Catalogue description Visible Index of Historic Buildings in the Greater London Area

NOTE ON VISIBLE INDEX

The so-called visible index of historic buildings within the Greater London area was assembled during the early 1970's, probably around 1973-74, in the main by Mrs Mildred Evans, wife of Mr Frank Evans who also worked in the Historic Buildings Division of the Greater London Council.

The volumes, which were intended to serve as an immediate reference, not only to listed buildings but also to buildings recently demolished, buildings proposed for listing and buildings which were included in the supplementary list, then known as Grade III. The Grade III status has since been abolished with those buildings either absorbed into the statutory list or as often happened, included in the Borough Council's own Local List. As with the Grade III listing, the Local List has no statutory status but serves to draw attention to the fact that the building is of architectural or historic interest while not being considered appropriate for full listing.

The extant volumes cover the London Boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Enfield, Hammersmith, Haringey, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow. Much more of Greater London was covered but the volumes appear subsequently to have been lost. However those that remain do give an excellent picture of their specific areas in the early 1970's, recording as they do, many unsung demolitions. An illustration of this can be seen in Brentford High Street, in the London Borough of Hounslow where very few old buildings are now left standing and fewer still are listed.

The death-knell of these volumes was rung in the early 1980's when the whole of the Greater London area was systematically re-listed and those lists were issued by the Department of the Environment in a comprehensive borough by borough book form, known because of the colour of their covers, as "green backs".

Each building or group of buildings is represented by a slip. These are arranged alphabetically by name of street within each borough. Each slip has entry spaces for the borough, address, dates/architects, a description of the exterior, notes on sources and other coded information.

The slips representing conservation areas include small maps with boundaries marked in colour.

Deposited in the Greater London Record Office, March 1995 (Acc 3515)