193 listed buildings, 4 of them Grade I

Scott's GrottoGrade I listedChurch of St MaryGrade I listedPlace HouseGrade I listedThe Old Bulls Head Inn with Attached Former Assembly Rooms and StablesGrade II listedFormer Old Independent ChapelGrade 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.

1903

1911

1917

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).

High Street40 listed · 2 II*

Baldock Street21 listed

Amwell End10 listed

Crib Street10 listed

West Street5 listed · 1 II*

Bluecoat Yard4 listed · 3 II*

East Street4 listed

New Road3 listed

Of the 193 entries, 107 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 37 entries were listed in 1950, 4 of the 4 Grade I buildings among them. 105 came in 1974, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 0 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

Gardens to Former Amwell House Including Scott's Grotto and GazeboGrade II*

Poles ParkGrade 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.

William Vallans

John Platt

Nathaniel Hitch

Wilfrid Philip Ward

Ernest Hanbury Hankin

Millais Culpin

Frank Cannon

John Noel Pelly

Charles Clibbon

155016001650170017501800185019001950

FC

Frank Cannon1888–1916 · Footballer (1888-1916)

Wilfrid Philip Ward1856–1916 · English writer

Ernest Hanbury Hankin1865–1939 · British scientist (1865-1939)

NH

Nathaniel Hitch1845–1938 · British sculptor

JP

John Noel Pelly1888–1945 · English cricketer and Royal Navy officer (1888-1945)

Charles Clibbon1895–1975 · British long-distance runner

WV

William Vallans1577–1590 · English poet

JP

John Platt1632–1705 · Settler of Norwalk, Connecticut (1632-1705)

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

Measured per resident, Ware has more listed heritage than 84% of UK towns. In all there are 193 listed buildings, 4 of them Grade I, including Scott's Grotto. Church of St Mary sits at the heart of it all, with 3 of the town’s Grade I buildings within 400 m. Only 25 of the 479 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings.

High Street alone has 40 listed buildings. A conservation area has protected part of it since 1981. Of the whole list, 72% are houses, terraces and villas. The rest is about typical: it also has a scheduled monument; and 12% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.