Catherine Mill · Photo: David Trochos · CC BY-SA 3.0

History of Whitehaven · Historic England

170 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I

Historic England counts them inside Whitehaven’s built-up area, 74 for every 10,000 residents. It also has 4 scheduled monuments. We have photos of 9 of its listed buildings and 4 old views of the town. 15% of its homes were built before 1919. Whitehaven grades A− for history: #14 of 23 in Cumbria.

1Grade I 5Grade II*4scheduled monuments 15on Roper Street

Listed buildings

170

74 per 10,000 residents

Grade I

exceptional interest

Grade II*

more than special interest

Scheduled monuments

nationally important sites

Homes built before 1919

15%

typical UK town 15%

In pictures

Whitehaven in 16 photos and old views

Nearly every Grade I and II* building, photographed, and the town before 1950. Tap a photo to step through them full screen.

Church of St James the GreaterGrade I listed

Somerset HouseGrade II* listed

Town HallGrade II listed

Central HotelGrade II listed

Old Quay LighthouseGrade II listed+11See 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.

Through time

Whitehaven from 1730 to 1907

4 old photos and postcards, in date order. All public domain, made before 1950.

Matthias Read - Whitehaven, Cumbria, Showing Flatt Hall - Google Art Project enhanced — GeorgianMatthias Read - Whitehaven, Cumbria, Showing Flatt Hall - Google Art Project en…Photo: File:Matthias Read - Whitehaven, Cumbria, Showing Flatt Hall - Google Art Project.jpg · Public domain

GeorgianWhitehaven, Cumbria, Showing Flatt HallPhoto: Matthias Read – Artist (British) Born in London. Died in Whitehaven. Details on Google Art Project · Public domain

VictorianCumberland WHITEHAVEN ORPHAN GIRLS HOME Original Early 1900s PostcardPhoto: Mark Crombie · Public domain

EdwardianCumbria - Silecroft, Whitehaven congregational vist, trip, June 1907Photo: Mark Crombie · Public domain

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

The map

Where Whitehaven’s history is

Every Grade I and II* building, monument and historic park, over the age of each neighbourhood’s homes.

Grade IGrade II*Scheduled monument

Homes built before 1919, by neighbourhoodunder 10%10–25%25–50%50%+

0 of 18neighbourhoods have mostly pre-1919 homes; in the oldest, 44% were built before 1919.

Hover a dot for its name; tap one with a photo to open it.

170 listed buildings by grade

1 Grade I5 Grade II*164 Grade II

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).

Grade I

The Grade I listed building in Whitehaven

Buildings of exceptional interest, about 2.5% of all listed buildings. Every one is photographed. Each opens its own page, with the official list entry.

Church · listed 1949St James' ChurchOn the list as Church of St James the GreaterPhoto: John Lord · CC BY-SA 2.0

Grade II*

The 5 Grade II* listed buildings in Whitehaven

Particularly important buildings of more than special interest. Every one is photographed.

Inns & shops · listed 1972Barracks MillOn the list as Catherine MillPhoto: David Trochos · CC BY-SA 3.0

House · listed 1949Somerset HousePhoto: David Trochos · CC BY-SA 3.0

Street furniture · listed 1949No 151 (Including Area Railings)Photo: David Trochos · CC BY-SA 3.0

House · listed 194914, Scotch StreetPhoto: David Trochos · CC BY-SA 3.0

House · listed 197244,45, Roper StreetPhoto: David Trochos · CC BY-SA 3.0

Historic streets

Roper Street has the most listed buildings

Streets by the listed entries with an address on them. One entry can be a whole terrace, so long rows count once.

Roper Street15 listed · 1 II*

Lowther Street13 listed

Foxhouses Road9 listed

Scotch Street9 listed · 1 II*

Front Corkickle7 listed

Church Street6 listed

Duke Street6 listed

Queen Street6 listed

Irish Street5 listed

Main Street5 listed

George Street4 listed

Howgill Street4 listed

Of the 170 entries, 109 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

What’s protected

Most of Whitehaven’s listed buildings are homes

Every listed building sorted by what its list name says it is.

Houses, terraces & villas128

Inns, shops & warehouses14

Public & civic buildings12

Walls, gates & bridges8

Street furniture4

Churches, chapels & priories3

Memorials, crosses & tombs1

128 entries (75%) are houses, terraces and villas. 3 are churches, chapels and priories, including 1 of the 1 Grade I buildings.

Buildings are sorted by words in each entry’s name (church, gate, inn, memorial…): the list’s open data has no building type. An entry named only by its address counts as a house.

Grade II

164 Grade II listed buildings

Most listed buildings are in this grade, which covers buildings of special interest. Open any building to read its official list entry.

The first 150 of 164 Grade II listed buildings, A to Z

Air Shaft Cap to Former Railway Tunnel Area Railings, Wall and Railings to Front, And Small Iron Gate at NO8 Barclays Bank Bonded Warehouse Central Hotel Chapel House Church of St Begh Clydesdale Bank Co-Operative Store Coach House Adjoining No 37 College Chambers Columba Club Dobson and Musgrave Warehouse Engine Houses, Power Station and Pithead Gear at Haig Colliery Garden Wall and Urns in Front (West) of Nos 1 to 10 (Consecutive) (Oak Bank Terrace)Gate Piers at Church of Saint James Globe Hotel Golden Lion Hotel Greenbank Hotel Hensingham War Memorial Marine Terrace Market Hall Masonic Hall Meadow House Methodist Church and Sunday School No 1 with Warehouse Attached to Rear No 10 (With Iron Railings to Front Door)No 54 with Properties to the Rear (Formerly Rudd's Court)No 56, With Outbuildings and Warehouse to Rear No. 10, ROPER STREET No. 13, WEST STRAND No. 133, QUEEN STREET North Wall and Old North Wall (Enclosing North Harbour)North-East Gate and Railings, St Nicholas Gardens Nos 1-11 (All with Iron Railings to Front Steps)Nos 19 and 20 (With Coach House Entrance and Area Railings)Old Custom House Old Fort Old Quay Old Quay Lighthouse Pack Horse Public House Premises Occupied by YMCA Savings Bank Strand House The Kirk Mission Hall, Gatepiers and Attached Boundary Wall The St Nicholas Centre The Watch House Town Hall Union Hall Wall Behind West Cumberland College of Science and Technology Waverley Hotel Wellington House Whitehaven Hall Whitehaven Hospital or Infirmary Whitehaven cenotaph Whittles Furniture Store Wulstan Hall 1, Hamilton Lane 1, Lowther Street 1,2, Foxhouses Road 1,2, Inkerman Terrace 1,2, King Street 1-10, Oak Bank 1-16, Church Street 1-3, Retreat 1-3, Scotch Street 1-3, Victoria Terrace 1-4, Front Corkickle 1-6, Hamilton Terrace 10, College Street 10, Foxhouses Road 11, Cross Street 11, Howgill Street 11-16, Foxhouses Road 112, Scotch Street 113, Scotch Street 12, Cross Street 12, Front Corkickle 12, Howgill Street 13,14, Inkerman Terrace 132, Queen Street 14,15, Howgill Street 140, Queen Street 15,16, Catherine Street 15,16, Inkerman Terrace 15-19, Front Corkickle 152-155, Queen Street 16,17, Queen Street 17, Irish Street 17,18, Foxhouses Road 17,18, Howgill Street 17,18, Inkerman Terrace 18, Irish Street 19,20, Roper Street 1A,1,2,3,4,4A, Cross Street 21,22, Roper Street 22,23, Foxhouses Road 22-24, Lowther Street 23,24, Roper Street 25, Lowther Street 25, Roper Street 26, Lowther Street 28, Roper Street 29, Roper Street 3, Foxhouses Road 30, Roper Street 30-34, Church Street 31A,31B, Scotch Street 32-35, Scotch Street 35, Queen Street 35, Tangier Street 36-38, Roper Street 37, Lowther Street 37-41, Rudds Court, Roper Street 38, Lowther Street 38-48, Main Street 39-42, Lowther Street 4,5, Duke Street 4,5, Foxhouses Road 4,5, Irish Street 4-8, Garden Villas 4-8, Scotch Street 41-43, Irish Street 43, Queen Street 43,44, Duke Street 44-47, Lowther Street 46,47,48,49,49A, Roper Street 46-50, Duke Street 49, Church Street 5,6, Front Corkickle 50, Church Street 51, Roper Street 51-53, Church Street 52, Roper Street 53, Duke Street 54,55, Duke Street 54-57, Church Street 55, Roper Street 57,58, Roper Street 6,7, Foxhouses Road 7, Front Corkickle 7, Irish Street 7, West View 7-17, Lowther Street 7-19, Lonsdale Place 70, George Street 71,72, George Street 73, George Street 75-77, Lowther Street 78,79, Lowther Street

Search the rest on Historic England’s list →

Conservation areas

3 conservation areas cover 8.6% of Whitehaven

Areas the council protects as a whole: demolition and changes to how buildings look need consent, and trees are protected.

Whitehaven Town Centre 196952 ha

Whitehaven Corkickle 197510 ha

Whitehaven Hensingham 19752 ha

63 hain conservation areas, of 742 ha inside the built-up area.

The first, Whitehaven Town Centre, was designated in 1969; the newest, Whitehaven Hensingham, in 1975. 158 of the 170 listed buildings stand in one.

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.

How the list grew

More than half of Whitehaven’s listed buildings were added in one year, 1972

The year each building now on the list was first listed.

1972 · 1231949 · 28

19501960197019801990200020102020

The first 28 entries were listed in 1949, 1 of the 1 Grade I buildings among them. 123 came in 1972, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 3 have been added in the last 15 years.

Monuments & landscapes

Monuments, parks and gardens

Designations that overlap the town by a tenth of their area or half a hectare.

4 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.

Duke Pit fan house

Haig Colliery

Old quay and old quay lighthouse

Whitehaven Old Fort, an 18th century coastal battery overlooking Whitehaven Harbour and an associated lime kiln, 80m west of the southern end of Old Quay

History Grade

Whitehaven grades A− for history

Protected heritage and the age of the town’s homes, against all UK towns.

Protected heritage, for its size and in all (185 points, 81 per 10,000 residents)More than 79% of UK towns

Homes built before 1919 (15%)More than 46% of UK towns

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.

Born here

20 notable people born in Whitehaven before 1900

Their lives on one timeline, earliest first.

James Boaden

Robert Salmon

Mary Grey, Countess Grey

Eliza Bland Smith Erskine Norton

William Valentine

William Nicholson

William Thomson

John Brockbank

Edith Mary Brown

John Rawlinson

Silas Warwick

Jack Lawson

Kitty Melrose

Edward Magrath

Bob Benson

Tommy Mayson

Billy Ward

Abraham Acton

Edward Ward

Gilbert Smithson Adair

175017751800182518501875190019251950

Bob Benson1883–1916 · English footballer (1883-1916)

John Brockbank1848–1896 · English footballer (1848-1896)

Jack Lawson1881–1965 · British politician (1881-1965)

Robert Salmon1775–1845 · American painter, born in England (1775-1845)

William Thomson1819–1890 · Archbishop of York (1819–1890)

Edith Mary Brown1864–1956 · British medical doctor and Christian missionary to India (1864-1956)

Eliza Bland Smith Erskine Norton1795–1855 · British poet (1795 ca.-1862 fl.)

William Nicholson1816–1865 · Australian colonial politician (1816-1865)

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

Towns its size

Whitehaven has the 103rd most Grade I buildings of 439 towns its size

Places of 14,000–37,000 people outside London, by Grade I listed buildings.

Armagh25

Ely25

Chichester14

Warwick13

Stratford-upon-Avon11

Whitehaven1

#80 of 439for listed buildings per resident (74 per 10,000). Lewes, Tewkesbury and Llandudno lead.

102 have more. The typical town its size has 1.

Neighbours

Listed buildings in the places around Whitehaven

Town	People	Listed	Grade I	History
Whitehaven	22,952	170	1	A⁻
Moresby Parks	1,180	0	0	C⁻
Cleator Moor	6,671	14	0	B
Frizington	1,754	0	0	C⁻
St Bees	1,187	33	4	A
Distington	1,375	4	0	C
Egremont	5,791	16	0	C⁺
High Harrington	1,574	0	0	D

In brief

Whitehaven in brief

Measured per resident, Whitehaven has more listed heritage than 79% of UK towns. In all there are 170 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade I, including St James' Church. Only 102 of the 439 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. Roper Street alone has 15 listed buildings.

Its older streets lie in 3 conservation areas, the first designated in 1969. Of the whole list, 75% are houses, terraces and villas. Of the 20 people born here before 1900, the best known include Bob Benson (1883), John Brockbank (1848) and Jack Lawson (1881). Otherwise the figures are ordinary: it also has 4 scheduled monuments; and 15% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.

Questions about Whitehaven’s history

How many listed buildings are there in Whitehaven?

Historic England lists 170 buildings inside Whitehaven’s built-up area: 1 Grade I, 5 Grade II* and 164 Grade II.

What are the Grade I listed buildings in Whitehaven?

One: Church of St James the Greater.

Which street in Whitehaven has the most listed buildings?

Roper Street (15), Lowther Street (13) and Foxhouses Road (9) have the most listed entries named by an address. One entry can be a whole terrace.

Are there scheduled monuments in Whitehaven?

Yes, 4 scheduled monuments, including Duke Pit fan house, Haig Colliery, Old quay and old quay lighthouse and Whitehaven Old Fort, an 18th century coastal battery overlooking Whitehaven Harbour and an associated lime kiln, 80m west of the southern end of Old Quay.

How many conservation areas are there in Whitehaven?

3, covering about 63 hectares of the town. The largest are Whitehaven Town Centre and Whitehaven Corkickle.

When were Whitehaven’s buildings listed?

The first in 1949; the most, 123, in 1972.

Are there old photos of Whitehaven?

Yes: 4 public-domain photos and postcards from 1730 to 1907, all on this page.

Who was born in Whitehaven?

Among people born before 1900: Bob Benson (1883), John Brockbank (1848), Jack Lawson (1881), Robert Salmon (1775) and William Thomson (1819).

How old are the homes in Whitehaven?

15% of homes were built before 1919 and 34% before 1940, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records (March 2025).

© Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. The National Heritage List for England is the official, up-to-date register of all nationally protected historic buildings and sites in England; check an entry on Historic England’s website before relying on it.

Sources: Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 2025) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only · Historic England conservation areas (supplied by local planning authorities; October 2026). All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.