II*Inns & shops · listed 1976Long Shop MuseumOn the list as The Long ShopPhoto: Roger Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0
The Long Shop · Photo: Roger Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0B+History Grade
History of Leiston · Historic England
22 listed buildings, 2 of them Grade II*
On the Historic England list, all of them stand inside Leiston’s built-up area, 37 for every 10,000 residents. Of the listed buildings in Leiston, 20 are Grade II. 32% of its homes were built before 1919. We have photos of 6 of its listed buildings. Leiston grades B+ for history: #15 of 34 in Suffolk.
Listed buildings
22
37 per 10,000 residents
Grade I
0
exceptional interest
Grade II*
2
more than special interest
Scheduled monuments
0
nationally important sites
Homes built before 1919
32%
typical UK town 15%
In pictures
Leiston in 6 photos
Nearly every Grade I and II* building, photographed. Tap a photo to step through them full screen.
Church of St MargaretGrade II* listed
White Horse HotelGrade II listed
Water TowerGrade II listed
Leiston HallGrade II listed
Angel CottageGrade II listed+1See 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.
The map
Where Leiston’s history is
Every Grade I and II* building, monument and historic park, over the age of each neighbourhood’s homes.
Grade II*
Homes built before 1919, by neighbourhoodunder 10%10–25%25–50%50%+
1 of 5neighbourhoods have mostly pre-1919 homes; in the oldest, 60% were built before 1919.
Hover a dot for its name; tap one with a photo to open it.
22 listed buildings by grade
0 Grade I2 Grade II*20 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 II*
The 2 Grade II* listed buildings in Leiston
Particularly important buildings of more than special interest. Every one is photographed. Each opens its own page, with the official list entry.
II*Church · listed 1951Church of St MargaretPhoto: Adrian Cable · CC BY-SA 2.0
What’s protected
Most of Leiston’s listed buildings are homes
Every listed building sorted by what its list name says it is.
Houses, terraces & villas14
Churches, chapels & priories4
Inns, shops & warehouses3
Public & civic buildings1
14 entries (64%) are houses, terraces and villas. 4 are churches, chapels and priories.
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
20 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 20 Grade II listed buildings, A to Z
Angel CottageBarkwith HouseElm Tree FarmhouseGreyshott HouseHigh GreenHigh GreenLeiston HallLeiston Quaker Meeting HouseLeiston War Memorial, Church of St MargaretMemorial 22 Metres South of the East End of St Margaret's ChurchOgilvie HomesRed HouseSouthviewThe CupolaThe Parrot and Punchbowl Public HouseWater TowerWhite Horse HotelWood FarmhouseWorks House24, Westward Ho
Conservation areas
1 conservation area covers 1.9% of Leiston
Areas the council protects as a whole: demolition and changes to how buildings look need consent, and trees are protected.
Leiston 19795 ha
5 hain conservation areas, of 246 ha inside the built-up area.
8 of the 22 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
11 of Leiston’s 22 listed buildings were added in 1983
The year each building now on the list was first listed.
1983 · 111951 · 9
19501960197019801990200020102020
The first 9 entries were listed in 1951. 11 came in 1983, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 1 has been added in the last 15 years.
History Grade
Leiston grades B+ for history
Protected heritage and the age of the town’s homes, against all UK towns.
Protected heritage, for its size and in all (24 points, 41 per 10,000 residents)More than 53% of UK towns
Homes built before 1919 (32%)More than 87% 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
32% of Leiston’s homes were built before 1919
Every home by when it was built, from council tax records, against England & Wales (the dark tick).
25%
Before 1900
7.6%
1900–18
3.9%
1919–29
3%
1930s
7%
1945–54
6.4%
1955–64
6.4%
1965–72
6.2%
1973–82
10%
1983–92
2.9%
1993–99
5.7%
2000–08
3%
2009–15
13%
2016–25
LeistonEngland & Wales
25% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 2016–25, which added 13% 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 (39 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.
Neighbours
Listed buildings in the places around Leiston
| Town | People | Listed | Grade I | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leiston | 5,919 | 22 | 0 | B+ |
| Aldeburgh | 2,423 | 63 | 1 | A |
| Saxmundham | 4,778 | 47 | 0 | B+ |
| Rendlesham | 3,185 | 2 | 1 | D |
| Wickham Market | 2,231 | 37 | 0 | A− |
| Halesworth | 4,924 | 118 | 0 | A− |
| Framlingham | 3,831 | 97 | 3 | A |
| Reydon | 2,369 | 6 | 0 | B− |
In brief
Leiston in brief
More of Leiston’s homes are old than in most places: 32% were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. All told, the list holds 22 listed buildings, including Long Shop Museum. A conservation area has protected part of it since 1979. Of the whole list, 64% are houses, terraces and villas. Beyond that, like most towns its size, it has no Grade I building; per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns; and Walter Riggs (1877) and M. E. Aldrich Rope (1891) were born here before 1900.
Questions about Leiston’s history
How many listed buildings are there in Leiston?
Historic England lists 22 buildings inside Leiston’s built-up area: 0 Grade I, 2 Grade II* and 20 Grade II.
How many conservation areas are there in Leiston?
1, covering about 5 hectares of the town. The largest is Leiston.
When were Leiston’s buildings listed?
The first in 1951; the most, 11, in 1983.
How old are the homes in Leiston?
32% of homes were built before 1919 and 39% 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.