Listed building Totally Explained

Everything about Listed Buildings totally explained

A listed building in the United Kingdom is a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural significance. It is a widely used status, applied to around half a million buildings.
   A listed building may not be demolished, extended or altered without special permission from the local planning authority (who typically consult the relevant central government agency, particularly for significant alterations to the more notable listed buildings). Owners of listed buildings are, in some circumstances, compelled to repair and maintain them and can face criminal prosecution if they fail to do so or if they perform unauthorised alterations. Because of this, and because listing can limit the options available for significant expansion or improvement, the law allows for owners of listed buildings to object to the listing.
   Although most structures appearing on the lists are buildings, other structures such as bridges, monuments, sculptures, war memorials, and even milestones and mileposts may also be listed. Ancient, military and uninhabited structures (such as Stonehenge) are sometimes instead classified as Scheduled Ancient Monuments and protected by much older legislation whilst cultural landscapes such as parks and gardens are currently "listed" on a non-statutory basis. In England, this complex system may be rationalised under the Heritage Protection Review, see below.
   Listing was begun by a provision in the Town and Country Planning Act 1947.

England and Wales

In England and Wales the authority for listing is granted by the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 and is presently administered by English Heritage, an agency of the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, and Cadw in Wales (where it's a devolved issue). Listed buildings in danger of decay are listed on English Heritage's Buildings At Risk Register.
There are three types of listed status (in descending order of "importance" and difficulty to obtain planning permission):

Grade I: buildings of outstanding or national architectural or historic interest.
Grade II*: particularly significant buildings of more than local interest.
Grade II: buildings of special architectural or historic interest.

There was formerly a non-statutory Grade III, which was abolished in 1970. Additionally, Grades A, B and C were used in pre-1977 lists, for Anglican churches in use – these correspond to Grades I, II* and II.
   The government is currently proposing to abolish Grade II*. Despite 91% of respondents to the Heritage Protection Review voicing their opposition, English Heritage says it expects the proposal to become law, which would see many Grade II* buildings downgraded to Grade II.
   As of May 2003 there are approximately 442,000 listings in place, of which 418,000 (94.5%) are Grade II, 18,000 (4.1%) are Grade II*, and 6,000 (1.4%) are Grade I. Forty five per cent of Grade I buildings are Church of England parish churches. There are estimated to be about 500,000 actual buildings listed, as listing entries can apply to more than one building.
   The criteria for listing include architectural interest, historic interest and close historical associations with significant people or events. Buildings which are not individually noteworthy may still be listed if they form part of a group that's – for example, all the buildings in a square. Sometimes large areas comprising many buildings may not warrant listing but are given the looser protection of designation as a conservation area.
   Government general policy is to list all buildings erected before 1700 "which survive in anything like their original condition" and most buildings of 1700–1840. More selection is exercised among buildings of the Victorian period and the 20th century. Buildings less than 30 years old are rarely listed, and buildings less than 10 years old never.
   Although the decision to list may be made on the basis of the architectural or historic interest of one small part of the building, the listing protection nevertheless applies to the whole building.
   De-listing is possible but rare in practice. One example being the November 30 2001 de-listing of North Corporation Primary School, Liverpool.

Heritage Protection Review

In March 2007 The Department for Culture, Media & Sport proposed in a government White Paper major reforms to the system in England and Wales. This was the culmination of a 4 year review process. If approved, the term Listed Building will be replaced by Designated Structure. This was a result of a wide-ranging review to rationalise designations in which Scheduled Ancient Monuments, Listed Landscapes on the non-statutory parks and gardens register, monuments and maritime heritage sites would all also become Designated Structures or Sites. It is proposed that the three Grades I, II* and II then apply to all Designated Buildings and Sites.
If approved by Parliament managing these new proposals will be the sole responsibility of English Heritage instead of the Department of Culture Media and Sport, as at present.

Examples of Grade I listed buildings

for a list of buildings across England and Wales

Albert Dock, Liverpool

Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool

Ashridge House, Hertfordshire Neo Gothic House by James Wyatt, 1802

Aston Hall, Birmingham

Ashby Castle, Leicestershire

Royal Albert Bridge, Saltash

Birmingham Town Hall

Blackpool Tower

Bramall Hall

British Museum Reading Room

Buckingham Palace

Cardiff Castle

Chawton Cottage - Jane Austen's Home

Church of Christ the King, Bloomsbury

Clevedon Pier

Clifton Suspension Bridge

Curzon Street railway station, Birmingham

The Cutty Sark

Dock Tower

Downside Abbey

Durham Cathedral

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London

Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire

Christ Church Spitalfields

The Gatehouse and Wardrobe of Richmond Palace, Richmond, Surrey

The Granada Cinema, Tooting

Grimshaw Hall, Knowle, Solihull

Grosvenor Bridge (Chester)

Hampton Court Palace, Surrey

Holland House, Holland Park, Kensington

Icomb Place, Gloucestershire

The Isokon (Lawn Road Flats), Hampstead, London

Kirkstall Abbey (ancient monument) Leeds

Newark Priory, Woking

Newcastle Central Station

Newport Transporter Bridge

The Palace of Westminster

The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Reading Abbey

Royal Albert Hall

Royal Festival Hall — first post-war building to be listed Grade I

Royal Opera House

Theatre Royal, Bristol (Bristol Old Vic)

Sackville College, East Grinstead

St Anne's Church, Haughton Green

St. Catherine's College, Oxford

St. Elisabeth's church, Reddish, Stockport

St. George's Hall, Liverpool

Ss Mary & Everilda, Everingham

Stonyhurst College, Lancashire

The Casbah Coffee Club

The Theatre Royal Drury Lane

The Theatre Royal Haymarket

The Cenotaph, London

University College London

Victoria & Albert Museum

The West Pier in Brighton

Windsor Castle

The Willis Building in Ipswich — the most recently constructed Grade I listed building

York Minster

Examples of Grade II* listed buildings

for a list of buildings across England and Wales

Stoke-on-Trent railway station

Broadcasting House

Criterion Theatre, London

Johnny Haynes stand at Craven Cottage, London

Keeling House, Whitechapel, London

The Cloisters (Letchworth)

Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge

The Old Crown, Birmingham

Park Hill, Sheffield - largest listed building in Europe

Senate House (University of London)

Solar School, Wallasey

St. Chad's Church, Headingley, Leeds

Stockport town hall

Sunderland Empire Theatre

Theatre Royal, Bath

Trellick Tower, London

Victoria Baths, Manchester

84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester - The house of Elizabeth Gaskell

William Brown Library, Liverpool

Watts Warehouse, Manchester

The Elephant House at London Zoo

North Gate House in Dorchester-on-Thames

Ye Olde White Harte public house in Kingston upon Hull - An important place in the history of the English civil war

Examples of Grade II listed buildings

for a list of buildings across England and Wales

BT Tower

Centre Point

160 of the 200 coal tax posts have been listed

The East Stand, Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, London

Derby Grammar School

The Elfin Oak

62 Castle St Hotel, Liverpool

The University of Birmingham

Whitechapel Bell Foundry

Mixed designations

In 2002 there were 80 seaside piers in England that were listed, variously at Grades I, II* and II.

Golden Lane Estate, Clerkenwell, London is an example of a site which includes buildings of different Grades, II & II*

Cobham Park, Kent is a Listed Landscape (Humphry Repton and older landscape), contains Grade I structures (Cobham Hall and Darnley Mausoleum) Grade II structures (ornamental dairy etc), plus a Scheduled Ancient Monument (a buried Roman villa).

West Norwood Cemetery is a Gothic Revival metropolitan cemetery and crematorium which contains 65 structures of Grade II or II*, mainly sepulchral monuments but also boundary structures and mausolea.

Locally listed buildings

Many councils, for example, Birmingham City Council, maintain a register of Locally listed buildings in addition to the statutory list. There is no statutory protection of a building or object on this list. Councils hope that owners will recognise the merits of their properties and keep them unaltered if at all possible.
These grades are used by Birmingham:

Grade A: This is of statutory list quality. To be the subject of notification to English Heritage and/or the serving of a Building Preservation Notice if imminently threatened. ;Grade B: Important in the city wide architectural or local street scene context, warranting positive efforts to ensure retention.

Grade C: Of significance in the local historical/vernacular context, including industrial archaeological features, and worthy of retention.

Northern Ireland

Listed buildings in Northern Ireland are administered by the Environment and Heritage Service, under powers granted by Article 42 of the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991.
The scheme of listing is as follows:

Grade A: buildings of national importance and superior examples of a specific type.

Grade B+: buildings of regional importance, or important buildings that would qualify as Grade A but for lower-quality design or subsequent additions.

Grade B1: buildings of local importance, or good examples of some type.

Grade B2: buildings of local importance, or good examples of some type, but of a lower quality than Grade B1.

Scotland

In Scotland the Town and Country Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 applies. As with other powers regarding planning, conservation is a power devolved to the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government. Historic Scotland is the agency charged by the Executive for protecting listed buildings and scheduled monuments.
The scheme for classifying buildings is:

Category A: "buildings of national or international importance, either architectural or historic, or fine little-altered examples of some particular period, style or building type"

Category B: "buildings of regional or more than local importance, or major examples of some particular period, style or building type which may have been altered"

Category C(s): "buildings of local importance, lesser examples of any period, style or building type, as originally constructed or altered; and simple, traditional buildings which group well with others in categories A and B or are part of a planned group such as an estate or an industrial complex" As of 2007, approximately 8% of listings are category A, 60% are category B, and 32% are category C(s).

Examples of Category A listed buildings

Abbotsford House, near Melrose, in the Borders - commissioned by Sir Walter Scott

Airth Castle, Falkirk

Amisfield Tower, Dumfries and Galloway

Balintore Castle, Angus

Bell Rock Lighthouse and its mainland Signal Tower in Arbroath, Angus - the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse

Bute House, Edinburgh - official residence of the First Minister of Scotland

Cambusnethan House, North Lanarkshire

Church of Maxwell, Mearns Castle, by Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire - a mid 15th century tower, now incorporated into Maxwell Mearns Castle Parish Church (Church of Scotland)

Craigellachie Bridge, Moray - designed by Thomas Telford and built 1812-1814

Crossraguel Abbey (Benedictine), South Ayrshire - founded in 1244 by Donnchadh, Earl of Carrick

Dollan Baths, East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire - opened 1968, Scotland's first 50 m swimming pool

Dollar Academy, Clackmannanshire

Dumbarton Central railway station, West Dunbartonshire

Dun Carloway, Lewis, Western Isles - a 1st century broch

Dunfermline Abbey (Benedictine), Fife - founded in 1128 by King David I

Finnieston Crane, Glasgow

Fort Charlotte, Shetland - built by Robert Mylne under the orders of Charles II at the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch Wars in 1665

Gartnavel Royal Hospital, Glasgow

General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland, Edinburgh

Glasgow City Chambers - designed by William Young, opened 1889

Glenfinnan Viaduct, Lochaber, Highland

Greyfriars Kirk, Greyfriars Kirkyard and the Statue of Greyfriars Bobby, Edinburgh

India of Inchinnan, Renfrewshire - designed in 1930 by Thomas Wallis of Wallis Gilbert & Partners; the former office block of the India Tyres of Inchinnan factory

Jarlshof, Shetland - an archaeological site, including remains of a Bronze Age smithy, an Iron Age broch and houses, Pictish houses, Viking longhouses, a complex of wheelhouses, a mediaeval farmhouse, and a 17th century estate house

John Knox House, Netherbow, Royal Mile, Edinburgh - built 1490

Linlithgow Palace, West Lothian - rebuilding (after former buildings destroyed by fire) started by King James I in the early 15th century, as a grand residence for Scottish royalty

Marischal College, Aberdeen

Morgan Academy, Dundee

New Register House, Edinburgh

Newark Castle, Port Glasgow, Inverclyde

Newbattle Abbey (Cistercian), Midlothian

Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh - official residence of the monarch in Scotland

Parliament Hall, Edinburgh - home of the pre-Union Parliament of Scotland, now housing the Supreme Courts of Scotland

Pinkie House, East Lothian

Pollokshields Burgh Hall, Glasgow

Queensberry House, Scottish Parliament complex, Edinburgh

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Scone Palace, Perth and Kinross

St. Andrew's House, Edinburgh - headquarters of the Scottish Government

St. Magnus' Cathedral (Church of Scotland), Kirkwall, Orkney - construction started in 1137

St. Paul's Cathedral (Scottish Episcopal Church), Dundee

Stirling Castle

Wallace National Monument, Abbey Craig, Stirling - commemorating Sir William Wallace, Guardian of Scotland

Wemyss Bay railway station

Willow Tearooms, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow - designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Examples of Category B listed buildings

Ardencaple Castle, Rhu, Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute

Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen

Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh

Boyd's Automatic tide signalling apparatus Irvine, North Ayrshire

Crown Office, Chambers Street, Edinburgh

Harlaw Academy, Aberdeen

Harbourmaster's House, Dysart, Fife

Inverurie railway station, Aberdeenshire

Kilmarnock railway station, East Ayrshire

Main Stand, Ibrox Park, Glasgow

National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh

National War Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Castle (other parts of the castle are also listed A, B or C(s))

Noup Head Lighthouse, Westray, Orkney

Saddell Abbey, Argyll and Bute

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Skye, Highland

St. Aloysius' College, Glasgow

Woodend Hospital, Aberdeen

Examples of Category C(s) listed buildings

a large number of notable private homes are designated Category C(s) (some A and B category listed buildings are also private homes)

Statue of John Knox, New College Quadrangle, Edinburgh (New College is itself designated as a Category A listed building)

War Memorial to Dundee City Police, West Bell Street, DundeeFurther Information

Get more info on 'Listed Buildings'.

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Everything about Listed Buildings totally explained

England and Wales

Heritage Protection Review

Examples of Grade I listed buildings

Examples of Grade II* listed buildings

Examples of Grade II listed buildings

Mixed designations

Locally listed buildings

Northern Ireland

Examples of Grade A listed buildings

Examples of Grade B+ listed buildings

Examples of Grade B1 listed buildings

Scotland

Examples of Category A listed buildings

Examples of Category B listed buildings

Examples of Category C(s) listed buildings