295 listed buildings, 6 of them Grade I

Birkenhead ParkGrade I park or gardenTown HallGrade II* listedClover AlmshousesGrade II listedPumping Station to East of Wallasey DockGrade II listedTransit Sheds to South East of Morpeth Branch DockGrade II listed+20See 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.

1879

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 295 entries, 97 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 27 entries were listed in 1950, 6 of the 6 Grade I buildings among them. 126 came in 1974, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 15 have been added in the last 15 years.

3 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.

Birkenhead Priory

Site of church and churchyard at Overchurch 875m north west of Upton Hall

Standing cross in the churchyard of the Church of the Holy Cross at Woodchurch

2 registered parks and gardens

Birkenhead ParkGrade I

Flaybrick Memorial GardensGrade 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.

20% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1965–72, which added 11% 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 (90 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

Thomas Douglas Forsyth

Francis Grierson

Charles Harrison Townsend

Sandford Schultz

Henry Meynell Rheam

Philip Wilson Steer

Leonard Leslie Brooke

May Sinclair

Richard H. Geoghegan

James Louis Garvin

James Baxter

F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead

Emma Dunn

Lewis Casson

Basil Gill

Charles Joughin

Gerard Bucknall

Johnny Campbell

Stringer Davis

Cecil Arthur Lewis

1800182518501875190019251950

May Sinclair1863–1946 · British novelist 1863-1946

Charles Joughin1878–1956 · British Cook, Titanic survivor (1878–1956)

F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead1872–1930 · British politician (1872–1930)

Emma Dunn1874–1966 · Actress (1875-1966)

Gerard Bucknall1894–1980 · British Army general (1894–1980)

Philip Wilson Steer1860–1942 · British artist (1860-1942)

SD

Stringer Davis1896–1973 · Actor (1899–1973)

HR

Henry Meynell Rheam1859–1920 · British painter (1859-1920)

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

More of Birkenhead’s homes are old than in most places: 30% were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. All told, the list holds 295 listed buildings, 6 of them Grade I, including Birkenhead Priory. Only 21 of the 99 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. Clifton Road alone has 11 listed buildings.

Its older streets lie in 9 conservation areas, the first designated in 1972. Of the whole list, 59% are houses, terraces and villas. May Sinclair (1863), Charles Joughin (1878) and F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead (1872) are among the 88 people born here before 1900. The rest is about typical: per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns; and it also has 3 scheduled monuments.