St. George, Bermuda, is the first English town of the British Empire following the beginning of overseas settlement in the early 1600s.

Predating the conversion of James Fort, Virginia, to Jamestown by seven years, St. George has retained much of its early street plan and many of its masonry buildings.

It has remained a living town, and has not had to be rebuilt, along the lines of, say, Williamsburg, Virginia.

Thus in its present form, the Town's built heritage is without equal as an example of the early stages of English expansion throughout the world in the 17th and 18th century.

The fortifications associated with the Town of St. George are also without parallel and represent almost the complete range of British coastal fortification and artillery overseas from the early 17th century until the end of coastal defence in 1956.

The surviving forts on Castle and Southampton Islands were the first English masonry fortifications in the Americas and are the oldest standing English forts in the New World, indeed in the overseas empire.

They also mark the beginning of the coastal defence of the British Empire overseas.

Several 18th century forts are among the earliest examples of strategic works after the loss of the American colonies in 1783, while some of the Victorian forts are unique as well, notably Fort Cunningham with its iron frontages.

One of the few Martello Towers built outside the United Kingdom of the classic English South Coast design stands in singular form on St. George Island.

The end of British coastal defence is illustrated in the unique work at St.

David's Island, a single battery of two 6-inch and two 9.2 - inch breech loading guns erected in the first decade of the twentieth century, and not found elsewhere with the guns still emplaced.

St. George's fortifications are without parallel.