What this guide covers, and why
Alexandra Park is a neighbourhood name and part of the name of Alexandra Park Road, while the larger conservation area used here is titled Alexandra Palace and Park, so this guide fixes its study area first. It uses two Haringey conservation areas, Alexandra Palace and Park and Vallance Road, and planning.data.gov.uk maps about 96.1 hectares between them.
Most of that land is the registered landscape of Alexandra Palace rather than housing, so the housing figures lean on two statistical areas, each chosen because at least half of it falls inside the boundaries. The Haringey guide covers the wider borough.
Designations, ground and housing
Every statement below links to the public record it comes from; sources were re-checked on .
Alexandra Palace and Park conservation area
The Alexandra Palace and Park entry on planning.data.gov.uk, reference 4276, maps about 76.2 hectares and carries no designation date.
Haringey's list of its conservation areas gives 22 September 1978 as the designation date and notes that there is no current adopted appraisal.
With no adopted appraisal on Haringey's list to measure a proposal against, the council's planning service is asked early about any external change.
Vallance Road conservation area
Vallance Road, Haringey reference CA29, was designated on 10 November 2008 and covers about 19.9 hectares.
Where the Vallance Road record covers an address, the controls that come with conservation-area status, such as giving the council notice before works to trees, are confirmed with Haringey before work is designed.
On the Article 4 layer of planning.data.gov.uk, only Haringey's Article 4 direction on small HMOs, Area 1, meets the study area, at under 0.1% of it, and that direction concerns use class, not heritage.
Registered park and listed buildings
Historic England registers Alexandra Palace as a Grade II park and garden, and its mapped area overlaps about 74.77 hectares of the study area.
The NHLE dataset returns a single list entry inside the two boundaries, at Grade II.
Registration brings no separate consent of its own, but the council takes a registered landscape into account when deciding applications, so a scheme that affects the Alexandra Palace landscape or its setting is likely to draw comment.
Gravel, clay and slope
Three of the five sample points are mapped with Dollis Hill Gravel Member deposits (sand and gravel) resting on London Clay in the BGS 1:50,000 mapping, and the other two are mapped as London Clay with no superficial deposit recorded.
Gravel lets water through quickly, and a leak can wash its finer particles away, so where the BGS map shows that gravel cap the inspection looks hard at drainage and at settlement along old pipe runs.
Where the geology viewer shows clay at the surface, seasonal shrink and swell and the reach of tree roots come first, and because a 1:50,000 map is not site-specific the deposit under one house is never assumed from a neighbour's.
Haringey's Muswell Hill appraisal, written for the neighbouring conservation area, notes that Alexandra Park Road falls markedly from west to east, with development along it stepped down the slope, a pattern that puts stepped footings and roofs on the checklist for houses on sloping ground.
On the planning flood map published by the Environment Agency, Flood Zones 2 and 3 do not reach either conservation area.
That map ignores defences and works at area rather than property level, so surface-water risk for a particular house is looked up on the long-term flood risk service.
Housing stock
Two Haringey statistical areas, E01001964 and E01001966, give the housing picture: about 1,200 dwellings appear there, according to the VOA Council Tax stock of properties 2025, every VOA figure being rounded to the nearest 10.
Age bands in that release put 39.2% of those dwellings in 1900-1918, 27.5% before 1900 and 20.8% in 1919-1939, leaving 5.0% from 1945-1972, 3.3% from 1973-1999 and 4.2% from 2000 onward.
Flats or maisonettes are 53.3% of the count in the VOA type table, terraced houses 27.5%, semi-detached houses 15.8% and detached houses 4.2%.
In the VOA band counts, bands F to H hold 44.2% of dwellings, with 23.3% in band F and 20.8% in band G.
Because 1900-1918 building outnumbers the pre-1900 stock and houses still make up almost half the count in the VOA release, the brief is as likely to be a whole house as a flat, and the age of each part of the building, later extensions included, is established early.
Guides for individual instructions
For the instruction types already written up for this part of N22, the local guides are listed first and the matching London-wide service pages second.
Close neighbours
The Muswell Hill guide covers the neighbouring conservation area mentioned above, Wood Green and Hornsey have guides of their own, and Crouch End completes the nearby set, while the Haringey guide is the borough-level overview.
Questions about the palace grounds and nearby streets
Which conservation areas does this guide cover?
Two: Alexandra Palace and Park, about 76.2 hectares, which Haringey's list shows as designated on 22 September 1978, and Vallance Road, about 19.9 hectares, designated on 10 November 2008. A nearby address may be in either or neither, so the mapped boundary is checked.
Does the registered park affect nearby homes?
Historic England registers the Alexandra Palace landscape at Grade II, and about 74.77 hectares of it overlap the study area. Registration creates no separate consent, but the council weighs the landscape and its setting when deciding applications, so visible changes close to it tend to draw attention.
Why might the ground differ between two N22 streets?
On BGS geological mapping, gravel of the Dollis Hill Gravel Member caps the clay at three of the five sample points, while two show London Clay with nothing above it. Gravel lets water through but loses fines to a leaking drain, while clay shrinks and swells, so the deposit under a given house is not assumed.
How old are the houses and flats nearby?
In the two statistical areas used, the VOA 2025 figures date 39.2% of about 1,200 dwellings to 1900-1918, 27.5% to before 1900 and 20.8% to 1919-1939. Those areas approximate the neighbourhood, not the conservation areas themselves.
Is there an adopted appraisal for the palace and park conservation area?
Not at present, according to Haringey's conservation area list, which notes no current adopted appraisal. Proposals are therefore discussed directly with the council's planning service, and the Historic England register entry for the park is a useful reference meanwhile.
Which documents help before an N22 inspection?
The full address, whether it is a house or a flat, any lease, drawings or planning references for extensions, and notes of past movement, drainage repairs or tree work. Those details decide whether the inspection concentrates on drainage in the gravel, movement in the clay, or both.
How we work on an instruction
Hampstead Chartered Surveyors is a RICS-regulated firm (RICS Regulated Firm No. 923064) working from its registered Hampstead NW3 office. The firm does not claim premises, staff or completed instructions in an individual locality, and it does not treat a neighbourhood name as evidence about a particular building.
An instruction starts with the full address, the decision the client faces and the documents already available, such as leases, drawings, notices or earlier reports. The scope, fee and inspection date are confirmed in writing only after that review, and access to roofs, lofts, basements or common parts is agreed before the visit.
Reports include RICS Level 2 and Level 3 home surveys, building and defect investigations, party wall appointments, reinstatement cost assessments, contract administration and schedules of condition. Each report records what was inspected, what could not be seen and what further investigation the evidence supports.
Public datasets such as the conservation-area register, the National Heritage List for England, British Geological Survey mapping, the Environment Agency flood map and Valuation Office Agency housing statistics describe areas rather than individual properties. They frame questions before an inspection; they never replace it.
Reviewed by Savas Bulduk BSc (Hons) MRICS, Director & Chartered Building Surveyor at Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy. Last reviewed: . Our people · RICS firm record