To study the behaviour of multistorey building frames under gravity and severe earthquake conditions a reinforced concrete portal frame was constructed. The beam was subjected to constant vertical loads while a cyclic lateral load was applied to the unit. Negative moment plastic hinges formed at the column faces while the positive moment hinges were located in the span. The rotations generated by each inelastic displacement accumulated. This placed high rotational demands on the plastic hinges, which reduced the overall ductile behaviour compared with that observed in typical beam-column sub-assembly tests. The high rotations caused the beam to grow in length.