Selection Guides

Centrepoint, London Identifying buildings and structures of special interest lies at the heart of our heritage protection system, and designation is always undertaken with care and thought.  While there is much that works well in our inherited systems, review and modernisation are necessary. The launch of the Government’s Heritage Protection Reform (HPR) in 2003 report ‘Protecting our historic environment: Making the system work better’ asked questions about how the current designation systems could be improved.

The HPR decision report ‘Review of Heritage Protection: The Way Forward’ published in June 2004 by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport committed Government and English Heritage to a process of reform including a review of the criteria used for listing buildings. 

The government’s White Paper ‘Heritage Protection for the 21st Century’ published on 8th March 2007 offers a commitment to sharing our understanding of the historic environment and more openness in the process of designation.  As a result, English Heritage has produced a series of selection guides which set out some of our approaches to designating buildings. They are but a start of the process of communicating more widely with owners, local planning authorities, amenity groups and with all those who have an interest in protecting the historic environment.

Earlier campaigns of listing have identified much that is of special interest, but new discoveries undoubtedly remain to be made. These guides explain some of the things we look for when assessing cases for listing.

Approach

Darnall Works, Yorkshire The selection guides have started with buildings, as this is the area in which there is the least formal guidance (other than that set out in the Government’s Planning Policy Guidance 15: Planning and the Historic Environment of 1994) but where the greatest majority of designations are to be found under the current system. It is our intention to produce selection guides for the other current designation categories: scheduled archaeology, registered parks and gardens, registered battlefields and marine historic assets. This is a significant step towards the creation of a unified Register of Historic Buildings and Sites of England announced by Government, in the Heritage Protection White Paper. This Register will amalgamate existing designations, rather than starting afresh, and create a more integrated approach.

Structure

Buildings and structures of special interest come in a wide variety of forms and types. We have created twenty broad categories into which to place them, ranging from Agriculture to the Utilities (the full list is available below). Under these headings we have produced selection guides, including historical overviews and special considerations for listing, plus select bibliographies. While efforts have been made to make these as consistent as possible, different topics sometimes call for different approaches.

Aims  

Cockfosters Underground Station, London These selection guides are primarily intended to develop understanding of designated buildings and structures, and to offer insight into designation decision making. List descriptions were originally purely for identification purposes only: no attempt was made to explain significance or relative importance. Listing in recent times has gone to greater trouble to communicate special interest, but we are well aware that the great majority of list descriptions are still brief accounts of external architectural features, and it remains the local authority’s responsibility to articulate just where special interest lies. It is our hope that these selection guides, and supporting information, will help to begin to explain the significance and special interest of the different categories of buildings.

Limitations

The selection guides are in no way intended to be the definitive guide on the significance of all types of buildings or structures. Instead, they are a beginning of communicating better. We recognise that our knowledge and expertise is constantly growing, and the selection guides will have to reflect this to ensure they remain fit for purpose.  Decisions on the special interest of individual designation cases will continue to be made on a case by case basis, and always using professional judgement.

We do not intend to use the selection guides as the basis for reviewing the appropriateness (or otherwise) of inherited designations: recent experience shows that in the vast majority of cases requesting a reassessment of the listing status of a building, the designation is upheld.

Further Information and Future Revisions

University of East Anglia, Norwich It is our intention that we make as much of our information publicly accessible as is possible. These selection guides serve as an introduction to a topic. As the Heritage Gateway develops, the selection guides will be supplemented with illustrations and linked to other sources of relevant information.

Knowledge on the built historic environment is growing constantly and designation needs to keep abreast of this and as indicated above, it is our intention to carry out periodical reviews of the selection guides and improve their fitness for purpose.  Because these are documents which will undergo change, do make sure that you are consulting the current version on our web-site, which can be identified by the month and date at the front of the document.

• You can contact us at hprt@english-heritage.org.uk
  
• For more information on the launch of the White Paper follow this link: Heritage Protection Reform
  
• A copy of the White Paper 'Heritage Protection for the 21st Century’ can be downloaded from the DCMS website: Link to the White Paper
  
• Copies of the past Heritage Protection Reform reports are also available from the DCMS website: Link to the DCMS website
  
• A copy of Department for Communities and Local Government circular 01/2007, which replaces section 6 of the current PPG15 regarding the listing of buildings, can be downloaded from the DCLG website: Link to DCLG circular 01/2007
  
• The Selection Guides can be downloaded in pdf format below:

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