19 Remarkable Historic Places Listed in 2025

A steel cable gantry (built between 1897 and 1907) and cable hauler (from 1954) at Enderby's Wharf stand as reminders of Greenwich’s place in the development of worldwide undersea communications which laid the foundations for today’s subsea optical cables that transmit internet traffic worldwide. 

These structures were once part of the busy undersea cable works that helped connect England to the rest of the world. The cable hauler was installed specifically to assist with loading the first successful transatlantic telephone cable TAT-1. It became operational in 1956, a major milestone in global communication history. This allowed simultaneous phone calls between Britain and North America. Commercial phone calls also became more widespread and secure against interception. 

From the mid-19th century, Greenwich played a key role in developing, producing and loading the heavy armoured cables that carried telegraph and telephone signals across oceans, with the technological leap required to manufacture these cables known as the 'moon shot' of the 19th century.  

The gantry and hauler were used to move and wind these cables from the factory onto cable-laying ships. Last used in the late 1970s, they remain in good condition on the riverbank. Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), specialising in undersea cables, are still in operation on the site. 

Timber-framed Draper’s Windmill in Margate, Kent has been upgraded from Grade II to Grade II*. Built around 1843, probably by the millwright John Holman of Canterbury to grind grain into flour, it survives remarkably well.  

It had been Grade II listed since 1973, but its significance as a 19th-century smock mill with rare surviving internal machinery has now been formally recognised. The Grade II* listing reflects the increasing rarity of operational historic mills across England and celebrates this important part of Thanet’s heritage. 

This exceptionally rare 19th-century steam mooring lighter, complete with Victorian equipment and early diving gear is known as the Pin Wreck due to hundreds of copper bolts visible on the seabed that once held the wooden hull together.  

The wreck is located 27 metres underwater off St Albans Head and is believed to be a Yard Craft 8, lost in 1903. Mooring lighters were specialised working vessels that laid and recovered heavy moorings and anchors that allowed ships to secure safely in harbours and anchorages. They could handle the enormous chains and equipment needed to maintain port operations. 

Only 47 mooring vessels operated across 20 naval dockyards during the late Victorian period and just 4 were steam-powered mooring lighters. This wreck represents the only known surviving example. Historic England recommended the site for protection following archaeological surveys by Bournemouth University. 

Completed in 1912, Sharlands House was designed by notable architect and craftsman Godfrey A E (Bertie) Schwabe for artist Thomas A Falcon RBA. The building is a bold design in a Georgian revival style. The elegant interior features well-crafted panelling, a marble-tiled hall and fine detailing including beaten copperwork.  

Alongside original works by Falcon, such as 2 decorative panels with geometric designs in the drawing room, the intended aesthetic of the house has been maintained over a century later. 

Schwabe, who established his career working with internationally renowned architect Edgar Wood from 1893 to 1910, designed the house as a commission for his sister and brother-in-law. This family connection is reflected in the attention to detail throughout the building. 

Sharlands House is representative of an era when artistic, cultural and scientific communities flourished in the English countryside.  

Tudor Croft’s garden, created from 1934 for industrialist Ronald Crossley, is a rare survival of an inter-war suburban garden in a relaxed Arts and Crafts style. Designed to complement the family home, it remains largely intact, with the house overlooking the garden and the North Yorkshire Moors.  

The highlight is the Gnome Garden, entirely populated by magical beings including elves, gnomes playing instruments, pixies, birds and animals. These hand-crafted terracotta ornaments by potter and sculptor Walter Scott were all produced at the Commondale brickworks. Their cheeky features have an affinity with the fairytale illustrations of Cecily Mary Barker or Margaret Tarrant which had become popular in the 1920s. 

There is also a Secret Garden with a small stone-flagged bridge over a pond with a terracotta fisherman at the opposite end. It also features a rare, roofed fernery and intricate rockwork, likely by the acclaimed Backhouse Nursery of York, a curving rose pergola of Crossley bricks and a water garden.  

Unlike the rigid geometries of earlier Arts and Crafts gardens, Tudor Croft’s design is one of personal expression. 

Adams Heritage Centre in Littleport has been listed at Grade II for its exceptional preservation of Victorian commercial architecture. Built in 1893 and originally an ironmongers, the building served the local community for over 100 years and remains a rare survival of its kind.   

The shopfront still has many original features including large display windows, ornate wrought-iron folding gates, etched glass with painted lettering and a recessed entrance. Inside, tall wooden shelving (relocated from a 19th century chemist’s shop in Ely), and a steel-framed structure, which was very advanced for its time, give a glimpse into the working life of a traditional shop.   

The business gained a national reputation for fitting and maintaining Hagan Norwegian ice skates, widely used by fen skaters. Under owner John Henry Adams, the shop became a hub for the sport, even importing skates from Oslo and distributing them across the UK.   

St Peter’s Church is a well-preserved Victorian ‘tin tabernacle’, a once-common but now increasingly rare type of prefabricated church.  

It was built in 1885 as a chapel of ease, situated for the convenience of people who lived a distance from the main parish church. The building was supplied in kit form by C Kent of London, with corrugated-iron cladding from Frederick Braby and Co’s ‘Sun Brand’; materials that made fast, affordable church building possible for growing 19th century communities. 

While many tin tabernacles were temporary structures later dismantled, replaced or moved, St Peter’s is highly unusual in surviving on its original site and retaining the majority of its original fabric. Its wooden cupola with bell, pointed Gothic openings and Y-tracery windows give the modest structure surprising architectural presence. 

The pine-lined interior also survives almost completely intact, with original pews, altar fittings, decorative transfers in the windows and a biblical text encircling the chancel arch.  

Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral has been upgraded to Grade I, placing it among the most important buildings in England. Designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd and built between 1962 and 1967, this radical design marked a turning point in British cathedral architecture.  

Gibberd’s circular plan broke with tradition, placing worshippers around a central altar and emphasising communal participation — ideas that echoed the changes of the Second Vatican Council. The soaring lantern, filled with coloured glass by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens, floods the space with light and symbolises the connection between earth and heaven.  

The cathedral is also home to some of the finest examples of post-war liturgical art, including works by William Mitchell, Elizabeth Frink and Margaret Traherne. 

Bournville Radio Sailing and Model Boat Club's boathouse and boating lake are an important part of Birmingham's social history. 

Built in 1933, the boathouse and its distinctive teardrop-shaped lake are an example of the philanthropy of the Cadbury family of chocolatiers, known for their concern for employee welfare.  

Cadbury hired 64 men who were long-term unemployed and not eligible for state benefit to build the club and boating lake. Workers spent four days a week on construction and the fifth day attending carpentry or gardening classes, to help increase their chances of future employment. 

With only 11 pre-war model boating clubhouses remaining in England, Bournville's is an exceptionally rare building. The listing at Grade II recognises both the careful craftsmanship of the timber-framed boathouse with its tall doors and pantile roof, purpose-built to accommodate fully rigged model yachts, and its cohesive design scheme, linking both the building and lake and the Cadbury family’s philanthropy.  

The modest brick-built chapel represents a rare surviving example of a 19th century private Catholic place of worship. Built in the Gothic style popular for Catholic architecture of the period, it features a decoratively tiled roof and stained-glass windows. 

The chapel was constructed by the Snead-Cox family as an expression of gratitude following Richard Snead-Cox's recovery from an accident, making it a physical embodiment of the family's deep Catholic faith. Small, private Catholic chapels from this period are extremely rare, with few comparable examples known to exist. 

Recent additions to the chapel include memorial glass commemorating 3 Snead-Cox brothers who were lost during the First World War, adding poignant layers to its significance as a place of private family worship. 

It has group value with other nearby sites connected with the Snead-Cox family that demonstrate their Catholic faith; these include the Biblically named walks in the registered park and garden, St Joseph’s hut, and the larger Chapel of the Holy Family.