The unassuming brick studio where composer Benjamin Britten wrote operas like Death in Venice and Billy Budd has been listed for preservation.

The Grade II listing by the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport will protect the studio in Horham, Suffolk, against inappropriate alteration or development.

Its importance as a piece of our cultural heritage cannot be denied.

Tessa Jowell, Culture Secretary

The acclaimed composer, who was born in Lowestoft, worked in the brick extension to Chapel House from the early 1970s.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said the decision to list the studio was based upon its historic rather than architectural significance.

She said "Benjamin Britten is without a doubt the greatest English classical composer of the last century".

"Britten's music studio, with its view across his beloved Suffolk countryside, is no architectural gem but its importance as a piece of our cultural heritage cannot be denied."

In 1965, Britten received the Order of Merit and he was made a life peer in 1976. He died that year following an unsuccessful heart operation.