A series of porphyrins bearing ester pendant arms has been synthesised. The number of potential coordinating groups was varied from one to four. In the case of the four-picket compounds, the arm length was also investigated. Structural properties towards the coordination of the bismuth(III) cation were studied. In the particular case of the two-picket molecules, the substitution isomers (5,10 or 5,15) were also prepared. An improvement of the rate of metallation was detected in the case of the single-picket porphyrin.