Commemorative Structures

This guide looks at outdoor commemorative monuments, here taken to include public statues and memorials, funerary monuments in churchyards and cemeteries, and war memorials. They include some of our finest works of public art and, taken together, they are our history made manifest. Monuments and memorials play a special part in the public realm and are always deserving of respect and care. How we assign special interest to them is discussed.

Some practical items erected as memorials, like fountains, will be found under the Street Furniture selection guide. Chapels in cemeteries and crematoria are briefly covered under Places of Worship. For our approach to the archaeological designation of earlier monuments from the Middle Ages and before, consult the Commemorative and Funerary Sites selection guide.

This is one of a series of guides which set out some of our approaches to listing buildings. Covering twenty broad categories of building types, they including historical overviews and special considerations for listing, plus select bibliographies. They are primarily intended to develop understanding of listed buildings and structures, and to offer insight into listing decision making.