Yes. Over the years, we have supplied Portland Stone for thousands of steps and acres of paving. Portland Stone is proven to be weather resistant, and unlike virtually all imported stones, it has a distinguished, centuries-old history of successful use in the British climate. Because frost can damage all masonry products, external paving and steps are the most onerous applications for natural stone. In Britain, an almost nightly freeze is followed by a morning thaw. It’s rare for frost to remain unthawed for weeks or months at a time as it does in colder climates like Alaska or Norway. This freeze/thaw cycle happens several times in every British winter and it is the primary reason so many imported natural stones fail in the British climate. See our Technical Manual for more detailed information or feel free to contact us with your enquiry.

We recommend all paving is laid to a fall and free draining to ensure puddling does not occur and freeze during cold weather. Snow can be simply shovelled or sweapt away where appropriate and a light dusting of clean sharp sand can assist slip resistance. De-icing salts and any sand with staining in (e.g. builders sand) should never be used. Another option for reducing the risk of snow and ice is underfloor heating in critical areas. Areas beneath trees and persistently damp sheltered areas may be subject to algae growth, particularly during the first two years of installation. This growth can be controlled by brushing with a stiff broom or gentle jet washing, ensuring the grouting is not dislodged, and/or the application of a specific stone algae, spore remover such as Lithofin outdoor cleaner. Once this deep clean is completed the spore can be inhibited with the use of the product Lithofin Algex. Please ensure that runoff from any cleaning products is carefully controlled.

So-called ‘cast stone’ is to natural stone what chipboard is to real wood. Of course, not everyone can afford Portland Stone, so we recognise there is a place for it, just like there’s a place in the market for Ikea furniture. However, be aware that beneath the carefully worded marketing jargon ‘cast stone’ contains water, cement and aggregate, which along with other ingredients are placed or ‘cast’ into moulds to create the product which is a form of concrete. It is more accurately (and honestly) described as coloured-concrete rather than ‘cast stone’. Portland Stone by Albion comes from the earth, concrete comes from moulds. The terms ‘cast stone’, ‘reconstituted (recon) stone', and ‘engineered stone’ are euphemisms for coloured-concrete in the same way that ‘faux-leather’ and ‘PU leather’ are euphemisms for polyurethane-based man made fabrics designed to look like leather. Just like faux leather, ‘cast stone’ uses the name of the natural product it imitates in a likely attempt to deceive unsuspecting consumers. You wouldn’t choose faux leather for your shoes or your sofa and then expect it to have the same look, feel and warmth of genuine, natural leather. For the same reasons, only choose cast stone/coloured-concrete if you’re satisfied with a man-made, concrete imitation, or if low price is your driving factor.

Yes. Historically, Portland Basebed has been reserved for the carving work, as it has the lowest shell contact and the tightest matrix. Jordans Basebed Portland Stone is recommended for sculpture, carving and ornamental stonework. Subject to availability, we can supply blocks for intricate carving work, alternatively we use sophisticated CNC machinery for ornamental work which is then finished by hand by award-winning stonemasons in our masonry workshop.

Yes. Portland Stone has been used as a load-bearing building stone for centuries and it’s technical qualities make it suitable for virtually all residential applications. You can use it as the external skin of a cavity wall (similar to brickwork), or for solid walls supporting the roof above. Portland Stone porticos don’t require any secondary steel or supplementary buttressing. Contact us for advice about the suitability of Portland Stone for you project. If your structural engineer needs the test data for structural calculations, you can find the relevant test data on out Technical Data Sheets.

No. While Portland Stone will protect your home from the rain, like most masonry products, it is not impervious to water. When using Portland Stone for the external walls of a residential building, it usually forms part of cavity wall system, similar to brickwork. There are very few restrictions, for incorporating Portland Stone internally within you home. However, it is not recommended swimming pool lining, shower trays, worktops or vanity units.

The original St Paul’s Cathedral was ruined in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned by King Charles II to rebuild it. Wren’s design was for a far grander St Paul’s than the original building, so he set about finding materials that would help him achieve this objective. Wren considered several different building stones before choosing Portland Stone because while it has the advantage of being easy to work with, (in those days all cutting and carving was done by hand by skilled stone masons) it was also strong enough to bear the load of the huge, heavy lead dome crowning the cathedral. But that’s not all. Other advantages that contributed to Wren’s choice are Portland Stone’s inherent resistance to pollution and the British climate, the white/cream colour which provided a perfect contrast to London’s narrow, poorly-lit streets, and Portland’s location on the coast which made it easier to transport the quarry blocks to London by sea. Whatever his reasons, using Portland Stone to rebuild St Paul’s was a roaring success which has contributed to St Paul’s position as an iconic landmark, and Wren’s reputation as a visionary architect. Wren’s choice of Portland Stone proved so popular, architects throughout Britain soon followed his lead.

Following the rebuilding of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Portland Stone earned a reputation among clients and architects alike for being the first choice when a building needed to convey grandeur. Where other building stones or brickwork were used for lower profile buildings, Portland Stone was, and still is, seen as the only option for prestigious, high-profile buildings. This explains why Portland Stone was used in the construction of several law courts and practically every town hall in Britain built during a certain period. Reinforcing it’s pedigree even further, Portland Stone was selected as the world’s first Heritage Stone approved by Global Heritage Stone Resource https://www.stone-ideas.com/64790/global-heritage-stone-resource-ghsr/. Portland Stone’s reputation is so revered internationally that it has become the unofficial benchmark for future natural stones to be added to the Global Stone Heritage register

When you visualise London's West End or the City, you'll notice familiar, off-white Portland Stone buildings are the backdrop to almost every picture. So many of the buildings and monuments in Central London are built from Portland Stone we could list hundreds. For brevity, our list only includes the most well-known. Central London St Paul’s Cathedral The Tower of London The British Museum The Bank of England The Cenotaph Buckingham Palace Westminster Abbey Admiralty Arch The Guildhall The Old Bailey The Royal Courts of Justice The Royal Opera House The National Gallery The National Portrait Gallery Tate Britain BBC Broadcasting House Senate House, University of London Covent Garden Piazza Nova Victoria The Ritz Bvlgaria Hotel, Knightsbridge Chanel Flagship, Bond Street Apple Flagship, Regent Street Ralph Lauren Flagship, New Bond Street Mui Mui Flagship, New Bond Street Selfridges, Oxford Street Around Britain Belfast City Hall Royal Courts of Justice, Belfast Stockport Town Hall Manchester Central Library Cunard Building, Liverpool Port of Liverpool Building Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral Leeds Civic Hall Islington Town Hall Chelsea Town Hall Shoreditch Town Hall Colchester Town Hall Barnsley Town Hall Crawley Town Hall Sheffield City Hall Sheffield Central Library Cardiff City Hall Swansea Guildhall Nottingham Council House Coventry War Memorial Armed Forces Memorial, Lichfield Southport War Memorial National Maritime Museum, Greenwich Queen's House, Greenwich Queen Mary Building, University of Greenwich Trent Building, University of Nottingham Nancy Astor Building, University of Plymouth Parkinson Building, University of Leeds St John’s College, Cambridge University St John’s College, Oxford University Brasenose College, Oxford University Ashmolean Museum, Oxofrd House of Fraser, Bristol International United Nations (UN) Headquarters, New York National September 11 Memorial & Museum, New York Auckland War Memorial Museum, New Zealand Burberry Flagship, Shanghai The Custom House, Dublin National Gallery, Dublin City Hall, Dublin Casino Ostend Kursaal, Belgium St. Lawrence (Sint-Laurenskerk) Church, Rotterdam While Portland Stone is the primary building stone for the majority of the buildings and monuments listed above, in some cases it is used as a complementary stone or as a replacement during refurbishment, modification or improvement work.

The term carbon footprint describes the amount of greenhouse gasses (including carbon) that a specific organisation creates during its day to day operations to produce goods and/or services. The term is also applied to individuals, government organisations and charities.

Compared to other building stones, Portland Stone by Albion’s carbon footprint is the lowest in the entire industry. This means when you use Portland Stone by Albion you get the most sustainable, eco-friendly, low carbon building stone available in Britain. You can find all the details on our Sustainability page Our MD, Michael Poultney is an advocate for reducing the effects of global warming through reducing greenhouse gas emissions. For over 20 years Michael has led the company to invest in technology which has consistently reduced our carbon footprint and we are now reaping the benefits of his foresight. Portland Stone by Albion also compares very favourably to other building materials such as concrete and brickwork. This is primarily because the energy used to heat kilns to 1,000 degrees Celsius for brick production and 1,500 degrees for cement is a massive contributor to greenhouse gases. Cement is a key ingredient in concrete production and high quantities are used in the mortar to build brickwork. Cement production alone is responsible for a massive 8% of the world’s greenhouse gases, that’s almost three times the 2.8% produced by the aviation industry. Whilst we’re not suggesting we should do without concrete or brickwork, we recognise that the high carbon footprint from cement production means concrete and brickwork options have significantly higher carbon footprint compared to Portland Stone by Albion. For an independent verification see this comprehensive report Make Architects which analyses the embedded carbon in different building products.

Credit photo, Use Natural Stone

Quarrying, in its simplest form, is digging the Portland Stone out of the ground. Unfortunately, due the geology, the usable Portland Stone we know and love is buried 10 to 15 metres beneath the surface. That means a lot of energy is used and a lot of waste is created to dig a giant hole (i.e. a quarry) deep enough to extract it. The first benefits of mining are reductions in the energy needed to access the usable Portland Stone and the significant reduction in waste. But the benefits don’t end there. When a quarry has no more usable Portland Stone (it’s become exhausted), a huge pit is left behind. On a small island like Portland, disused quarries can be unsightly, like scars or blemishes on the landscape. Mining doesn’t create these problems. And because mining is more environmentally sensitive, both during operation and at the end when the mine is exhausted, Albion Stone has been given permission to mine in areas where quarrying wouldn’t have been allowed. This has increased our reserves of Portland Stone by more than 50 years.

The Heritage Range. Portland Stone by Albion’s Heritage Range has the lowest carbon footprint of any natural dimension stone in Britain, and possibly the world. So if you want sustainable, environmentally friendly, low carbon natural stone for your project, the Heritage Range is the one for you.

Yes. No matter where it’s extracted, the raw/unfinished stone (known as blocks), will need to be transported to a factory for manufacture. Then it’s transported again to the construction site to be installed. For large, heavy masonry products like natural stone, the CO2 used during transport represents a significant portion of the finished stone’s carbon footprint. By reducing the transport, you automatically reduce the stone’s carbon footprint. Portland Stone by Albion is manufactured within a mile of where it’s extracted. This reduces the transport down to the absolute minimum. Also because it’s manufactured here in Britain, in most cases it will require less CO2 to transport it to the building site than imported stones. This is especially true of sandstones from India and China.

Firstly so-called ‘cast stone’ and ‘reconstituted (recon) stone’ isn’t stone at all, it’s coloured concrete. Conversely Portland Stone by Albion is a 100% natural material that is extracted and processed without using any kilns or ingredients that were produced with kilns (e.g. cement). In the manufacture of masonry products, the energy required to heat kilns has a significant effect on the carbon footprint of the product.

The cost of Portland Stone is a reflection of the costs associated with extracting it. It’s the good fortune of many European quarries that the extraction process is fast and easy, two words that aren’t applicable to Portland Stone extraction. In addition, labour costs, employee welfare and quality assurance are consistently higher standard here in Britain than elsewhere. While there may be cheaper alternatives available from overseas, and in some cases these stones have unique qualities of their own, it should be remembered that they are being offered as cheap alternatives of an internationally recognised marquee brand. When it comes to your home, confidence in the products you choose is priceless. Confidence that you are buying the best quality, backed decades of successful projects in every corner of Britain and ISO 9001 (Quality Management). Confidence that you are buying the most environmentally sensitive natural stone in Britain, backed by BES 6001 (Responsible Sourcing), ISO 14001 (Environmental Management) and the industry-leading figures in our EPD (Environmental Product Declaration). Much like Land Rover, Aga and Rolex due to a lack of resources, cheap imitations of Portland Stone may appeal to the masses. But for the discerning few who appreciate that the irreplaceable satisfaction of owning the genuine article Portland Stone by Albion is always a wise investment.