WORLD HERITAGE STATUS FOR GREENWICH?

MAJOR BOOST FROM WORLD RANKING

Greenwich 28 June 1996

British Government National Heritage Secretary (then Virginia Bottomley) today announced that the heart of historic Greenwich has been formally nominated to UNESCO to become a World Heritage Site.

The proposed Maritime Greenwich site centres on Greenwich Park and its outstanding architectural masterpieces including:

• The Royal Observatory Greenwich

• The National Maritime Museum

• The Royal Naval College

• The Queen's House

It also covers the old town centre, St Alfege's Church and the Cutty Sark. If the nomination is successful, Greenwich will become England's eleventh World Heritage Site.

Virginia Bottomley said: "Maritime Greenwich, with its magnificent assembly of historic buildings, monuments and public spaces is richly steeped in our national heritage. It has been world famous as the '' since 1884 and is a unique location.

"The area we have nominated focuses on the outstanding buildings associated with the town's royal and maritime history. It also embraces the Park and the many splendid nearby properties built during the 17th and 18th centuries at the height of Greenwich's fame in our seafaring history

"I believe Maritime Greenwich meets the stringent criteria laid down by UNESCO. It is a worthy candidate for World Heritage status and fully merits the national and international prestige this would bring in time for the Millennium.

"Greenwich as home of the is indisputably the most fitting site to celebrate the Millennium. The Festival, on the nearby Peninsular will have a regenerative effect. It will bring new prosperity that will ripple out to create new jobs and opportunities throughout the country.

"World Heritage status for the historic centre of Greenwich will complement the benefits stemming from the Millennium and help Greenwich realise its full potential as a tourist attraction."

The nomination to UNESCO made clear that the Government is currently considering potential new occupants for the Royal Naval College. Its inclusion in the World Heritage Site will be a determining factor when assessing the suitability of future tenants.

UNESCO's advisers will now consider the Greenwich nomination in detail. This process normally takes eighteen months and a decision is expected in December 1997. If accepted, it will become the seventeenth World Heritage Site - including two overseas - under the UK's jurisdiction.

The Department of National Heritage has been assisted in preparing the nomination by English Heritage and the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments for England. The local authority and other interested bodies have been consulted and their views were taken into account.

Greenwich embraces set-pieces by some of Europe's most gifted architects including Inigo Jones's Queen's House, one of the first Palladian buildings in England; the spectacular Royal Naval Hospital (now the Royal Naval College) by Sir Christopher Wren, John Webb and Nicholas Hawksmoor; and St Alfege's Church in the town centre, begun by Hawksmoor and finished by John James. The spars and rigging of the Cutty Sark, one of the finest surviving sailing ships in the world, offer a highly visible reminder of the town's maritime traditions. Beyond the town, Greenwich Park, surrounded by splendid examples of 17th and 18th century properties, represents the leading example of English Baroque landscape planning in London, and includes the Royal Observatory Greenwich, a key symbol of Britain's scientific and maritime pre-eminence.

World Heritage Sites

The World Heritage Convention (adopted by UNESCO in 1972) was ratified by the United Kingdom in 1984. There are 145 state parties to the Convention. The Convention provides for the identification, protection, conservation and presentation of cultural and natural sites of outstanding universal value, and requires a World Heritage List to be established under the management of an inter-governmental World Heritage Committee, which is advised by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Individual governments are responsible for the nomination of sites, and for ensuring the protection of sites which are inscribed in the List.

As at December 1995, there are 469 sites on the list worldwide, including 16 which relate to the UK, (of which 10 are in England) :

• Durham Cathedral and Castle (1986)

• Fountains Abbey, St Mary's Church and Studley Royal Park (1986)

• Ironbridge Gorge (1986)

• Stonehenge, Avebury and associated sites (1986)

• Blenheim Palace and Park (1987)

• Palace of Westminster, St Margaret's Church and Westminster (1987)

• Hadrian's Wall Military Zone (1987)

• The Tower of London (1989)

• Canterbury Cathedral (with St. Augustine's Abbey and St. Martin's Church) (1988)

• Castle and Town Walls of Edward I in Gwynedd (1986)

• St. Kilda (1986)

• Giant's Causeway and Causeway coast (1986)

• Henderson Island, South Pacific Ocean (1986)

• Edinburgh Old and New Towns (1996)

• Gough Island Wildlife Reserve, South Atlantic Ocean (1989)

Inclusion in the World Heritage list is essentially honorific and leaves the existing rights and obligations of owners, occupiers and planning authorities unaffected. A prerequisite for World Heritage Site status is, however, the existence of effective legal protection and the establishment or firm prospect of management plans to ensure sites' conservation and presentation. In the UK, legal protection is achieved through listing and scheduling and their associated controls, by the establishment of conservation areas, and by the outstanding international importance of the site being taken into account as a key consideration by local planning authorities.