The Security of Listed and Heritage Properties

Over the last few years we have been helping many owners of listed and heritage properties protect their premises from fire, theft and damage. This has included helping national heritage organisations such as The National Trust. In working with them, we’ve had to balance the security and absolute protection of the site and staff with a sensitivity to the listed or heritage building’s features, history and aesthetics.

Popular targets

Heritage and listed properties are sadly popular targets for crime and in a research study English Heritage found that an estimated 18.7% of all listed buildings in 2011 had been physically affected by crime. That represents over 70,000 listed buildings. Lead and metal thefts were the most common, but vandalism and theft of personal possessions is also on the rise.

Alliance to Reduce Crime Against Heritage (ARCH)

We are a member of  Alliance to Reduce Crime Against Heritage, a voluntary national network and wholly support their great work to tackle heritage crime and galvanise local action.

Heritage and Listed Property Security

There is good news in that security solutions are becoming more sophisticated in detecting and preventing crime and yet less intrusive in their installation to the fabric of the listed property. Access control, intruder alarms, security lighting, staff/volunteer paging systems, CCTV and fire detection systems can be installed with sympathetic care and attention toa historic property’s features. We focus particularly in ensuring the security measures comply with the relevant listed building consent, building standards, fire regulations and certification procedures.

Security Tips for Listed and Heritage Buildings

Our work in this area has led us to produce a simple guide of security considerations for owners of listed and heritage properties

For more information about our security work with heritage properties, please contact the sales team on 01483 791500.