A former hamlet and its Victorian streets
Hammersmith and Fulham numbers the area around the Green as its conservation area No. 3, and the council's character profile traces a hamlet established by the sixteenth century that grew into suburban streets from the 1850s. The neighbouring Lakeside/Sinclair/Blythe Road area is added here, giving a study area of about 63.8 hectares split into two almost equal halves.
Neither area has a designation date on the national record, so the council's own documents carry the history: the profile, a boundary map revised in 2018 and a web page logging changes since. Ten station entries on the national stop register lie within 750 metres of the study area, from Kensington (Olympia) to West Kensington, and most homes in the surrounding statistical areas are pre-1900 while most are flats, which shapes nearly every question a buyer asks. Borough-wide coverage sits in the Hammersmith and Fulham guide.
Council and national records for the two areas
Every statement below links to the public record it comes from; sources were re-checked on .
A designation history kept by the council
The council's character profile says the area was first designated in March 1971 and then considerably extended by additions in April 1974, August 1981 and February 1988.
On planning.data.gov.uk it is reference 3 at about 31.9 hectares with no date, and the Lakeside/Sinclair/Blythe Road record, reference 36 and about 32.0 hectares, likewise has none.
Since the profile was written, the council's conservation page records properties moved into the Lakeside/Sinclair/Blythe Road area in July 2017 and an extension in November 2018 to take in 50F on the Green, so the current boundary map is the one to test an address against.
Article 4 rights removed long ago
The national Article 4 dataset has no polygon over any measurable part of the two areas, yet the character profile records directions made between the late 1970s and the mid-1980s.
According to the profile, they take away owners' rights to alter front roofs, gables or front elevations, form a hard standing for a car, put up or change boundary gates, fences or walls, paint brickwork or stucco, or add a porch, without planning permission.
Depending on which direction names the building, a replaced front window, a painted facade or a paved parking forecourt can therefore be a planning matter, and the council's page gives contact details for its Urban Design and Conservation Team.
The profile adds that digging out a front garden to form or enlarge a lightwell for basement rooms needs planning permission, and that taking down original chimney stacks visible from the street needs it too and should be resisted.
Listed churches, schools and Buildings of Merit
There are 25 entries on the national heritage list inside the study area, 23 at Grade II and two at Grade II*: the Church of Holy Trinity and the Convent and School of the Sacred Heart.
The profile also names Buildings of Merit on the council's local list, among them Phoenix Lodge Mansions and the Queen's Head, which are valued locally without statutory listing.
The council's page notes that the Blythe House list entry was amended after the profile appeared, with parts of the site excluded from listing and returned to Building of Merit status, so the present entry, not an older summary, defines what is protected.
Gravel ground and semi-basements
Kempton Park Gravel Member sand and gravel overlies London Clay Formation at every point sampled from the BGS 1:50,000 geology.
Semi-basements recur in the terraces the profile describes, including two early nineteenth-century Grade II houses on the Green and locally listed mid-nineteenth-century terraces, so lower-ground rooms are a feature to expect.
Gravel drains readily, but a room below pavement level still depends on its external walls, drains and any lightwell, so those are examined closely whatever the BGS map shows.
Flood zones drawn from the sea
All of the zoning here comes from the sea on the Environment Agency's Flood Map for Planning, which places 55.4% of the study area in Flood Zone 3 and 21.1% in Flood Zone 2.
The zones are drawn as if no defences existed, so they say little about a given flat, and the GOV.UK postcode checker states that it reports the risk for an area, not for a specific property.
The profile warns that paving front gardens for parking raises the chance of flash floods, one more reason a sealed forecourt beside a semi-basement is noted at inspection.
Homes in six statistical areas
Six LSOAs have at least half their area inside the study area, and the VOA's 2025 count of properties gives them about 5,000 dwellings, 84.0% of them built before 1900 and only 1.4% from 2000 or later.
Flats and maisonettes account for 77.0% and terraced houses 18.2% in the property-type figures, while bands D and C are the largest at 28.8% and 23.0% and bands F to H together hold 24.0%.
With so many flats inside Victorian buildings, the VOA picture makes the lease plan, the repairing covenants and the split of roof and structure between flats the first documents to read.
Nine W6 and W14 guides by instruction
These guides were written for flats and houses in and around the two conservation areas, one instruction to each, and the companion list gives the general page for every service.
Other west London guides
Guides for Hammersmith, Shepherd's Bush, West Kensington, Kensington and Fulham cover neighbouring districts on their own records, and the Hammersmith and Fulham guide spans the borough. Further west there is a guide for Bedford Park.
Questions about flats and houses around the Green
When was the area around the Green designated?
In March 1971, according to the council's character profile, with additions in April 1974, August 1981 and February 1988 and a further extension on 7 March 2006; the council's conservation page logs later boundary changes in July 2017 and November 2018. The national record carries no date, so the council's documents are the reference.
Do front windows or a painted front need permission here?
On the buildings the profile lists under the relevant direction, yes: depending on the address, altering front elevations, front roofs and gables, or painting brickwork and stucco needs planning permission. The council's conservation team can say which addresses are affected.
How much of the area is in a flood zone?
Most of it. The Flood Map for Planning shows 55.4% in Zone 3 and 21.1% in Zone 2, all from the sea and drawn without defences, so a semi-basement flat in particular is checked address by address.
Which buildings carry Grade II* listing?
The Church of Holy Trinity and the Convent and School of the Sacred Heart. The other 23 list entries inside the two areas are Grade II.
What should a flat buyer ask about major works to the building?
Whether works are planned and how costs are shared. For qualifying works, the consultation requirements under section 20ZA of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 can include giving tenants details of the proposed works and obtaining estimates, and a tribunal may dispense with them only where it is satisfied that is reasonable.
What helps before viewing a flat in a converted Victorian house?
The lease and its plan, recent service charge accounts and any notices of planned works, and the planning and building control records for the conversion itself. Together they show who repairs the roof, the main walls and the semi-basement, and whether the layout was approved.
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