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Listed Buildings - list descriptions

List descriptions are public documents describing each listed building in the country Copies are held by local authorities, many local libraries as well as the National Monuments Record (NMR).

The lists contain the address of the historic building in question. This is the legal part of the document. The description is mainly there to help identify the building (very important in the early days of listing when postal addresses could be quite vague) but increasingly over recent years, they have become fuller to give a clearer idea about the building's history, appearance and significance. The newest listings usually contain a brief statement that summarises in jargon-free language what it is about the building that gives it its special historic interest. Without this, List Descriptions can sometimes be quite difficult to use since they are written in technical shorthand for the use of local authority conservation specialists.

Each description varies in length from a few lines for a simple site such as a stile or milestone, to several pages of detailed architectural description for a complex building, such as a cathedral.

List Descriptions provide the essential first step in identifying what it is that is protected by law and what it is that makes the building of special architectural or historic interest. They are not comprehensive inventories of everything that is significant about a building and nothing should be dismissed as unimportant simply because it is not described in the List Description. Listing controls extend to the interiors as well as the exteriors of buildings.

It is important to remember that the lists have usually been created over a long period of time and by a number of different inspectors. It is perhaps inevitable, therefore, that the background to the listing has been noted in a variety of formats. Recent List Descriptions will probably have comprehensive background information but some of the older descriptions may have the source heavily abbreviated. For example, the well known series of volumes by Nikolaus Pevsner detailing the architectural heritage of England, and produced on a county basis, may simply be referred to as BOE (Buildings of England) together with the appropriate page reference. Similarly, the inventories of the former Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England may only be quoted as RCHM with the appropriate Parish Number for the building. One of the most common unpublished sources used is 'photograph in the NBR', which refers to the archive collections of the National Monuments Record.

Although it is theoretically possible for owners to commission work to add to a list description this is very rare and is usually part of a strategy to move a particular building into a position where a grant from English Heritage is being sought.