Palace Green is added to World Heritage Site
12:45pm Friday 5th September 2008
DURHAM'S World Heritage Site has been extended to include the Palace Green and some of the surrounding buildings.
A recommendation by the International Council on Monuments and Sites was approved by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation World Heritage Committee.
Palace Green, the green space that links the Castle and the Cathedral, is, along with Durham Castle, owned by Durham University.
The boundary extension also includes the buildings that surround Palace Green, which mostly date from the 17th and 18th centuries.
The most remarkable and oldest is the15th century Exchequer House, which now forms part of the university's Palace Green Library.
The extension also includes several houses built between the 15th and 19th centuries in Owengate, Saddler Street, North Bailey and Dun Cow Lane, some of which are owned by the university.
One of the buildings on Owengate, a former almshouse, is earmarked to become the first Durham World Heritage Site Visitor Centre.