Heritage Appraisals
Early heritage advice to help understand the significance of a building, site or setting and identify the issues most likely to shape the route forward.
Services
Heritage
Specialist heritage advice for historic buildings, sensitive sites and places of significance. We help clients understand what matters, what may be possible and how change can be approached in a way that is thoughtful, well supported and more likely to succeed
Key contact
Jon Millhouse
Director – Chartered Town Planner
Key contact
Lindsay Cruddas
Director – Specialist Conservation Architect
Working with historic buildings and places often calls for a different kind of design and planning advice. It is not just about what can be changed, but about understanding why a place matters, what gives it character and how proposals can respond to that significance with care.
Our Heritage service brings together heritage planning advice, conservation architecture and design input for projects affecting listed buildings, conservation areas, world heritage settings and other historically sensitive places. We support work ranging from early appraisal and statements of significance through to listed building consent, sensitive redevelopment and ongoing design development.
Because our heritage specialists work alongside planning, architecture and urban design teams, our advice is joined up from the outset. That helps clients move forward with a clearer strategy, the right level of supporting information and a stronger understanding of how change can be justified and delivered.
Our heritage services
Our heritage services cover the early understanding of significance, the planning and consent process, and the design development needed to support sensitive change to historic sites and buildings.
Listed Building Consent
Support in preparing and coordinating applications for listed building consent, with the right level of explanation, evidence and design care.
Statements of Significance
Clear, well-judged assessments of what is important about a building or place and why that matters to future change.
Development in Conservation Areas
Advice on proposals in conservation areas and other sensitive historic settings, where design and context need to be carefully balanced.
Heritage Planning Advice
Specialist support where planning strategy, heritage significance and change need to be considered together.
Conservation Architecture
Architectural advice for repair, adaptation, re-use and sensitive design within historic contexts.
Sector-focused heritage advice
Heritage work is rarely one-size-fits-all. The advice needed will vary depending on the building, the site, the significance involved and what the client is trying to achieve.
Homeowners
Support for owners of listed buildings, older homes and properties in conservation areas where changes need to be carefully considered and clearly justified.
Developers
Heritage advice for redevelopment, conversion and site-change proposals where significance, setting and planning strategy all need to work together.
Public Sector
Specialist input for civic, community and policy-led projects affecting historic places, public heritage assets and culturally important settings.
Rural & Estates
Support for historic farmsteads, estate buildings and countryside sites where building fabric, setting and re-use potential all influence the route forward.
Commercial & Institutional Clients
Advice for schools, venues, workplaces and organisations managing change to historic buildings or sites with long-term operational needs.
How we work
Heritage projects are usually strongest when the significance of a building or place is properly understood before solutions are pushed too far.
Our role is to help clients move through that process with clarity, starting with what matters and building toward proposals that are informed, proportionate and easier to justify.
Understanding the asset
Starting with significance
We begin by understanding the building, site or setting, and what makes it historically or architecturally important.
Review the context
Testing the planning and heritage picture
We assess heritage constraints, planning context and the issues most likely to affect the proposal.
Shape the approach
Finding the right response
We help develop a strategy that balances the client’s aims with the significance of the place and the realities of consent.
Prepare the case
Building the justification
We support the preparation of the right level of information, whether that is appraisal work, a statement of significance, consent material or wider planning support.
Support the next stage
Helping the project move forward
We remain involved as the project moves into listed building consent, planning submissions, design development or wider architectural input.
Heritage projects
Advice on repair, alteration, extension and re-use proposals affecting listed buildings, where significance and design quality both need careful attention.
Support for development and change in conservation areas where context, townscape and local character are central to the planning and design response.
Heritage and design advice for bringing older buildings into viable new use while respecting what makes them important.
Support for redevelopment proposals affecting historic sites, heritage settings or buildings with cultural significance.
Specialist work to understand what is important about a building or place and provide the right foundation for future change.
Joined-up advice where heritage and planning issues need to be managed together through applications and wider strategy.
Featured projects
Heritage advice, handled with care
Significance first
Advice that begins with understanding what matters about a building or place before deciding how change should happen.
Specialist judgement
Heritage input shaped by experience in listed buildings, conservation areas and historically sensitive sites.
Joined-up thinking
Support that brings together heritage, planning, architecture and wider site considerations from the outset.
Change with care
A practical approach to repair, adaptation and development that respects significance while helping projects move forward.
Frequently asked questions
Listed building consent is usually required where proposed works affect the character or special interest of a listed building, whether externally or internally.
In many cases, yes. Heritage projects often benefit from specialist planning and conservation input early, especially where significance, consent and design all need to be considered together.
Yes. We support proposals in conservation areas and other sensitive historic settings where context and townscape are important.
A statement of significance explains what is important about a building, site or place and helps provide the right foundation for decisions about change.
No. We support a wide range of work, from smaller domestic proposals through to major redevelopment and institutional schemes.
Yes. Our heritage input is often most effective when it works alongside planning, architecture and wider design advice.
Your next step
Need heritage advice on a building or site?
Whether you are planning change to a listed building, exploring a historic site or trying to understand the consent route, we can help clarify the next step.
