The NHLE has been updated this month to include 510 new entries, the majority comprising newly Listed Buildings. Amongst the new structures is the Greenham Common Command C building - the former Wing Headquarters at the former US nuclear missile base in Berkshire which has now been Listed Grade II*. The base finally closed in 1993, and was the well-known focus of the women’s peace camps in the 1980s which were responsible for the global attention and protest to the presence of US nuclear weapons on UK soil.
The former HQ was built in the early 1980s, and is Listed along with a number of combat support buildings for their political, historic and architectural interest as well as their group value.
Among the other newly Listed Buildings featured in the Historic England Designation Yearbook are Brian Housden’s concrete house at 78 South Hill Park, Hampstead. Built in the 1960s the now Grade II Listed Building “drew on influences from European modernism to the houses of the Dogon Tribe of Mali, resulting in a truly unique concrete house”, according to Historic England.
Other highlights include a former bus station at Milton Keynes; the Catholic Church of the English Martyrs in Strood, Kent; a 1960s sculpture in Acocks Green, Birmingham; a 19th century bacon smokehouse behind St. John Street, close to London’s Smithfield market; Heap’s Rice Mill in Liverpool, which is currently the subject of major redevelopment plans; and a 1930s hairdresser's in Scarborough which has been converted into a tearoom with the period interiors intact.
But amongst our favourites here at AH is the gravestone of Wallace Hartley, a professional violinist who lost his life aboard the Titanic, and who was amongst the group that played "Nearer My God To Thee" as the ship sank.
And not forgetting, of course, the wonderful Victorian gin palace, the Cauliflower Hotel, in Ilford, Essex, a live music venue where bands including the Small Faces and the late Ian Dury have played. It has been Listed Grade II to protect the well-preserved interior, described as a "riot of stained glass, brass rails, and carved wood".
You can download a free pdf copy of the Historic England designation yearbook here www.historicengland.org.uk
