119 listed buildings, 2 of them Grade I

Church of St MargaretGrade I listedRoyal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht ClubGrade II* listed36, High StreetGrade II* listedJubilee BridgeGrade II listedNorth Eastern Chapel at Kirkley CemeteryGrade 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. 1890

c. 1890

c. 1890

c. 1890

1903

1903

c. 1908

1916

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).

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 20 entries were listed in 1949, 1 of the 2 Grade I buildings among them. 51 came in 1977, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 6 have been added in the last 15 years.

1 registered park or garden

Belle Vue 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.

19% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1973–82, 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 (72 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

Thomas Nashe

John Barker Church

Pleasance Smith

James Richard Dacres

Alfred Diston

Frederick Denison Maurice

George Davison

Alfred Gibbs Bourne

George Barber

Francis Edward Sykes Willmott

Thomas Crisp

Ernest William Roberts

Langford Baker

George Brown

Percy Gooch

Fred Bemment

Dennis Robertson

Claud Castleton

Margaret Dean Smith

155016001650170017501800185019001950

Thomas Nashe1567–1601 · English Elizabethan pamphleteer and poet

Frederick Denison Maurice1805–1872 · English theologian, religious author and Christian Socialist (1805-18…

Dennis Robertson1890–1963 · British economist (1890–1963)

George Davison1854–1930 · English photographer (1854-1930)

Thomas Crisp1876–1917 · First World War posthumous Victoria Cross recipient (1876–1917)

GB

George Brown1880– · UK footballer who played in the Football League (1880-?)

James Richard Dacres1788–1853 · Royal Navy officer during the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleon…

Alfred Diston1793–1861 · British painter (1793-1861)

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

More of Lowestoft’s homes are old than in most places: 26% were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. In all there are 119 listed buildings, 2 of them Grade I, including St. Margaret's Church. High Street alone has 25 listed buildings. Its older streets lie in 3 conservation areas, the first designated in 1973.

Most entries on the list, 62%, are houses, terraces and villas. Of the 19 people born here before 1900, the best known include Thomas Nashe (1567), Frederick Denison Maurice (1805) and Dennis Robertson (1890). The rest is about typical: it has 2 Grade I buildings, about typical for a town its size (the middle one has 1); and per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns.