates Limited.[6]
51°31′4.2″N0°9′36.73″W / 51.517833°N 0.1602028°W /51.517833; -0.1602028
