Notes on Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest Listing - Trust Annual Report 1974
Listing
The Secretary of State for the Environment is required to compile lists of buildings of special architectural or historic intrest. The administration of both local and national conservation policies is based on these lists, which are constantly under revision.
How the Buildings are Chosen
The principles of selection for these lists were originally drawn up by an expert committee of architects, antiquaries and historians, and are still followed. All buildings built before 1700 which survive in anything like their original condition qualify for listing as do most buildings of 1700 to 1840. Between 1840 and 1914 only buildings of definite quality and character qualify and the selection is designed to include the principal works of the principal architects.
Selected buildings of 1914 to 1939 are also considered. In choosing buildings, particular attention is paid to:
Special value within certain types, either for architectural or planning reasons or as illustrating social and economic history (for instance, industrial buildings, railway stations, schools, hospitals, theatres, town halls, markets, exchanges, almshouses, prisons, lock-ups, mills).
Technological innovation or virtuosity (for instance cast iron, prefabrication, or the early use of concrete).
Association with well-known characters or events.
Group value, especially as examples of town planning (for instance, squares, terraces or model villages).
A survey is carried out by the Department's Investigators of Historic Buildings, for each local authority area, and buildings are classified in grades to show their relative importance.
Grade I. These are buildings of outstanding interest (less than 5% of the listed buildings so far are in this grade).
Grade II. These are buildings of special interest, which warrant every effort being made to preserve them. (Some particularly important buildings in Grade II are classified as Grade II*.) (Note: There was previously a Grade III which did not form part of the statutory list. Many of the buildings which were shown as Grade III when the lists were first compiled are now considered to be of special interest by modern standards—particularly where they possess "group value". These buildings are therefore being added to the statutory lists as these are revised).
Listed Buildings and Ancient Monuments
"Listed buildings" as described in these notes are buildings listed by the Secretary of State for the Environment as being of special architectural or historic interest.
They are, normally, inhabited buildings.
"Scheduled ancient monuments" are buildings or other structures scheduled under the Ancient Monuments Acts. They are usually unoccupied. In any case where a listed building is also a scheduled monument the control provisions of the Ancient Monuments Acts supersede those in the Town and Country Planning Acts.