18 CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 Peterborough Town Hall (Berry Webber, 1929). While very accomplished and contemporary historicist banks further down Bridge Street have long been listed, this proud expression of civic rather than commercial pride remains steadfastly unlisted, despite much public uncertainty over its future. Barber’s Almshouses, Ramsgate, Kent. The archway is listed but the almshouses it heralds are not, even though they share architects and date (Osborne and Langham, 1899). Moreover, the archway is credited with group value with another adjacent listing, but not the almshouses. Poor new toilets have spoilt the composition, but only slightly so, and listing would create an incentive to reverse this change. I urged the inclusion of more photos (with dates) in the listing, and this is happening increasingly through ‘Missing Pieces’ (the new name for ‘Enriching the List’, where Joe Citizen adds facts and illustrations to the archive). However, I do not think that it is po-faced to point to the lack of quality control in photos and additional text.The number of cases where listing and delisting are implied rather than expressed remains infinitesimal, but there should really be none. The ‘watershed’ has advanced from 1840 to 1850, but tipping points, after which selection is more limited, should be ‘smart’ and shift with the building type. I gather that my proposal that buildings in open air museums should be regarded as exhibits and therefore not listable is now policy. Recent refinements have improved the useability of the NHLE, but the findings thrown up will still sometimes divorce the main building from a subordinate structure (say, boundary wall), and totals will always remain unreliable as long as key words are lacking in the unrevised description. A few stubborn negatives remain. There is still no interim protection to cast a shield over buildings being considered for listing, as is the case in Wales; no national register of conservation areas; and no absolute clarification over what is and is not protected in churchyards. Local lists remain a valuable tool, but I did welcome Debbie Mays’ initiative to promote selected entrants into the statutory, to lend clear protective teeth. That should be especially true of buildings owned by local planning authorities, to preclude their being judge, jury and owner. Finally, there are the tricky areas where historic interest is unmatched by architectural. The new guidance, published after the report came out, is good as far as it goes, but I remain nervous about applying a system tailored to conservation of the physical to safeguarding even the partially intangible. As they say, this is too gigantic a subject for now and must await another day. Matthew Saunders was secretary of the Ancient Monuments Society, 1977–2018, and secretary of the Joint Committee of the National Amenity Societies, 1983–2005.
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