Stretching from the Marylebone Road and Regent’s Park down to Oxford Street, the commercial thoroughfare of Great Portland Street forms the boundary between the distinct areas of Marylebone to the west and Fitzrovia to the east. The road owes much of its unique character to the combination of small, independent boutiques and shops, and grand Victorian and Edwardian architecture, as well as some large modern buildings. Great Portland Street is located in both the Harley Street and East Marylebone Conservation Areas, and the majority of its buildings are designated as ‘Unlisted Buildings of Merit’ by the Westminster Council. Some of its most prominent structures include the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Portland Hospital, the BBC Trust, Wogan House, and local favourite, the Horse and Groom pub. There are very few local residents, given the road’s commercial quality and the fact that many of the former homes have now been converted into offices. Transport links are fantastic, though, with the listed Great Portland Street and Oxford Circus stations providing tourists and workers with easy access to the road’s array of shops and cafes.

The southern end of the road began to emerge in the mid-18th century when Edward Harley and Lady Cavendish began laying out a development in the area, and Great Portland Street was laid out almost exactly as it is today by at least 1793. By the 1870s the street was built up with shops selling pictures and sheet music, and the northern end with artists’ studios. The area was middle-class, and noted as containing ‘shops, restaurants, many curio and antique shops [and] many doubtful massage establishments’. It made its name in the 20th century through its car showrooms and dealerships, picking up the nickname ‘Motor Row’. At its peak it was home to 33 different showrooms, including those of Vauxhall, Jaguar, Austin, and Benz. Despite 28 separate bombs falling on it, Great Portland Street was barely damaged during the Blitz, and the majority of its original buildings remain, with only a few more modern structures.

Great Portland Street is home to the Central Synagogue, which has been on the same site since 1868. British businessman, Sir Alan Sugar, married his wife Ann at the synagogue in 1968 at the youthful age of 21.

The street was also home to the Kray twins’ front business, ‘The Carston Group of Companies’, from 1962-1968. It was located at 143 Great Portland Street, which is now occupied by Forza Projects Ltd.

Great Portland Street has a tendency to get very noisy and polluted, which can prove to be an issue for those who work on the road. Its stations also get incredibly crowded at peak times with a combination of local workers and tourists.

Nearby Oxford Street was due to become fully pedestrianised by the end of 2018, though this plan was scrapped by Westminster Council. Another plan worth £150 million of investment by the council, which was supposed to transform Oxford Circus and the stretch of Oxford Street to Great Portland Street into a series of pedestrian piazzas, was also canceled in late Summer 2022, only a year after it was announced. The council’s recurring challenge to answer public demands to pedestrianise these roads may become an even greater issue as the authorities estimated that an additional 60 million pedestrians would flock to the West End per year following the opening of the Elizabeth line, which became operational in early 2022, further exacerbating congestion and pollution concerns in the area.