213 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade I

Church of St PeterGrade I listedHouse of BethanyGrade II* listedRoyal Exeter HotelGrade II listedFormer Town HallGrade II listedUnitarian ChurchGrade II listed+21See 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.

1885

c. 1890

c. 1890

c. 1890

c. 1890

c. 1890

1903

1903

1943

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).

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 18 entries were listed in 1952, 3 of the 3 Grade I buildings among them. 79 came in 1976, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 7 have been added in the last 15 years.

1 scheduled monument

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

2 registered parks and gardens

Upper, Central and Lower Pleasure Gardens, and Coy Pond GardensGrade II

Wimborne Road Cemetery, BournemouthGrade II

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.

16% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was the 1930s, which added 12% of today’s homes.

Valuation Office Agency, council tax stock of properties by build period, 31 March 2025, for the neighbourhoods (LSOAs) that make up the town, split by where their residents live. Homes with no recorded build period (509 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

James Clark

William Elles

Hubert Parry

James Wanklyn

Lucy Kemp-Welch

Lawrence Grant

William Meates

Oswald Watt

Charles Melvill

G. Stanley Wilson

Radclyffe Hall

Horace Wilson

Persis Kirmse

Marguerite Kirmse

Baven Penton

Arthur Wiggins

Cecil Reginald Noble

Elisabeth Scott

Charles Arden-Clarke

Vera Chapman

1800182518501875190019251950

Radclyffe Hall1880–1943 · British poet and author (1880–1943)

Hubert Parry1848–1918 · British composer, teacher and historian (1848–1918)

Lawrence Grant1870–1952 · Actor (1870-1952)

Arthur Wiggins1891–1961 · British rower

Elisabeth Scott1898–1972 · British architect (1898-1972)

Lucy Kemp-Welch1869–1958 · British artist (1869-1958)

CA

Charles Arden-Clarke1898–1962 · British colonial administrator (1898-1962)

Oswald Watt1878–1921 · Aviator and businessman (1878–1921)

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

More of Bournemouth’s homes are old than in most places: 27% were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. All told, the list holds 213 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade I, including St Peter's Church. Its older streets lie in 21 conservation areas, the first designated in 1974. Radclyffe Hall (1880), Hubert Parry (1848) and Lawrence Grant (1870) are among the 25 people born here before 1900. The rest is about typical: it has 3 Grade I buildings, about typical for a town its size (the middle one has 5); per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns; and it also has a scheduled monument.