Bid to list Civic Offices fails as campaigners fears decision is “paving the way for demolition”

The application sought to have the civic offices in Guildhall Square designated as a listed building and was submitted to Historic England by The Twentieth Century Society (C20), a British heritage charity established in 1979, which campaigns for the preservation of buildings constructed in the last century.

It comes as the city council considers its options for its offices which include the possibility of downsizing at its current site, or relocating.

However is application was unsuccessful which in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, C20 described the decision as “hugely disappointing”.

The charity added that a Certificate of Immunity (COI) has been issued for the building, meaning it will not be listed for five years. C20 claimed the COI is “paving the way for demolition”.

It further said: “Portsmouth is just the latest in a growing list of purpose-built post-war civic complexes to have been condemned in recent years – a significant chapter of our recent history being steadily erased.”

A Historic England spokesperson said: “The Portsmouth Civic Offices building was designed in 1971-6 by post-war planners Teggin and Taylor as a key component in a wider masterplan for Portsmouth.

“We assessed the building for listing, but although Portsmouth Civic Offices has some architectural and historic interest, it is not sufficient to meet the criteria for listing a civic building of this date, and we therefore recommended that a Certificate of Immunity from listing should be issued. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has decided that it is minded to grant a COI.”

The offices, designed in 1969-70 by Lionel Brett, Harry Teggin, and David Taylor, were built in 1976 to accommodate the increasing needs of the council’s departments and officers.

However in February, the council’s cabinet met to discuss potentially downsizing or relocating the civic offices with council documents revealing that an average of 1,000 staff attend the office daily, leaving large unused areas.

The documents also suggested that constructing new civic offices could “deliver significant organisational change” while “enabling the modernisation of service provision to achieve operational efficiencies, reduce carbon emissions, and respond to changing customer expectations”.

No decision has yet been made.