Less than 10 minutes’ walk from London’s Oxford Circus is the beautiful Portland Place, Marylebone. The design of the road is more in keeping with the wide boulevards of Paris. The street was laid out in the 1770s and is thought to be so wide (33 metres/110 feet) as to not obscure the views of the Regent’s Park at the North end.
The BBC to the South 
The Regent’s Park to the North
As you might imagine, most of the terraced houses are now home to company headquarters, embassies, professional bodies and charities. (Personally, I’m always uncomfortable discovering charitable HQs in extremely expensive areas of town – it makes me think that too much of a charity’s income is possibly being spent in the wrong place. I’m looking at you, RAF Benevolent Fund.)
75 Portland Place 
71 Portland Place
Portland Place has had many famous residents down the years – I was delighted to find a blue plaque for Frances Hodgson Burnett (I loved her books when I was a child – The Secret Garden, A Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy).
The address has also appeared in many novels – Richard Hannay lived here in John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps to name one.
The price of property is ludicrously expensive – a quick look on Zoopla revealed a 4-bed flat on sale for £6,950,000 or a cheaper 2-bed flat for £1,430,000. I won’t be moving in any time soon. 🙂
I began and ended my walk at Oxford Circus Tube station. Duration of walk: 1 hour.
This West London Life 
What a lovely place to live – if only we could afford it! We have a street called Portland Place in the town where I live but it looks VERY different to the one you went to for a walk 😉
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It’s hard to imagine having that much money that you can spend millions on a flat …
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Your lovely photos really show off its elegance in that sunshine … and I share your concern about charity headquarters! I didn’t know about their famous residents, so thank-you. Some of those window boxes/flower displays are also beautiful. That must have added to your step count today too :).
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It’s a lovely bit of town, really quiet and only 10 minutes from Oxford and Regent Streets. 🙂
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That roadway is certainly wide & impressive with those very large (& healthy) trees in the middle & magnificent flower boxes. I saw on the weekend that there’s another re-make of The Secret Garden now on pay for movie TV channels with the always delightful Colin Firth. I cannot imagine paying over 6 million for a flat, it only begs the question how much is rent for those businesses, so I agree charities have no business being there, IMO.
What does C Zone mean?
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The properties there are akin to the Monopoly board, aren’t they?!
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Now this is a place I recognize! I did lots of walking in this area years ago when Robbie was there for work. We stayed on Baker Street, a couple of blocks down from the Sherlock Holmes Museum. I remember walking in to the St. Marylebone Parish Church across from Regents Park once. It’s a small lovely church; someone was practicing on the organ & it was such lovely music. Strolled through the Queen Mary’s Rose Gardens on my 40th birthday. Another time I walked through the park and enjoyed a morning at the zoo. And if I remember right there’s a wonderful book store on Marylebone High Street. Great memories!
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The bookshop is Daunt’s and we love it there – the interior is superb.
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