IChurch · listed 1974St Mary sub CastroOn the list as Church of St Mary Sub-CastroPhoto: Michael Coppins · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dover Castle · Photo: Chensiyuan · CC BY-SA 4.0AHistory Grade
History of Dover · Historic England
140 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade I
Historic England counts them inside Dover’s built-up area, 39 for every 10,000 residents. It also has 14 scheduled monuments. 43% of its homes were built before 1919. We have photos of 16 of its listed buildings and 8 old views of the town. Dover grades A for history: #11 of 87 in Kent.
Listed buildings
140
39 per 10,000 residents
Grade I
3
exceptional interest
Grade II*
13
more than special interest
Scheduled monuments
14
1 registered park or garden
Homes built before 1919
43%
typical UK town 15%
In pictures
Dover in 35 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 Mary Sub-CastroGrade I listed
The Roman PharosGrade I listed
Fairbairn-type crane, Wellington DockScheduled monument
New Bridge HouseGrade II listed
White Horse InnGrade II listed+30See all photosPhotos 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
Dover from 1756 to 1940
An old map and 8 old photos and postcards, in date order. All public domain, made before 1950.
1756
1890s
c. 1890
1905
c. 1909
c. 1914
c. 1914
1940
1940Public 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 Dover’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 monumentPark or garden
Homes built before 1919, by neighbourhoodunder 10%10–25%25–50%50%+
9 of 23neighbourhoods have mostly pre-1919 homes; in the oldest, 89% were built before 1919.
Hover a dot for its name; tap one with a photo to open it.
140 listed buildings by grade
3 Grade I13 Grade II*124 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 3 Grade I listed buildings in Dover
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.
IHouse · listed 1974Dubris PharosOn the list as The Roman PharosPhoto: Chris McKenna ( Thryduulf) · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPublic · listed 1973Dover Town HallOn the list as Dover Town Hall, including the remains of the medieval Maison DieuPhoto: Hajotthu · CC BY-SA 3.0
Grade II*
The 13 Grade II* listed buildings in Dover
Particularly important buildings of more than special interest. 11 are photographed.
II*Walls & gates · listed 1949Castle Hill House, including attached garden wall with gatepiers to south-eastPhoto: Dovorian1760 · CC BY-SA 4.0
II*Church · listed 1976Church of St Peter and St PaulPhoto: David Anstiss · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*Church · listed 1966Church of St Peter and St PaulPhoto: John Salmon · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*Inns & shops · listed 1972Crabble MillPhoto: Nick Smith · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*Public · listed 1949Library, Dover CollegeOn the list as Library Dover CollegePhoto: N Chadwick · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*House · listed 1949Maison Dieu HousePhoto: Immanuel Giel · Public domain
II*Church · listed 1949Parish Church of St Andrew BucklandPhoto: John Salmon · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*Memorials · listed 2012People of Dover war memorialPhoto: Richard Reginald Goulden · Public domain
II*Church · listed 1973St Edmund's ChapelOn the list as St Edmunds ChapelPhoto: Colinward1970 · Public domain
II*Church · listed 1949St Mary's ChurchOn the list as The Parish Church of St Mary the VirginPhoto: Ad Meskens · CC BY-SA 4.0
II*Public · listed 1949The School Hall Dover CollegePhoto: N Chadwick · CC BY-SA 2.0
Public · listed 1949Ruins of Cloisters to West of the Refectory of St Martins Priory Dover College
Show the other 1
Public · listed 1949School Chapel Dover College
Historic streets
London Road 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.
London Road15 listed
East Cliff Terrace11 listed
Castle Street8 listed
Castle Hill Road5 listed
Laureston Place5 listed
High Street3 listed
Of the 140 entries, 62 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.
What’s protected
Most of Dover’s listed buildings are homes
Every listed building sorted by what its list name says it is.
Houses, terraces & villas93
Public & civic buildings16
Churches, chapels & priories12
Walls, gates & bridges7
Inns, shops & warehouses6
Street furniture4
Memorials, crosses & tombs2
93 entries (66%) are houses, terraces and villas. 12 are churches, chapels and priories, including 1 of the 3 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
124 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.
All 124 Grade II listed buildings, A to Z
Admiralty Pier and Associated Structures, Including Admiralty Pier LighthouseArdmore HotelBuckland HouseBuckland PlaceBushy Ruff CottagesBushy Ruff House and TerraceCastle InnCharlton PlaceChurch of St PeterCinque Port ArmsClock Tower and Former Lifeboat HouseConnaught Pumping StationCrabble CourtCruise Terminal 1, including attached pedestrian walkway, war memorial, and four K6 Telephone KiosksDane HouseEastbrook PlaceEastern Arm, Dover HarbourFormer Buckland Flour Mill (Adjoining Number 110 to the Left)Former Customs Watch HouseFormer Dover Harbour StationFormer Tram Shelter at Junction with Elms Vale RoadGarden Wall and Gatepiers to 33 and 34Hofwyl CottageIvy CottageK6 KioskK6 Telephone KioskK6 Telephone KioskKearsney AbbeyLife-Boat LodgeLord Warden HouseMedieval undercroft at number 10 Bench StreetNew Bridge HouseNos 1 to 9 Including Basement Area RailingsNos 11 to 19 Including Front Garden Area Walls and GatepiersNos. 5, 5a and 5b Castle Hill RoadOfficers Barracks and Attached Basement Area Walls and RailsOld Charlton Cemetery ChapelsRemains of St James's ChurchRiver House Including Garage (Former Coach House and Tack Room) Coal House and StablingRow of 3 Headstones 20 Metres North of Church of St Peter and St PaulRoyal Oak Cottage the Royal Oak Public HouseRoyal Victoria Hospital (Block Dated 1849)School HouseSouth Kent College Ladywell AnnexeSt Marys ConventThe AlmaThe Gate HouseThe Market HallThe Old VicarageThe Prince of Wales PierUnitarian Church and Vestry AdjoiningWall along Effingham Street, Dover CollegeWar memorial in the churchyard of the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, DoverWeefordWellington Dock and Associated Structures, Including Crane Situated on Esplanade QuayWhite Horse InnWhitehall Dairy and Whitehall CottageWorld War II Air Raid Wardens' Post at Dover Priory StationYork House1 and 2, Laureston Place1, East Cliff1, Maison Dieu Road1,3 and 5, Castle Street1-10, Norman Street1-12, Saxon Street1-15, Atholl Terrace1-17, Priory Road1-19, High Street1-26, Victoria Park1-30, Waterloo Crescent1-4, Camden Crescent1-7, Russell Street10 and 11, Laureston Place11 to 18 Including Front Garden Area Walls and Gatepiers11, Castle Hill Road11, East Cliff Terrace110, London Road115 and 116, London Road12 and 13, Castle Hill Road12, East Cliff Terrace13-16, East Cliff Terrace143, Snargate Street144, Snargate Street16-32, Castle Street17-20, East Cliff Terrace19a High Street and 2 to 12 Victoria Crescent2, East Cliff Terrace21-27, East Cliff Terrace226, 227 and 228, London Road229, London Road250-254, London Road263 and 264, London Road265-268, London Road269 and 270, London Road279 and 280, London Road28,29 and 30, East Cliff Terrace281-284, London Road287, London Road288-293, London Road3 and 4, Laureston Place3, Castle Hill Road303 and 304, London Road305, 306 and 307, London Road308-315, London Road31, East Cliff Terrace31-53, Castle Street32, East Cliff Terrace34 and 36, Castle Street38, Castle Street4 and 6, Castle Hill Road40, Castle Street42,44 and 46, Castle Street48-58, Castle Street5 and 6, Laureston Place5, St James's Street52, Charlton Green60th Rifles Memorial to Indian Mutiny7, 8 and 9, Laureston Place7, East Cliff Terrace71-81, High Street8,9 and 10, East Cliff Terrace83-105, High Street9 and 10, Castle Hill Road9, St James's Street
Conservation areas
1 conservation area covers 97% of Dover
Areas the council protects as a whole: demolition and changes to how buildings look need consent, and trees are protected.
No data available for publication by HE824 ha
824 hain conservation areas, of 846 ha inside the built-up area.
140 of the 140 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 Dover’s listed buildings were added in one year, 1973
The year each building now on the list was first listed.
1973 · 731949 · 16
19501960197019801990200020102020
The first 16 entries were listed in 1949. 73 came in 1973, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 4 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.
14 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.
1 registered park or garden
Kearsney CourtGrade II
History Grade
Dover 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 (188 points, 52 per 10,000 residents)More than 74% of UK towns
Homes built before 1919 (43%)More than 95% 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.
Homes by age
43% of Dover’s homes were built before 1919
Every home by when it was built, from council tax records, against England & Wales (the dark tick).
38%
Before 1900
4.5%
1900–18
2.3%
1919–29
9.3%
1930s
6.8%
1945–54
7.5%
1955–64
7.6%
1965–72
6.7%
1973–82
4.9%
1983–92
4.5%
1993–99
2.7%
2000–08
2.2%
2009–15
2.6%
2016–25
DoverEngland & Wales
38% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was the 1930s, which added 9.3% 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 (141 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.
Born here
49 notable people born in Dover before 1900
The 20 best known on one timeline, earliest first.
White Kennett
Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke
Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth
Israel Pellew
Edward Boxer
John Brown
Fanny Fitzwilliam
Edward Betts
William Henry Brett
Samuel Joseph Mackie
Edward Noël Walker
Cuthbert Ottaway
James Thomas Humberstone
Albert Frederick Mummery
M. R. James
Augustus Clark
Thomas Page
Richard Reginald Goulden
Howard Mowll
Alexander Wilson
1650170017501800185019001950
M. R. James1862–1936 · 20th century British author, medievalist scholar and provost (1862–19…
Albert Frederick Mummery1855–1895 · English mountaineer and author (1855–1895)
Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth1757–1833 · Royal Navy admiral (1757-1833)
Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke1690–1764 · English lawyer and politician who served as Lord Chancellor (1690-176…
Cuthbert Ottaway1850–1878 · English sportsman (1850–1878)
James Thomas Humberstone1850–1939 · English chemical engineer, who invented the Shanks system to make sod…
AW
Alexander Wilson1893–1963 · English writer, spy, MI6 officer, hospital porter and serial polygami…
AC
Augustus Clark1862–1928 · Cricketer (1862-1928)
Everyone born in Dover → Birthplaces from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons.
Towns its size
Dover has the 38th most Grade I buildings of 299 towns its size
Places of 22,000–58,000 people outside London, by Grade I listed buildings.
Dover3
#75 of 299for listed buildings per resident (39 per 10,000). Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury and Chichester lead.
37 have more. The typical town its size has 1.
Neighbours
Listed buildings in the places around Dover
| Town | People | Listed | Grade I | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dover | 36,349 | 140 | 3 | A |
| Guston | 1,684 | 15 | 0 | B |
| Whitfield | 6,509 | 2 | 0 | D− |
| St Margaret's at Cliffe | 2,399 | 18 | 1 | B |
| Capel-le-Ferne | 1,962 | 0 | 0 | D− |
| Sibertswold | 1,619 | 9 | 0 | B |
| Eythorne | 1,487 | 23 | 0 | B |
| Kingsdown | 1,687 | 1 | 0 | C− |
In brief
Dover in brief
Old houses are part of Dover’s character: 43% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. All told, the list holds 140 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade I, including Dover Castle. Only 37 of the 299 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. London Road alone has 15 listed buildings.
A conservation area protects part of it. Of the whole list, 66% are houses, terraces and villas. M. R. James (1862), Albert Frederick Mummery (1855) and Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth (1757) are among the 49 people born here before 1900. The rest is about typical: per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns.
Questions about Dover’s history
How many listed buildings are there in Dover?
Historic England lists 140 buildings inside Dover’s built-up area: 3 Grade I, 13 Grade II* and 124 Grade II.
What are the Grade I listed buildings in Dover?
3, including Church of St Mary Sub-Castro, Dover Town Hall, including the remains of the medieval Maison Dieu and The Roman Pharos.
Which street in Dover has the most listed buildings?
London Road (15), East Cliff Terrace (11) and Castle Street (8) have the most listed entries named by an address. One entry can be a whole terrace.
Are there scheduled monuments in Dover?
Yes, 14 scheduled monuments, including Admiralty Pier Turret 636m south east of Lord Warden House, Archcliffe Fort, Dover Castle and Fairbairn-type crane, Wellington Dock.
How many conservation areas are there in Dover?
1, covering about 824 hectares of the town. The largest is No data available for publication by HE.
When were Dover’s buildings listed?
The first in 1949; the most, 73, in 1973.
Are there old photos of Dover?
Yes: 8 public-domain photos and postcards from 1890 to 1940, and an old map from 1756, all on this page.
Who was born in Dover?
Among people born before 1900: M. R. James (1862), Albert Frederick Mummery (1855), Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth (1757), Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke (1690) and Cuthbert Ottaway (1850).
How old are the homes in Dover?
43% of homes were built before 1919 and 54% 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.