Question: What do Buckingham Palace, dinosaurs and a 1986 business park have in common?

historic england history of planning regulations

Answer: They are all listed on Historic England’s National Heritage List for England (‘The List’).

The List began in 1882, but only developed into the current register after the Second World War. The First Ancient Monuments Protection Act (1882) listed fifty prehistoric monuments and further monuments were later added, as well as further levels of protection and punitive measures to guard against damage.

The Second World War gave rise to Salvage Lists, which detailed those buildings which it was felt should be saved from demolition, should they be damaged by bombing during the war. The Salvage Lists took 25 years to compile and attracted 120,000 entries.

The List has been resurveyed periodically since, and the role was transferred to the newly created English Heritage in 1983 when the National Heritage Act was introduced.

The Town and Country Planning Acts of 1944 and 1947 enabled the listing of other buildings, including buildings with particular historic or architectural interest.

The List now includes scheduled monuments, listed buildings, battlefields, registered landscapes and even phone boxes and wrecks, and there are now over 400,000 entries.

Back to our original question; you may want to know more:

Buckingham Palace (listed building)

Buckingham House was built in 1703 as the London home of the 3rd Earl of Mulgrave, John Sheffield, who later became the Duke of Buckingham. It was bought in 1761 for Queen Charlotte as a comfortable family home by her husband, King George III.

The building’s transformation into a palace began in 1826 by John Nash, who rebuilt Buckingham House in 1705 as a palace for George IV. Several further additions to the original building later followed.

The first sovereign to live at Buckingham Palace was Queen Victoria, from 1837.

Stockley Park (park and garden)

In August 2020, the Park and Garden at Stockley Park at Uxbridge, in the London Borough of Hillingdon, was awarded Grade II listed status. The 350-acre site close to Heathrow airport was opened in 1986 making it four years older than the 30-year minimum age to receive listed status.

The estate includes two phases of the suburban business park, a golf course and a public park, and was listed for its pioneering design, representing early business park developments and a skilled reuse of highly contaminated land.

The location was historically a house and landscaped park named Dawley Park, but later became a farm, brick pit and gravel works before finally being infilled as a rubbish tip until 1984.

Prehistoric Animal Sculptures, Geological Formations and Lead Mine on Islands and on Land Facing the Lower Lake (listed building)

The animal sculptures, geological formations and lead mine are located at Crystal Palace Park in the London Borough of Bromley SE19 and were first Grade I listed in 1973.

The thirty land and marine animal sculptures were built by artist and sculptor, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, from reconstituted stone using an iron rod framework on brick plinths. The creatures include Dicynodons, Megalosaurus, Ice Age mammals, Giant Deer and Ground Sloth and sit on three artificial islands and in the lakes.

The animals are currently on the Heritage at Risk Register, due to their state of disrepair, amidst fears that they may once again become extinct.

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