This is a short article that is going to quickly go over what is a grade 2 listed building is in the United Kingdom. The vast majority of the places that I am visiting for my National Trust and English Heritage bucket list have either a Grade 1 listed status or a Grade 2 listed status.
What is a Grade 2 listed building.
A building that has or wants to have grade two listed status has to be one that is of special architectural or historical interest. A grade 2 status then adds special planning restrictions to the property so that it is protected for future generations to also enjoy. Special building consent must be sough before any changes that would alter the character of the building are made. The vast majority of listed buildings in the United Kingdom are of the grade 2 listed status with over 91.7% of listings on the full register.
Who gives out the Grade 2 listings
Properties that want to be added to the grade 2 listing register are ultimately done so by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. This is a cabinet level position in the United Kingdom government. However while the secretary of state is the person who signs off the new listings to be added to the list. Those listings are generated for the secretary of state by a governmental department called Historic England.
Historic England is the government department responsible for protecting the Landscapes and Buildings of the United Kingdom for everyone for ever. Historic England was only recently created in 2015 when a previous government department was split in half. The roles the old department performed were split between the two new entities. Historic England was one of those half’s with the other being English Heritage. English Heritage mandate is to manage the properties and allow the public to see them. It was set up as a charity to help perform that role. It takes membership and admission fees from non-members to care for the properties.
Nominations that want to be added to the grade 2 list are applied for online here. There are two paths of application, a paid version which is faster and also a free version. It is possible to apply to protect buildings, monuments, parks, gardens, battlefields or shipwrecks. Properties that Historic England deem of interest will pass the applications process and be big signed onto the list by the secretary of state.
Examples of Grade 2 listed buildings
There are currently a vast amount of places on the grade 2 list. As I write this there are 349,014 places with a grade 2 listing with many more being added each year. It is possible to search for places on the Historic England website here. You can each by name if you know it, but you can also search an area using a map search.
With so many places on the grade 2 list many towns in the United Kingdom have a vast amount of places that are protected. The map below is a of a random town in the United Kingdom. As you can see how many blue protected triangles that signiy something that has protected status. If you use the map to look at your local area you are also very likely to also see many listings, with some that perhaps you didn’t know about.
Sometimes there are even Grade 2 listings inside the boundary of a grade 1 property. An example of this would be gardens at Peckover House in Wisbech. Where the main house is a Grade 1 listed property but its gardens are on the Grade 2 list.
