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Listed Buildings (Statutory List)

A ‘listed building’ is one that has been included on the Secretary of State’s List of Buildings of Architectural or Historic Interest. The current list for Portsmouth has 444 entries and includes over 600 buildings. The List was reviewed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 1999, when a number of buildings were added to the List.

Buildings must have special architectural or historic interest to qualify for listing and in Portsmouth, listed buildings are typically:

• most Georgian period buildings
• almost all buildings built before 1700
• buildings of definite quality from the Victorian and Edwardian periods (between 1840 and 1914 only)
• twentieth century buildings of exceptional quality

A building cannot be listed if it is less than ten years old.

Listed Buildings are classified in the following way:

Grade I : Buildings of exceptional architectural or historic interest and in Portsmouth include: St Thomas's Cathedral in the High Street and Charles Dickens's Birthplace, Old Commercial Road.

Grade II* : Particularly important buildings of more than special interest.

Grade II : Buildings of special architectural interest that warrant every effort being made to preserve them.

There are 401 Grade II, 31 Grade II* and 12 Grade I listed buildings in the city.

Structures other than buildings can also be classified as Listed Buildings, for example red telephone boxes, milestones, tombs and monuments. Here is a list of scheduled ancient monuments in Portsmouth.

You can find more information about listed buildings in Portsmouth from the links below and nationwide from the links in the right hand panel.

Associated documents:

  Introduction to Listed buildings in Portsmouth  (0.22 MB)
Listed Buildings - Admiralty Road to Gunwharf Road  (0.92 MB)
Listed Buildings - Gunwharf Road to London Road  (0.73 MB)
Listed Buildings - London Road to Whale Island  (0.96 MB)