| Summary : Great Portland Street station opened as Portland Road on 10th January 1863 as an intermediate station on the Metropolitan Railway's line from Bishop's Road, Paddington to Farringdon Street. The initial station was a single-storey structure faced with white Suffolk brick and cement rendering to simulate rusticated stonework. Sir John Fowler was the engineer-in-chief for the Metropolitan, and Thomas Marr Johnson the resident engineer, but it has been suggested that the original Metropolitan surface buildings were designed by the architect John Hargrave Stevens. The station was renamed Great Portland Street in March 1917. It was further renamed Great Portland Street and Regent's Park in 1923 and subsequently reverted back to Great Portland Street ten years later. The present station building, designed by Charles Clark, is of 1930 date and is constructed from cream faience tile with a slate mansard roof. It has an elliptical plan with entrances in slightly advanced pavilions at cardinal points and perimeter shops surrounding the booking hall concourse. |