Nominations for The Victorian Society’s Top 10 Endangered Buildings list 2024 are now open!

The Society’s Top 10 Endangered Buildings campaign highlights dilapidated and neglected buildings around England and Wales that are in desperate need of saving. The media coverage the campaign gains helps to highlight buildings that would otherwise lie forgotten and decaying. This publicity can alter their fate for the better. See below for examples of how the Top Ten list helped buildings nominated in previous years.

Griff Rhys Jones, President of the Victorian Society said, "Every year I continue to be staggered by the high quality and range of the buildings the endangered list brings up - architecturally and historically. This is an important annual event for the Victorian Society. It does get results (see details below). It gets proper attention through the publicity generated. Not just for the individual buildings but for the Society itself. And it represents a great opportunity for people to be directly involved in the ever-ongoing process of conservation and preservation. As always, we rely on you. We need local knowledge and alarums. We are supremely grateful for on the ground information. If you can help with nominations or pointers, can I urge you to do so. Thank you."

To nominate a building email [email protected] with the year it was built, its location, whether its listed, a brief description of its history and/or architecture and the threat it is under, and at least one good picture. Nominated buildings must in England or Wales and built between 1837 and 1914. Preference is given to listed buildings. Multiple nominations do not help secure inclusion.

Positive outcomes for buildings on previous lists

Since the 2023 Top Ten Endangered Buildings list in June two councils have assured the Society that they intend to support their buildings on our list, namely Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths and the Coach and Horses Hotel in Wallsend. For the latter North Tyneside Council has written to the owner to explore options for its use. Italianate mansion, Blackborough House, one of Devon's finest architectural gems set in the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is up for auction which will hopefully secure the building a new owner who will complete the positive work that the last two owners have started. Plas Alltran in Anglesey, on the list in 2020, was purchased by the Council, and the former Doctor’s surgery is set to become social housing. The Oldham Prudential Offices, on the 2020 list, was compulsorily purchased and isundergoing a £8.6m renovation to offer spaces for creative, digital and media businesses when completed in 2024. Birnbeck Pier, on the 2015 list, has been purchased by North Somerset Council, funded by the RNLI, and will be restored to include a lifeboat station.

22/09/2023