231 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade I

Eagle HouseGrade I listedChurch of St LawrenceGrade I listedTate AlmshousesGrade II listedColour House at Misters Liberty's Print WorksGrade II listedWimbledon Town HallGrade II listed+15See 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.

c. 1910

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 231 entries, 57 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 6 entries were listed in 1949. 103 came in 1988, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 8 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.

The Augustinian Priory of St Mary at Merton, 271m ENE of Abbey Wall Works

4 registered parks and gardens

Cannizaro ParkGrade II*

Morden Hall ParkGrade II

South Park GardensGrade II

Wimbledon 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.

12% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was the 1930s, which added 25% 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 (348 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

Henrietta Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough

James Pierrepont Greaves

Allan Cunningham

Richard Cunningham

George Bruce Malleson

Spencer Gore

Charles Gore

Paget Toynbee

Harry Goodhart

John William Godward

Ernest Pollock, 1st Viscount Hanworth

Lionel Belmore

Clement Harris

Reginald Doherty

Gertrude Elles

Ford Madox Ford

Laurence Doherty

Gerald Logan

Thomas Ralph Merton

Robert Graves

175017751800182518501875190019251950

Robert Graves1895–1985 · English poet and novelist (1895-1985)

Ford Madox Ford1873–1939 · English writer and publisher (1873-1939)

John William Godward1861–1922 · English painter (1861-1922)

Laurence Doherty1875–1919 · English tennis player (1875-1919)

Reginald Doherty1872–1910 · English tennis player (1872–1910)

Spencer Gore1850–1906 · British tennis player (1850–1906)

Allan Cunningham1791–1839 · British botanist (1791-1839)

GL

Gerald Logan1879–1951 · Field hockey player (1879-1951)

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

More of Merton’s homes are old than in most places: 27% were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. In all there are 231 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade I, including Eagle House. Its older streets lie in 29 conservation areas, the first designated in 1968.

Of the whole list, 50% are houses, terraces and villas. Of the 61 people born here before 1900, the best known include Robert Graves (1895), Ford Madox Ford (1873) and John William Godward (1861). The rest is about typical: per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns; and it also has a scheduled monument.