Listed Buildings

Listed Buildings are buildings that have been designated as having ‘special architectural or historic interest’. English Heritage maintains the records of all the listed buildings in England. The listing process is intended to protect these buildings from unauthorised alteration or demolition.

There are four main criteria that may result in a building becoming listed. These are:

Architectural interest: listing aims to include all buildings of importance to the nation for reason of their architectural design, decoration and craftsmanship;
Historic interest: this includes buildings that display important aspects of the nation's social, cultural, economic or military history;
Historical associations: buildings with close historical ties with nationally important people or events;
Group value: particularly where buildings together make up an important architectural or historical unity or a fine example of planning (for example, squares, terraces, model villages).

There are three levels of listing, which show their relative importance:

Grade I: These are buildings of paramount national importance to the nation and include things such as palaces, churches, famous country houses etc.
Grade II*: These are buildings of outstanding interest. Generally they will be buildings with an innovative or unique architectural feature or buildings that have some interesting historical aspect, such as ownership by a famous person for example.
Grade II: These are all of the other buildings that are considered to meet one of the four listing criteria.

There are around 370,000 listed buildings in England, of which 92% are Grade II or Grade II*. A listed building can be a house, shop, barn, outbuilding, lock and even a milestone!

English Heritage is currently undertaking a photographic survey of all listed buildings in England. The current progress of this project can be seen at the Images of England website.

In addition to listed buildings there is also the concept of a Conservation Area, which is an area with significant historical character. In a Conservation Area, all buildings (even the non-listed ones) are subject to additional controls on changes to their external appearance.

What is listed?

There are many misunderstandings about what is actually included within a listing. The most common of these is that Grade II covers less than Grade II* and this less than Grade I. This is completely untrue. The listing of a building includes the same items, regardless of grade assigned. The only difference between grades is the strictness of control over modifications and maintenance.

When a building is listed, the listing includes the whole property, both inside and out, along with any land associated with the property, including any outbuildings, walls and fences (except those newer than 1948 and not attached to the property). This land and buildings is known as the curtilage. The listed status applies to the structure of the building (and curtilage), such as walls, floors, ceilings and roofs as well as any fitting and fixtures, such as doors, windows, latches, rainwater goods etc.

An owner of a listed building is allowed to undertake routine maintenance to the property without any problems. Things such as re-painting, decorating, replacing slipped roof tiles are all acceptable without permission being required provided that they are done using traditional methods and materials. Owners are also allowed to carry out like for like replacements provided the replacements are identical in materials, appearance and construction.

The listed building controls apply if the owner wishes to make any changes to the property. If the changes are likely to affect the character of the property in any way then Listed Building Consent must be sought. Applications for LBC are made to the local council who assess the impact of the proposed work and approve or refuse the application.

If a listed building is allowed to fall into disrepair then the council can serve an enforcement notice on the owner, forcing them to make repairs or face fines and jail. It is also a criminal offence to make any alterations to a listed building without Listed Building Consent. Again, doing so may result in an enforcement order, fines and a prison sentence.

What can be changed?

The LBC process may sound very rigid and unnecessarily complex process that is designed to stop old buildings ever being updated. In fact, the process is very flexible and accepting provided that the proposed work is going to improve the property, is sympathetic to its character and will be undertaken using traditional materials and techniques. For example, lets consider three radically different fictional cases:

Case 1 – Mr and Mrs A

Mr and Mrs A purchased a small, grade II listed, timber framed, thatched cottage a few years ago. The cottage is single story with two bedrooms in the roof served by dormer windows. They have since had two children and are finding the cottage too small for their needs. They have therefore decided to apply to expand the property to increase its size. They have employed a local builder and architect with no experience of working with older properties.

The proposal that they have produced includes building a two-story extension at the rear of the house, which would more than double the existing floor space. The extension will be built using modern techniques with a breezeblock superstructure and plasterboard and brick walls. It will be roofed with modern concrete tiles and have uPVC windows. They have also proposed to remove that thatched roof of the cottage and raise the existing roof structure up to the same level as the new extension. The resulting two-storey cottage would then be re-thatched. Modern bricks would be used for the new first floor walls and be painted white. New uPVC windows would be installed where the dormer windows used to be. Much of the existing oak roof structure would be replaced with modern softwood.

Although this is an extreme example it demonstrates the damage that can be done to a property through ill-conceived development ideas. It is just the sort of thing that the listing process is intended to prevent. Were there no listing process then Mr and Mrs A could just go ahead with their proposal and destroy a piece of history.

The particular problems with this application include:

Radically increasing the size of the property, turning it from a small cottage into a large house.
Damaging the existing fabric of the building by raising the roof of the front part and by removing many of the perfectly adequate old roof timbers and replacing them with new ones.
Building the new parts using modern breezeblocks, cement and bricks rather than using the traditional materials employed in the original construction of the building.
Installing inappropriate uPVC windows

Case 2 – Mr and Mrs B

Mr and Mrs B have just purchased a grade II listed, timber framed building that is divided into two separate, but very small cottages. The building had been on the market for a long time due to the fact that the separate cottages are very small and in a poor state of repair. They propose to join the two cottages together into a single two-bedroom house and then repair the house. They checked that this would be feasible with the Conservation Officer before making the purchase and he was happy provided the specified work was sympathetic and of a high quality.

They have employed a specialist Conservation Architect and a builder who has done lots of work with old buildings. After purchasing the building the architect and builder carried out some careful investigations and discovered that the two cottages were actually joined at some time in the past. The doors between the rooms had been covered with plasterboard and then painted over. Although the doors are not in the places that they wanted them to be, Mr and Mrs B decide to adjust their plans to make use of the original openings. They also propose a number of repairs to the timber frame and roof using oak spliced into the existing timbers. For replastering they will use traditional lime based plasters and techniques.

This is a case of a sympathetic proposal that would probably be approved. Mr and Mrs B have taken care to keep the character of the original properties as much as possible. The discovery of original doorways was very fortuitous, but they could have carried on with their original plans to create new doors. Instead they have accepted that their plans need to be changed and at the same time have achieved their desire while enhancing the character of the property. They are also using appropriate materials and are minimising repairs by splicing in timbers rather than wholesale replacement.

Case 3 – XYZ Leisure

XYZ Leisure purchased a grade II* listed Georgian country house 20 years ago and set it up as a health farm. Their business has done very well and now the company wish to add an extension to the existing building for a new, larger swimming pool and to turn the old swimming pool (installed 20 years ago) into a gym area.

Initially they proposed to extend to the side of the building with a large building made of steel and glass. This was refused on grounds of poor location and materials. They have therefore submitted a new proposal for a smaller building extending to the rear of the property. The extension will be built of the same stone and bricks as the main house and will be finished with the same stucco styling.

This new proposal would probably be accepted, as it would not alter the visual appearance of the property as viewed from the front. Also, the new extension would match the existing building when viewed from other angles and it is of an appropriate scale for the main building, ensuring that it would not look out of place. The final plus for this new version is that it is built using the traditional materials and techniques that were employed when the property was originally constructed.