Humble cabbie shelter wins Grade II status

THIS small green building, erected as a shelter for London taxi drivers in 1906 and still used today, is among five quirky structures granted protected status.

Among the five listed as Grade II on the National Heritage List for England to celebrate its 70th anniversary are a First World War wireless station and an underground ‘Hobbit house’.

The listing system was established in 1947 to protect historic buildings after heavy bombing in the Second World War.

The Cabmen’s Shelter in Grosvenor Gardens in Belgravia, London, was built by the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund for drivers waiting at ranks. It is one of only a few remaining cabbie shelters in the capital.

Underhill, an underground house built in 1973 by architect Arthur Quarmby in Holme, West Yorkshire, has also been protected, along with Stockton-on-Tees wireless station in County Durham.

Built in 1912, the station is thought to have been the Royal Navy’s only facility capable of gathering intelligence at the start of the First World War.

Pillwood House, a geometrically shaped holiday home in Truro, Cornwall, and Gothic-style funerary buildings at Willesden Jewish cemetery in north London have also been listed at Grade II.

Some 710 windmills, 514 pigsties, 13 dung pits and two fairground rides are among the buildings, sites and landscapes given protected status over the past 70 years.