276 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade I

Ripon Minster (Cathedral Church of St Peter and Wilfrid)Grade I listedObeliskGrade I listedFormer Office Building at Williamson's Varnish WorksGrade II listedNew BridgeGrade II listedThe Black Bull Public HouseGrade II listed+13See 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. 1907

1922

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 276 entries, 145 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 29 entries were listed in 1949, 3 of the 3 Grade I buildings among them. 108 came in 1984, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 0 have been added in the last 15 years.

World Heritage

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.

Ailey Hill

Ripon Minster Close

St Anne's Chapel

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.

Edmund Jenings (governor)

Edmund Ayrton

John Williamson

John Turner

Margaret Plues

George Atkinson

John Thomas Walbran

Sam Jackson

Frederick Orpen Bower

Edward James Glave

Wilfred Walter

Geoffry Tattersall

Naomi Jacob

Julian Bickersteth

Julian Jefferson

1650170017501800185019001950

Frederick Orpen Bower1855–1948 · British botanist (1855–1948)

NJ

Naomi Jacob1884–1964 · British writer and actress (1884-1964)

Edward James Glave1863–1895 · English travel writer

Edmund Ayrton1734–1808 · English organist

MP

Margaret Plues1828–1903 · English botanist (1828-1903)

GA

George Atkinson1830–1906 · English county cricketer, umpire (1830-1906)

Wilfred Walter1882–1958 · English actor (1882-1958)

JJ

Julian Jefferson1899–1966 · British cricket player (1899-1966)

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

For its size, Ripon has more listed heritage than 90% of UK towns. All told, the list holds 276 listed buildings, 3 of them Grade I, including Ripon Cathedral. Only 33 of the 518 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings. On North Street alone there are 17 listed buildings.

Its older streets lie in 2 conservation areas, the first designated in 1969. Of the whole list, 74% are houses, terraces and villas. Frederick Orpen Bower (1855), Naomi Jacob (1884) and Edward James Glave (1863) are among the 15 people born here before 1900. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: it also has 3 scheduled monuments; and 19% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 15% in the typical UK town.