Have your say to help us protect the cultural heritage of Durham City

Background

Durham City Conservation Area was designated in 1968 in recognition of being 'an area of special architectural or historic interest'. It is one of the most important historic cities in Britain and includes the Durham Castle and Cathedral World Heritage Site which has been a UNESCO site since 1986. The conservation area was extended in 1980, and last reviewed in 2015.

We are reviewing the existing conservation area and producing a Conservation Area Management Plan (CAMP).

The CAMP is a set of documents consisting of:

• a strategic overview document
• seven conservation area character appraisal documents
• a management strategy document

Overall, these documents explain what is special about the place, what contributes to its significance, distinctiveness, character, and how this is experienced. It identifies the issues, problems and possible threats to the areas special interest, and then sets out management aims and actions to help ensure future change conserves and where possible, enhances the heritage significance of the place. We have worked with Historic England, City of Durham Parish Council, The City of Durham Trust, Durham University, Visit County Durham, Durham World Heritage Site Co-Ordinating Committee and Durham AAP to create the CAMP.

What we are consulting on

Our current consultation is made up of three areas.

Conservation Area boundary review

Durham City is large and very complex. It has grown and changed since medieval times. It is not a unified place, and due to the current large size of the conservation area, it can be difficult to effectively manage. This reduces the level of protection it can currently receive under planning policy. Since the last review, planning policy and legislation have also been updated, major new developments have been built and historic buildings removed as part of approved redevelopment schemes. 

Because of this, the review process and on-site survey work, we are proposing to sub-divide the existing conservation area into seven smaller ones. Each new conservation area will have its own character appraisal that sets out in detail what makes it special and what opportunities exist and also what detracts from its character and appearance. We are also proposing to remove some areas of modern 20^th century development which have no special architectural or historic interest, but include more landscape, such as at Old Durham, the university campus in the southern part of the city, and McNally Place in Gilesgate.

Map of existing and proposed Conservation Areas In Durham City (PDF, 1 MB)

Crossgate Conservation Area

Map of proposed Crossgate Conservation Area boundary (PDF, 4 MB)

This Conservation Area covers the southwestern part of Durham City centre. It is made up of two distinctive parts. The first part is the main urban area in the north that developed around the main streets of Allergate, Crossgate, and Crossgate Peth, with secondary streets of around 1900s housing development. The second part to the south is semi-rural in character and made up of landscaped elements around Observatory Hill, and Durham School on the edge of the urban settlement.

Elvet Conservation Area

Map of proposed Elvet Conservation Area boundary (PDF, 3 MB)

This Conservation Area covers the eastern part of the city centre. Its boundary is the River Wear from Prebends Bridge down to Maiden Castle footbridge. Elvet is a large, distinctive, and complex part of the city made up of a medieval core focused around Old, New Elvet, and Church Street, with late 19^th and 20^th century features and surrounding developments extending south to Stockton Road and westwards to the end of Quarryheads Lane.

Framwellgate Conservation Area

Map of proposed Framwellgate Conservation Area boundary (PDF, 4 MB)

This Conservation Area covers the northwestern part of the city centre. The area is made up of a medieval core of Framwellgate Peth, Millburngate, and Sidegate, along with the medieval manor at Crook Hall. It includes a major part of the city's 1900s expansion with the commercial area of North Road, the distinctive site of Redhills Miners Hall, and the residential streets around the viaduct. Finally, there is the large scaled mixed-use 20^th and 21^st century riverside developments along Framwellgate Waterside. Landscape features include the landscape surrounding Crook Hall that rises steeply up to the railway line in the north and the wider open countryside on the urban limits of the city in the east.

Gilesgate Conservation Area

Map of proposed Gilesgate Conservation Area boundary (PDF, 3 MB)

This Conservation Area covers the northeastern part of the city centre. It is a substantial, distinctive, and complex environment with a medieval single street layout at its historic core, a route that was once continuous down Claypath into the Market Place. The area grew up around St Giles Church and the medieval village green in the east and is lined by domestic buildings ranging from the 17^th to the 20^th century. It includes the historically important medieval Kepier Hospital site with its orchard and farmland, the late 19^th century College of St Hild and St Bede and its parkland, a series of characterful Victorian terraced streets such as Leazes Place, Ravensworth Terrace and Magdalene Street, and large scale individually designed 21^st century riverside development. 

Hill Colleges Conservation Area

Map of proposed Hill Colleges Conservation Area boundary (PDF, 2 MB)

This Conservation Area covers the south part of the city centre bounded by Quarryheads Lane, the A177 South Road, and Potters Bank. It is focussed on, and characterised by, the Durham University Hill College southern campus of St Mary's College, Trevelyan College, Grey College, St Aidan's College, and Van Mildert College, and also includes a limited number of 19^th century buildings. The original college buildings are all 20^th century but are of high architectural quality by well-known architects, designed to embrace the landscape with designed views to the cathedral providing visual links to the university home on the peninsula.

Old Durham Conservation Area

Map of proposed Old Durham Conservation Area boundary (PDF, 2 MB)

This Conservation Area is located one mile from the Durham Peninsula across the eastern side of the River Wear where it loops around the racecourse and Maiden Castle, southwards down towards Shincliffe Village. Old Durham is unique in the city centre owing to its distinctive, peaceful, rural character with an isolated farm settlement of three distinguishable groups, and the 17^th century public pleasure gardens that have been shaped and modelled over the centuries by the different landowners.

Peninsula Conservation Area

Map of proposed Peninsula Conservation Area boundary (PDF, 4 MB)

This Conservation Area covers the historic heart of the city centre and is where it all started. The buildings are set on a distinctive piece of raised, flat land defined by the bend of the River Wear. The area covers the outer river gorge, the historic and modern river crossing points, the Market Place, Elvet Riverside development, and Dunelm House. It also includes the castle and cathedral area contained within the medieval castle walls, the steep sided gorge, woodland, and the associated features.

Appraisals

The Conservation Areas will all have an Appraisal that sets out in detail what things contribute to the area's special interest that justifies its conservation area designation. This can include historic street patterns, characteristic building styles, materials and detailing, trees and green spaces, boundary features, and views. It also identifies negative things that are issues, problems, and potential threats. Once adopted, an Appraisal is used in planning decisions within the conservation area boundary. We will be consulting you on the draft appraisal documents in 2025.

Durham City strategic overview

Durham City is a unique place with a historic environment of high significance. The city means different things to different people, residents, businesses, students, workers and visitors, and there are a number of competing challenges that affect its special interest, character, sense of place, and how it is experienced. The challenges include a need to have a clear identity, a lack of investment, a run-down appearance, empty commercial buildings on the high street, and redundant historic buildings.

We are aware that sub-dividing the existing conservation area may cause concern that we are losing sight of the historic city centre as a whole, so we have created a Strategic Context Document that confirms that it is the combination of all seven Conservation Areas that make up the special architectural and historic interest of Durham City. The document explains the city's historic, landscape and townscape importance, the CAMP aims, objectives and aspirations, and the challenges and opportunities within the city.

The Strategic Context Document provides an understanding of the city as a whole, the challenges it faces and the potential opportunities for its regeneration and improvement. The document explains:

• how the CAMP process works and why it has been used for Durham City
• how it fits into local and national planning policy
• why we are proposing seven smaller conservation areas
• the 10 overall themes behind the management aims and actions

Draft Durham City CAMP Strategic Overview (PDF, 17 MB)

The Management Strategy

This document makes a series of recommendations, aims and actions around the 10 themes in the Strategic Context Document. It:

• addresses key challenges
• provides general planning guidance, design advice for specific disused historic buildings, detracting gap sites, extensions and shop fronts, lighting, and road/pavement improvement
• supports the planning framework
• can support funding opportunities

The aim of these recommendations is to set out a realistic and deliverable framework for the positive and proactive management of future change in the conservation areas, in line with national and local planning policies and other relevant documents.

Article 4

The Management Strategy also looks at the existing Article 4 properties. An Article 4 direction affects a person's automatic rights to do some types of development work to their property and means they may have to apply for planning permission first. This is to protect the historic character and appearance of the building and place and can include things like removing and replacing windows and doors, alterations to roofs and boundary features. In Durham City there is and Article 4 covering historic terraced streets and some individual properties, such as Albert Street, Crossgate Peth, Church Street Head, Claypath, Gilesgate, Hawthorn Terrace, Nevilledale Terrace, and Ravensworth Terrace.

We have carried out a full review of the properties covered by the existing Article 4 to propose whether they should still be covered, as well as identifying properties that should now potentially be included, such as in South Street, Allergate Terrace (numbers one to five), Atherton and East Atherton Street, Flass Street, Neville Street and Fieldhouse Terrace. Details about the Article 4 and the proposed changes can be found in the Management Strategy document.

Draft Durham City CAMP Management Strategy (PDF, 18 MB)

Have your say

If you are passionate about the city's history, or just enjoy a peaceful walk along the riverbanks, or the hustle and bustle of the marketplace, we want your thoughts on the CAMP draft overview document, the seven proposed new conservation areas boundaries, and the information, recommendations, aims, actions and Article 4 in the draft Management Strategy document.  

Next steps

Your feedback will be considered and used to help us to develop all of the CAMP documents further. There will then be a second consultation on the updated CAMP documents before being finalised and adopted.

Consultation results

In consideration of the feedback, we have made a number of changes to the Strategic Context and Management Strategy documents to make them more concise in parts, easier to navigate, and clearer to read.

We have removed some areas of repetition, edited, and reduced some of the text and the number of themes in the document to shorten the document's length overall. We have added into the document more visual elements including color coded sections, a flow chart, and other graphics. We have also amended and combined some of the action points within the document, and added an outcome box at the end of each themed area to better summarise how the actions can help achieve conservation and wider regeneration aims.

The following main amendments have been made to the proposed new conservation area boundaries.

• Gilesgate Conservation Area -removal of the contemporary student accommodation at New Kepier Court and Kepier Terrace as this is within a modern residential context and neutral in contribution.

• Crossgate Conservation Area - reinclusion of part of the area correlating to the c.1919 and c.1950 Ordnance Survey maps to capture part of Farnley Hey Road (Farnley Hey, Lyndhurst, Hillcrest) part of  Farnley Mount and more of Percy Terrace (The Hermitage, Percy House, and Sunny Brae). This also includes the splendid view of Durham Cathedral.

• Elvet Conservation Area and Peninsula Conservation Area-removal of Palmers Close from Elvet and inclusion with the peninsula as historic green open space that is legible as part of the riverbanks. It also includes a historic route to the riverside and provides a significant cathedral view. Minor revision to rationalise the boundary to the riverbank's waterfall feature.

• Hill Colleges Conservation Area and Elvet Conservation Area - revision omitting Nos 23-26 Quarryheads Lane from Hill Colleges and inclusion in Elvet as they relate to the residential street frontage.

During the next stage of this project happening in the Summer of 2025, we will provide the updated Strategic Context and Management Strategy document for people to take a look at. We will also provide copies of the final proposed 7 new conservation area boundaries for Durham City and the draft individual character appraisal documents for comment.