UK building classes

The Building Class data provides detailed information about residential housing types including the house age and structural type. This information can be used for urban regeneration studies, crime monitoring, urban flooding and urban gardens. These data were collected by The GeoInformation Group (TGG), primarily through interpretation of high-resolution aerial photography, as part of the Cities Revealed project. The data were subsequently acquired by the Landmap project.

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded Landmap service which ran from 2001 to July 2014 collected and hosted a large amount of earth observation data for the majority of the UK, part of which was buildings data. After removal of JISC funding in 2013, the Landmap service is no longer operational, with the data now held at the NEODC.

When using these data please also add the following copyright statement: Cities Revealed © The GeoInformation Group yyyy

Date (Publication): 2014-08-22T08:03:08

Date (Creation): 2014-08-22T08:03:08

Citation identifier: https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/cf27c81e7f54c3701899017d1b810f81

Citation identifier: NERC Earth Observation Data Centre (NEODC) / cf27c81e7f54c3701899017d1b810f81

Point of contact

Organisation name	Electronic mail address	Role
Landmap	unknown	Author
The GeoInformation Group (TGG)	unknown	Author
NERC Earth Observation Data Centre (NEODC)	neodc@rl.ac.uk	Custodian
NERC Earth Observation Data Centre (NEODC)	neodc@rl.ac.uk	Distributor
NERC Earth Observation Data Centre (NEODC)	neodc@rl.ac.uk	pointofContact
NERC Earth Observation Data Centre (NEODC)	neodc@rl.ac.uk	Publisher

Maintenance and update frequency: Not planned

Update scope: Dataset

Keywords

Not defined

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

orthoimagery

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Restricted data: please submit an application using the REQUEST ACCESS link for access.

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Under the following licence https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/licences/specific_licences/landmap.pdf, appropriate use of these data may fall under academic and specific use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Spatial representation type: Grid

Language: English

Topic category

Imagery base maps earth cover

Begin date: 2012-01-01T00:00:00

End date: 2012-12-31T00:00:00

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84

Distribution format

Name	Version
Data are available as shapefiles in 100x100km tiles. The location of the tiles can be determined by the key provided with the data. The shapefiles comprise of .shp, .shx and .dbf files. shp - shape format; the feature geometry itself shx - shape index format; a positional index of the feature geometry to allow seeking forwards and backwards quickly dbf - attribute format; columnar attributes for each shape, in dBase IV format Also provided are prj, sbn, sbx and xml files. prj - projection format; the coordinate system and projection information, a plain text file describing the projection sbn and sbx - a spatial index of the features xml - location and other associated information Free software can be used to open shapefiles, such as Quantum GIS (QGIS) or User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig) - see links. The classifications found in the attribute table (dbf files) of the shapefiles can be identified using this building class reference sheet (see links). There are 9 Age categories and 19 Type categories. Not all the Age/Type combinations are used, for example there are no Early and Middle Victorian very tall flats (point blocks) in the current edition of the classification (Version 6 September 2012). The current database for the UK does not contain Age categories 1 and 2 and only one type for Age 8. Also the type categories of Medium Height flats 5-6 storeys (3), Tall Terraces 3-4 storeys (5) and Very Large Detached Houses, Sometimes converted to flats (15) have been removed. These are all indicated by the DNU label in the classification sheet. More information can be found on in the The GeoInformation Group guide to the building class dataset (see links).

Name

Version

Data are available as shapefiles in 100x100km tiles. The location of the tiles can be determined by the key provided with the data. The shapefiles comprise of .shp, .shx and .dbf files.

shp - shape format; the feature geometry itself

shx - shape index format; a positional index of the feature geometry to allow seeking forwards and backwards quickly

dbf - attribute format; columnar attributes for each shape, in dBase IV format

Also provided are prj, sbn, sbx and xml files.

prj - projection format; the coordinate system and projection information, a plain text file describing the projection

sbn and sbx - a spatial index of the features

xml - location and other associated information

Free software can be used to open shapefiles, such as Quantum GIS (QGIS) or User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig) - see links.

The classifications found in the attribute table (dbf files) of the shapefiles can be identified using this building class reference sheet (see links). There are 9 Age categories and 19 Type categories. Not all the Age/Type combinations are used, for example there are no Early and Middle Victorian very tall flats (point blocks) in the current edition of the classification (Version 6 September 2012). The current database for the UK does not contain Age categories 1 and 2 and only one type for Age 8. Also the type categories of Medium Height flats 5-6 storeys (3), Tall Terraces 3-4 storeys (5) and Very Large Detached Houses, Sometimes converted to flats (15) have been removed. These are all indicated by the DNU label in the classification sheet. More information can be found on in the The GeoInformation Group guide to the building class dataset (see links).

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NERC Earth Observation Data Centre (NEODC)		neodc@rl.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/cf27c81e7f54c3701899017d1b810f81	CEDA Data Catalogue Page

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/neodc/landmap/data/feature/building_class_100x100km	DOWNLOAD

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://www.geoinformationgroup.co.uk/	The GeoInformation Group (TGG) homepage

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/neodc/landmap/documents/Building_Class_Reference_Sheet_v6_Sep_12.pdf	Building classes reference sheet

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/neodc/landmap/documents/building_class_v6.pdf	The Cities Revealed product guide

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/neodc/landmap/documents/Building_Class_Notes_2012.pdf	The GeoInformation Group guide to the building class dataset

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://data.ceda.ac.uk/neodc/landmap/data/metadata/vector/Building_Class	UK Building Classes metadata files

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://web.archive.org/web/20140822103353/http://www.landmap.ac.uk/index.php/Datasets/Building_Class/Download-Building-Class-100km-x-100km	An archived version of the Landmap project building class site, hosted by the Internet Archive project

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Conformance result

Title: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Statement: Data collected and prepared by the Landmap team before a copy of the data was obtained by NEODC directly from Landmap.

Metadata

File identifier: cf27c81e7f54c3701899017d1b810f81 XML

Metadata language: English

Character set: UTF8

Parent identifier: Landmap: Features Earth Observation Collection
42bcf75ae7f0b2a12d84dfa2216c31e5

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Date stamp: 2026-03-11T03:03:43

Metadata standard name: UK GEMINI

Metadata standard version: 2.3

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NERC Earth Observation Data Centre (NEODC)		neodc@rl.ac.uk	Point of contact

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