Four Ealing designations read together
Four conservation areas designated by Ealing Council are combined on this page: Churchfields at about 32.0 hectares, the Village Green at 18.8, the cemeteries at 15.9 and the Clock Tower at just 1.5. The national record keeps only a year for each, running from 1969 for Churchfields to 1989 for the cemeteries, and their combined 68.2 hectares are the study area behind the heritage, geology and flood figures below. Borough-wide context is in the Ealing guide.
The council's page for the district lists two further areas, the Cuckoo Estate and part of St Mark's Church and Canal, which lie outside the four used here. Ealing's March 2008 appraisal of the Village Green is the main local source used here, and a review of conservation areas decided in November 2025 altered several boundaries, so any map dated before that decision may be out of step.
Designations, ground and homes in W7
Every statement below links to the public record it comes from; sources were re-checked on .
Four records and a review
Churchfields, reference 5286 on the national record, is the largest of the four, and planning.data.gov.uk holds only the year 1969 for it.
The Village Green record carries the year 1974, and Ealing's character appraisal adds that the area was extended in 1982 and is enclosed on three sides by public parks, a golf course and the railway.
The Clock Tower area dates from 1982 on the record and the cemeteries area from 1989.
When Ealing's planning committee decided the conservation-area review in November 2025, the Clock Tower appeared among both the extended and the reduced areas, so its present line is confirmed with the council before an older plan is relied on.
A Grade I viaduct and two registered cemeteries
Ten entries on the NHLE layer fall inside the four boundaries: a Grade I, a Grade II* and eight at Grade II.
The Grade I entry is Brunel's Wharncliffe Viaduct, which the Village Green appraisal records as built by 1838, and the II* entry is the Church of St Mary.
Two cemeteries are on Historic England's register of parks and gardens at Grade II, and about 9.17 hectares of the City of Westminster Cemetery and 6.28 hectares of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Cemetery lie within the study area.
Ealing's 2008 appraisal names a Grade II house on Church Road as a Building at Risk needing urgent repair, so a listed property here may already have a repair history on the council's file.
Taplow Gravel over London Clay
Taplow Gravel Member sand and gravel resting on London Clay Formation is what the BGS 1:50,000 map gives for each of the five points sampled, the clay logged four times as clay, silt and sand and once as clay and silt.
A gravel cover usually drains well, but where footings or tree roots reach the clay below, seasonal movement becomes possible, and the viewer cannot show how thick the gravel is under a given house.
The Village Green appraisal records prehistoric remains found when gravel was dug and foundations were excavated, and warns that the council may ask for an archaeological evaluation before work starts, which bears on the timetable for an extension.
The Brent and river flooding
Rivers are the only source behind the flood zones shown for this study area on the planning flood map, with 15.4% of the ground in Flood Zone 3 and 5.8% in Flood Zone 2.
Ealing's page on the Brent River Park says the park has a flood management function, with Osterley Weir managed by the Environment Agency and flood storage still possible in open spaces along the river.
Since planning zones ignore defences and leave out surface water, a garden backing onto the valley is also checked with the government's long-term risk lookup, which describes an area rather than a single house.
No Article 4 direction on the national record
The national Article 4 dataset returns no polygon over any of the four areas.
Ealing's Village Green appraisal recommended that one be considered, naming uPVC windows, painted brickwork, new roof materials and front walls taken down for parking as the changes it would bring under control.
The same document praises late nineteenth-century houses of red brick, clay tile and timber and lists plastic replacing cast-iron rainwater goods among the threats to the area's character, so original joinery, gutters and front boundaries are noted at inspection and the council's district page is read for current controls.
One statistical area with every age of home
Only one LSOA, Ealing 022D, has half or more of its area inside the study area, so the VOA 2025 stock figures used here describe about 820 dwellings in that single area, not the four boundaries as a whole.
Its build periods are spread fairly evenly in the VOA tables: 20.7% before 1900, 18.3% from 1900-1918, 14.6% from 1919-1939, 13.4% from 1945-1972, 20.7% from 1973-1999 and 11.0% from 2000 on.
Flats and maisonettes are 67.1% of the property-type count, semi-detached houses 15.9%, terraced 9.8% and detached 7.3%, and 20.7% of dwellings sit in bands F to H.
W7 guides, one instruction at a time
Guides in the first list are written for homes in and around these four conservation areas, one instruction type each; the second list links the practice-wide page behind each one.
Guides for neighbouring districts
West Ealing and Acton have guides built on their own records, and the borough-wide Ealing guide draws the district together. Down the Brent towards the Thames there is a separate guide for Brentford.
Owners' and buyers' questions about W7
How many conservation areas does Ealing list for the district?
Six, on its Hanwell conservation areas page: Churchfields, the Cuckoo Estate, the cemeteries, the Clock Tower, the Village Green and part of St Mark's Church and Canal. The study area here combines Churchfields, the Village Green, the Clock Tower and the cemeteries.
Is the railway viaduct a listed structure?
Yes. Wharncliffe Viaduct is listed at Grade I, the highest grade among the ten entries inside the study area; the others are the Grade II* Church of St Mary and eight Grade II entries.
Which source of flooding does the planning map show?
For its flood zones over the four areas, rivers only, not the sea. The Environment Agency map has 15.4% of the four areas in Zone 3 and 5.8% in Zone 2, while surface water is mapped separately, so each address is checked on GOV.UK as well.
Why might an extension near the green need an archaeological check?
Ealing's appraisal records prehistoric finds made while gravel and foundations were dug, and says the council may require an evaluation before work begins, so it is worth raising at design stage.
What mix of homes does the statistical area hold?
About 820 dwellings in one LSOA, 67.1% of them flats, with build periods spread from before 1900 to after 2000 and none above 20.7%, according to the VOA 2025 release.
What records help with an older house by the Village Green?
Dates of re-roofing, of any windows or rainwater goods replaced and of front walls rebuilt or paved over, plus the planning history of any loft or back extension. These are the changes the council's appraisal lists as threats to the area's character, and they show which original details survive.
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