The house has been a Grade I listed building since 21 October 1953, the listing citing "inter alia" its "largely complete Victorian interior". The architectural correspondent of "The Times", Marcus Binney, who was closely involved in the campaign to bring Cragside to the National Trust, noted the historic importance of this "virtually untouched interior", with its collections of furnishings, furniture (much designed especially for Cragside), and fine and decorative arts, with work by many notable designers of the period, including William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Philip Webb and Edward Burne-Jones. Pevsner notes that the art collection demonstrated "what was permissible to the Victorian nobleman in the way of erotica".