Please contact Development Advice and Control if you wish to enquire about the current status of any building on these lists.

• Download all listed buildings as PDF file

The architectural terms used in describing listed buildings can be confusing to the non-architect. We have compiled a helpful glossary of architectural terms.

What is a Listed Building?

The following explanation is taken from an English Heritage leaflet on Listed Buildings, March 1997:

"Historic buildings are a precious and finite asset, and powerful reminders to us of the work and way of life of earlier generations.

"The richness of this country's architectural heritage plays an influential part in our sense of national and regional identity. Your favourite views of England - street, village, town or city - almost certainly contain buildings protected by the process called 'listing'.

"English Heritage has the task of identifying and protecting this inheritance in England. Our main means of doing this is by listing - recommending buildings for inclusion on statutory lists of buildings of 'special architectural or historic interest'."

Why is a building listed?

"Listing is not meant to fossilise a building. Its long-term interests are often best served by putting it to good use. If this cannot be the one it was designed for, a new use may have to be found.

"Listing endures that the architectural and historic interest of the building is carefully considered before any alterations, either outside or inside, are agreed."

How are buildings chosen?

"Buildings can be listed because of age, rarity, architectural merit, and method of construction. Occasionally English Heritage selects a building because the building has played a part in the life of a famous person, or as the scene for an important event.

"An interesting group of buildings - such as a model village or a square - may also be listed.

"The older a building is, the more likely it is to be listed. All buildings built before 1700 which survive in anything like their original condition are listed, as are most built between 1700 and 1840. After that date, the criteria become tighter with time, so that post-1945 buildings have to be exceptionally important to be listed.

"The buildings are graded to show their relative architectural or historic interest:

• Grade I buildings are of exceptional interest
• Grade II* are particularly important buildings of more than special interest
• Grade II are of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve them

"Listing currently protects 500,000 or so buildings, of which the majority - over 90% - are Grade II. Grade I and II* buildings may be eligible for English Heritage grants for urgent major repairs."

Images of England

At the turn of the 21st century, English Heritage recruited volunteers with the aim of photographing every listed building in England at that point in time.

The Images of England website contains over 300,000 images of England's built heritage from lamp posts to lavatories, phone boxes to toll booths, mile stones to gravestones, as well as thousands of bridges, historic houses and churches.

Listed Building Consent

Once a building has been listed, it is a criminal offence to demolish or alter it (including the interior of the building) without consent from the council. You can apply for a Listed Building consent planning application either online via the Planning Portal or via our online planning forms.