How London’s Architecture Is Recognised By UNESCO

As a city with 2,000 years of history and a global position as one of the world’s most prominent capitals, London has never been short of culture and heritage.

Nonetheless, there has to be something exceptional about a city that enables it to have no less than four UNESCO World Heritage sites. These are the Palace of Westminster, Kew Gardens, the Tower of London and Maritime Greenwich. The architecture is not the sole reason for this, of course - politics, horticulture and the point where east meets west are all part of it - but it is certainly a major factor.

This might be easily overlooked by residents and visitors alike, who might well - and with justification - see London as being as much a melting pot of different buildings as it is of people. Where else might a building as grand and historic as St Paul’s Cathedral stand close to a skyscraper nicknamed after something usually found sliced up in a burger?

Even so, it is worth reflecting on just how extraordinary this is and how important the preservation of London’s finest buildings is. 

At least one of these treasures requires some significant listed building restoration work. The Palace of Westminster is in the midst of a major restoration project, and at some stage the parliamentarians will have to decamp to another building while a major overhaul of the building’s interior fabric.

Anyone involved in looking after listed and heritage buildings will know the constraints they are working under to avoid altering things much, if at all. For listed buildings that depends on the grading. For UNESCO World Heritage, the stakes are even higher.

Indeed, that was demonstrated recently by the demotion of Liverpool’s Maritime Mercantile City, on the grounds that the character of the historic docklands was being lost due to modern new developments, including a new football stadium.

While London has some quite extraordinary heritage locked up in its bricks, mortar and stone, the Liverpool experience is a reminder that this can never be taken for granted.