9130 Characterisation Data in Greater London - AWARD

Staff in the characterisation team at English Heritage (Historic England's predecessor organisation) created a historic landscape characterisation dataset for Greater London in 2006. In the years since, the dataset has not been updated to address the changing context across the city, while a number of omissions, gaps in spatial coverage and errors have not been addressed. Across the same period, Historic England has encouraged the use of characterisation exercises by London boroughs as part of their evidence base underpinning local plans to help successfully guide the location and design of development. However, the outstanding issues in relation to the dataset have limited its relevance and usefulness to London boroughs in this work, despite its clear potential.

Historic England commissioned Land Use Consultants (LUC) to analyse the extent of the existing data set and understand the degree to which it aligns with current best practice in characterisation across Greater London together with whether and how this alignment could be improved. A final project report was produced in May 2022.

The purpose of the current proposed project will therefore be to address identified outstanding issues in the LUC report, and will complete spatial coverage and enable greater detail of character types (of all land uses) across Greater London. The amended dataset will better reflect the current wider characterisation context, including the London Historic Character Thesaurus. This will help enable greater take up of characterisation by London borough colleagues in evidence gathering to support local plan preparation and will also align with and support the Greater London Authority's current focus on this area.