Portland Stone Portlandian, Upper Jurassic Portland Stone is perhaps the best known and possibly themost widely used of Britain’s building stones. It is an even grained, white oolitic limestone with varying proportion of shells. The coastal location of the quarries on the Dorset Coast was subsequently a very important factor in the stone’s rise to pre-eminence. Although it was used locally the stone first found favour in London with the architect Inigo Jones in the early 17th century and was subsequently, and perhapsmore importantly, used extensively by Sir ChristopherWren in the rebuilding of London after theGreat Fire.
Bath Stone Bathonian, Middle Jurassic Soon recognised by the Romans as a good building stone, Bath Stone is seen to best effect in themany splendid buildings of Bath itself and in the houses of the surrounding villages. The limestones are dominantly oolitic with variable proportions of shell debris. They range frompale to dark yellowish brown in colour. Bath Stone was and is still largely produced fromundergroundmines, which now form a network of galleries several tens of kilometres in extent beneath the City of Bath and its environs.
Great Pulteney Street
Bath Stone, The Cathedral Boxmine
Port of Liverpool
Portland Stone
Photo ©Nick Chipchase (cc-by-sa/2.0)
These galleries, are now largely abandoned but they provided safe storage areas during both world wars for many important and valuable documents and paintings. Today they host a thriving mushroom industry.
It would be difficult today towalk through central London without soon coming upon a substantial building of white Portland stone.
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