Durham is home to a World Heritage Site: Durham Castle and Cathedral

Cathedral Church of Christ and St Mary the VirginGrade I listedElvet BridgeGrade I listedThe Royal County HotelGrade II listedPost OfficeGrade II listedFulling Mill Archaeology MuseumGrade II listed+51See all photos

Photos from Wikimedia Commons and Geograph, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its licence; names open the building’s page or its official list entry.

1811

1811

c. 1884

c. 1890

c. 1890

1903

1903

c. 1920

Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server. Each credit opens the image’s page with its full description and history.

Historic England lists buildings in three grades: Grade I for buildings of exceptional interest (about 2.5% of all listed buildings), Grade II* for particularly important buildings of more than special interest (about 5.8%), and Grade II for buildings of special interest (about 91.7%). Listing protects the whole building, inside and out.

Every entry on the National Heritage List for England whose point lies inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary. One list entry can cover a terrace or a group of buildings. Neighbourhood dots: the population-weighted centre of each Census 2021 output area, coloured by its neighbourhood’s (LSOA’s) share of homes built before 1919 (Valuation Office Agency, March 2025).

Gilesgate36 listed

Old Elvet26 listed · 1 II*

Claypath16 listed

Elvet Bridge16 listed · 1 Grade I

Saddler Street16 listed · 1 II*

South Street16 listed

North Bailey14 listed

Church Street12 listed

Hallgarth Street12 listed

The College10 listed · 2 Grade I · 3 II*

Crossgate9 listed

South Bailey7 listed

The College holds 10 entries, 2 of them Grade I: more of the top grade than any other street. Of the 447 entries, 222 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

Search the rest on Historic England’s list →

Historic England’s conservation areas layer, supplied by councils (incomplete in places, so a page fact, never graded). Hectares are the part of each area inside the built-up area.

The first 125 entries were listed in 1952, 32 of the 40 Grade I buildings among them. 149 came in 1988, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 4 have been added in the last 15 years.

World Heritage

6 scheduled monuments

Nationally important archaeological sites and monuments, protected by law; work on them needs consent from the Secretary of State, advised by Historic England.

Chapel of St Mary Magdalene

Elvet Bridge

Framwellgate Bridge

Neville's Cross

Prebend's Bridge

The Water Gate

1 registered battlefield

Two measures, each ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more, with protected heritage counting twice as much as the age of homes. Protected heritage counts each listed building by its grade (Grade I three points, II* two, II one), each scheduled monument and battlefield two, and each registered park or garden by its grade; it is ranked both per 10,000 residents and as a total, so a village with one fine church doesn’t outrank a historic city. The second measure is the share of homes built before 1919, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records. History is a character grade: it describes the town and isn’t part of the overall grade.

John Vardy

Granville Sharp

John Bowes, 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne

Sir Robert Eden, 1st Baronet, of Maryland

Thomas Lyon-Bowes, 11th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne

Jane Porter

Robert Ker Porter

James Atkinson

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Thomas Caverhill Jerdon

John George Brown

George Cadogan, 5th Earl Cadogan

Algernon Ashton

Jack Robson

Violet Hunt

Julia Wilmotte Henshaw

J. E. H. MacDonald

Cyril Wilkinson

C. E. M. Joad

Anthony Eden

170017501800185019001950

Anthony Eden1897–1977 · British soldier, diplomat and politician (1897–1977)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning1806–1861 · English poet (1806–1861)

Robert Ker Porter1777–1842 · British artist, writer and diplomat (1777-1842)

Jane Porter1776–1850 · Scottish historical novelist, dramatist and literary figure (1776-185…

Thomas Caverhill Jerdon1811–1872 · British zoologist, botanist, and physician (1811-1872)

Granville Sharp1735–1813 · English abolitionist (1735-1813)

VH

Violet Hunt1862–1942 · British writer (1862-1942)

J. E. H. MacDonald1873–1932 · Canadian artist (1873-1932)

Everyone born in Durham → Birthplaces from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons.

Part of Durham Castle and Cathedral, a World Heritage Site, lies in Durham. All told, the list holds 447 listed buildings, 40 of them Grade I, including Durham Castle. For its size, it has more listed heritage than 86% of UK towns. Durham Cathedral sits at the heart of it all, with 37 of the town’s Grade I buildings within 400 m.

Only one of the 217 towns nearest its size has more Grade I buildings. Its older streets lie in 2 conservation areas, the first designated in 1968. Of the whole list, 62% are houses, terraces and villas. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: 13% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.