Griff Rhys Jones urges nominations for 2026 list of endangered buildings

The Victorian Society is asking the public to nominate threatened Victorian and Edwardian buildings and structures for their list of Top Ten Endangered Buildings to be announced in 2026.

The society’s Top Ten Endangered Buildings campaign highlights dilapidated and neglected buildings around Wales and England that are in desperate need of help.

The media coverage the campaign gains spotlights buildings that might otherwise lie forgotten and decaying which, along with help from the society’s experts, can alter their fate for the better.

Conservation

The 2025 list marks the fifteenth edition of The Victorian Society’s Top Ten Endangered Buildings, helping to preserve architecture in England and Wales, where 99 per cent of people live less than a mile away from a listed heritage site.

The Victorian Society has highlighted that preserving architectural heritage improves places and helps to combat the wider climate emergency through the reuse of historic buildings, rather than the wasteful demolish and rebuild cycle.

Griff Rhys Jones, President of the Victorian Society said: “It is an important time of year again. Every year the Victorian Society asks the public to nominate Top Ten Endangered buildings. They get attention, they get press, they get TV and we get new members. They get results in conservation too.

“But we rely on members of the  public to be watchdogs and to have sharp eyes and ears out across the country to find these important targets. There is a new mythology stalking the land. This is that heritage and old buildings are holding up growth. It’s desperate stuff but gaining traction. Heritage promotes growth. Recycling buildings is the green option. Old buildings make places significant and add value in a way that new often do not.

“Recently, this government has been turning down requests from Historic England and the Vic Soc for new listings. More in the last eight months than in the last eight years. Never has there been a more important time to publicise great Victorian and Edwardian buildings in peril. Please nominate. Please alert. We need your active support.”

Nominations

Funded largely by members and supported by caseworkers, conservation advisors, and their Buildings committees who assist local planning authorities, the Victorian Society has helped to turn the fate of threatened listed buildings around.

Plas Alltran, Holyhead, for example, made it onto the 2020 list of endangered buildings. It was purchased by the Council, and is now restored and converted for use as social housing. With north-west based conservation specialists Recclesia having worked hard on its restoration, it now offers homes to four families.

To nominate a building or structure email [email protected] with the year it was built, its location, whether it is listed,  a brief description of its history and/or architecture and the threat it is under, and at least one good photo.

Nominated buildings must be in England or Wales and be built wholly or largely between 1837 and 1914. Preference is given to listed buildings. Multiple nominations do not help secure inclusion.

The deadline for nominations is 5^th January 2026.