Thursday 12th September, 2019
Making Alterations to Listed Buildings
Making alterations to listed buildings
by Sam
Mayou PgDip Arch Cons, Director, CAD Heritage
If you are planning to make significant changes to a listed
building, then you should seek the advice of a specialist heritage consultancy,
one with a qualified conservation consultant who can explain the options open
to you and guide you through the process.
Properties are added to the listed buildings register when
they are deemed to be ‘of special architectural or historical interest.’ The
intention is to preserve their significance in terms of the contribution they
make socially, aesthetically and as an archaeological record by protecting the
building as a whole and/or specific features and to prevent them being lost or inappropriately
modified by their owners, either now or in the future.
If you want to find out if a property is listed, Historic
England maintains the National Heritage List for England (NHLE). This is a
searchable database and map for all the listed buildings in England, of which
there are approximately 500,000 in total. Bear in mind that the property’s name
may have changed over the years, so you may need to search using a previous
name or street number or postcode.
Listed buildings fall into three categories:
1. Grade I buildings are of exceptional interest. Only 2.5% of listed buildings fall into this category.
2. Grade II* buildings are particularly important buildings of more than special interest, and 5.8% of listed buildings fall into this category.
3. Grade II buildings are of special interest. 91.7% of all listed buildings are Grade II, so if you are a home owner with a listed building you are most likely to be in this category.
People often make the mistake of assuming that a listing only
affects the exterior of the building. In fact, the listing covers the interior,
exterior and everything within the boundary or ‘curtilage’ of the property.
This can include internal fixtures such as fireplaces, ornate plasterwork
ceilings, wood panelling and the very fabric of the building, walls, roof
timbers etc. Within the curtilage features such as outbuildings and even iron
railings or boundary walls are protected.
A copy of the listing for your building can be obtained from
the local Conservation Officer. The amount of detail that these contain can
vary considerably, but over recent years many have been updated to include a
fuller description of the listed building’s appearance, history and
significance. The “Listing Description” is not a list of the “Listed” features,
but purely a description to help identify the building.
While minor repairs to listed buildings may be acceptable, if
you are planning any alterations you would be well advised to seek the advice
of a conservation architect at a specialist heritage consultancy, before
approaching the Local Authority. This is particularly important if you are
planning any works that may impact on the buildings significance or the historical
detail and design of the building. You will need to apply for Listed Building
Consent before you can carry out work that would affect its appearance or
special character in any way.
Listed Building Consent is a separate process from Planning
Consent. It can be required for changes that some people may consider quite
minor, such as cleaning brickwork or painting the exterior in a different
colour. The aim of Listed Building Consent is to ensure that any proposed
changes are thoroughly assessed, and their impact considered in the context of
the buildings significance and context. Early consultation with your conservation
architect is essential to ensure your proposals are suitably shaped by such an
assessment as mentioned above. It is very important that you demonstrate to the
conservation officer, that your proposals were shaped by and designed following
a full assessment of the impacts on the heritage asset by way of a Heritage Impact Assessment.
At CAD Heritage, we have a regular dialogue with our local
conservation officers, so we have an excellent understanding of the type of
assessment work and reporting that is expected. We will sit down with you at an
early stage, talk about your objectives and priorities, and advise you on the
options that are open to you.
It can take around eight weeks for a Listed Building Consent
application to be processed, so it is important for your architect to have the
skills and knowledge needed to give your application the best chance of success.
Communicating all the aspects of the planned alterations can be a demanding
process, and we can supply the local conservation officer with all the detailed
plans, drawings, images and reports that are required to help your Listed
Building Consent progress smoothly.
Despite being an important process, a listing is not intended
to be a preservation order. The planning framework recognises that the ways in
which our buildings are used changes markedly over the generations. Therefore, it
is vital that listed buildings should be allowed to evolve and adapt if they
are to play a meaningful role in our lives, rather than becoming ‘living
museums.’ As a result, it is possible for listed buildings to be significantly
altered and extended. At CAD Heritage we have worked on many imaginative
alterations to listed buildings for residential and commercial clients. These
alterations have allowed their owners to use these properties to their full
potential while also meeting the required criteria for Listed Building Consent.
Going through this process properly and under the guidance of
a conservation architect gives you three important benefits. Firstly, it
ensures that the alterations to your listed building are designed around your
individual needs, bearing in mind the heritage impacts. Secondly, it avoids a
situation where alterations have been done without proper consent, which could
lead to expensive remedial works or even prosecution. Thirdly, a listed
building has a special status and prestige that can set it apart from other
properties. If your improvements and alterations are handled sensitively and
professionally, then over the long-term this can substantially increase the
value of your property.