Use the 'My Property' postcode search on this page to find out if your property is listed.
What is a listed building?
A building is listed when it is of special architectural or historic interest - at a national level, and it is therefore given legal protection.
Listing provides extra control over what changes can be made to a building’s interior and exterior. You will need to apply for listed building consent for most types of work that affect the building’s special architectural or historic interest.
Listing covers the whole of a building, including the interior, and it can also cover:
- Other attached structures and fixtures
- Later extensions or additions
- Pre-1948 buildings on land within the curtilage of the listed building, for example within its garden
For more information on listing, see the Guide to heritage protection: listed buildings.
Grade of listing and descriptions
Use the National Heritage List for England to confirm the grade of listing, and to see the description of the listed building (where available).
Listed buildings come in three categories:
- Grade I - are of exceptional interest and make up 2.5% of all listed buildings
- Grade II* - are of more than special interest and make up 5.5% of all listed buildings
- Grade II - are of special interest and make up 92% of listed buildings
Altering a listed building
If you propose to alter or extend a listed building, in a way that will affect its character or appearance as a building of special architectural or historic interest, you must first apply for listed building consent from the council.
Listed buildings on the planning portal.
When the council considers an application for listed building consent, it has a legal duty to give particular attention to the desirability of preserving the building, its setting, and those features which make it special. These are also the considerations you, and your professional adviser, need to think about when you are planning changes.
The council has produced detailed guidance on altering historic buildings.
You need to be aware that carrying out unauthorised works to a listed building is a criminal offence and the council’s planning enforcement team has successfully prosecuted offending individuals.
Pre-application advice
Find out whether a specific proposed development would be likely to be acceptable and what the key issues will be before the submission of a formal application.
Discuss your proposals with a planning officer - types of advice and fees
Do you want a building to be listed?
Please submit your application to Historic England.
If your proposal does not merit national listing, you might want to recommend the council add it to the local list.
Further advice and enquiries
If you need advice about altering your property in a conservation area, or to alter a listed building, you are advised to appoint an architect, heritage consultant or appropriately qualified person with experience of working with heritage assets.
The council has produced a residential design guide and a range of other guidance to assist you and your professional adviser in satisfying the council’s design and conservation policies. This design guide may be relevant for proposals both within and outside of conservation areas.
The council employs two Conservation Officers to advise planning officers on the design of development affecting conservation areas and listed buildings.
Further detailed advice on conservation areas, listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, ecclesiastical exemption, and other heritage consents, is available from the website of Historic England.