122 listed buildings, 8 of them Grade II*

Church of St GeorgeGrade II* listedMilton ChantryGrade II* listedGravesend Railway Station (Downside)Grade II listedStatue of Queen Victoria in Borough Market HouseGrade II listedBarrelled Lock Chamber, Sea Walls, Swing Bridge, Locks and Canal BasinGrade 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.

1900s

1903

1903

1903

1905

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).

Of the 122 entries, 51 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

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 16 entries were listed in 1952. 85 came in 1975, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 2 have been added in the last 15 years.

2 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.

Gravesend blockhouse

New Tavern Fort, Gravesend, including Milton Chantry

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.

Tom Adams

William Smith

Orlando Fenwick

Shadrach Jones

John MacGregor

Edward Langton

Edwin Arnold

Arthur Arnold

William Green

Robert Armstrong

James Carroll

Charles Morris Woodford

Andrew Morey

Charles James Adams

Leonard Whibley

Annie Walker Craig

Grace Ellison

Billy Green

Jessica Dismorr

George Collins

1800182518501875190019251950

Edwin Arnold1832–1904 · English poet and journalist (1832–1904)

John MacGregor1825–1892 · British canoeist (1825-1892)

Jessica Dismorr1885–1939 · English painter and illustrator (1885-1939)

Arthur Arnold1833–1902 · British Liberal politician and author (1833-1902)

Billy Green1882–1951 · English footballer (1882-1951)

TA

Tom Adams1810–1894 · Cricketer (1810-1894)

Grace Ellison1880–1935 · British journalist

GC

George Collins1889–1949 · Cricketer (1889-1949)

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

Gravesend has 122 listed buildings, including St George's Church. On High Street alone there are 10 listed buildings. Its older streets lie in 10 conservation areas, the first designated in 1970. Most entries on the list, 61%, are houses, terraces and villas.

Of the 31 people born here before 1900, the best known include Edwin Arnold (1832), John MacGregor (1825) and Jessica Dismorr (1885). The big year was 1975, when 85 of the 122 went on the list. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: it has no Grade I building, where the middle town its size has 1; per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns; and it also has 2 scheduled monuments.