Why a circle and not a boundary
No conservation area is drawn around this neighbourhood on its own terms, so the page works from a circle instead: 750 metres in radius, centred on the bus stop and about 176.7 hectares in extent. That circle is simply a way of gathering data. It does not mark where the neighbourhood begins or ends, and the national datasets behind it describe ground, flooding, listing and housing rather than any one building.
Roughly a third of the circle, 35.9%, lies inside the Hampstead Garden Suburb conservation area, which the Hampstead Garden Suburb guide covers as a whole. This page keeps to the circle and to Barnet's appraisal of Area 3, Temple Fortune Lane and Willifield Way, while the Barnet guide sets out the borough around it.
Inside the circle: council and national records
Every statement below links to the public record it comes from; sources were re-checked on .
Conservation-area overlap and Article 4
The Hampstead Garden Suburb conservation area record carries a designation date of 20 December 1968, and its mapped boundary overlaps about 63.4 hectares, or 35.9%, of the circle.
Over that same 35.9%, the Article 4 dataset maps Article 4 for Hampstead Garden Suburb CA Area 1, a conservation-area direction whose record's start date is 5 March 1971, and Barnet can confirm which permitted development rights it withdraws at a given address.
A small-HMO direction also spans the whole circle, but it is a use-class control on shared houses, not a heritage one.
Area 3 of the Suburb: the lane and Willifield Way
Barnet's Area 3 character appraisal bounds that part of the Suburb by Temple Fortune Lane to the south-west, the backs of the houses on Temple Fortune Hill to the north, and Willifield Way and Central Square to the south-east.
The appraisal places Area 3 within the oldest part of the Suburb and says that, like the Artisans' Quarter, it encapsulates the social and aesthetic values of the founders.
Houses on Willifield Way, the north-east part of Hampstead Way and the lane were designed in groups by architects closely associated with Unwin, and the lane's groups by Guy Dawber, Edwin Palser and Albert Lakeman use styles unique to this part of the Suburb, says the council's appraisal.
Its description finds houses predominantly semi-detached and white rendered, with golden brick in Lucas Crescent, and western-side houses by Lucas, of 1908-09, with pitched roofs, some pargetting, two-storey bays and gables.
Original features the appraisal names include shutters, front door and porch settles, and ornate hoppers, so a report records which survive, which are replacements and what state each is in.
Listed entries and a registered cemetery
The NHLE dataset returns 128 list entries within 750 metres of the Temple Fortune Lane bus stop on Finchley Road: 123 at Grade II, 4 at Grade II* and 1 at Grade I.
The single Grade I entry is the Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church, and the four at Grade II* are The Manse, 1-8 North Square, 15 North Square and 1 and 2 South Square.
One entry on the national list can cover a pair or a group, so the address's own entry is read in full.
Hoop Lane Jewish Cemetery, a Grade II registered park and garden, overlaps about 2.84 hectares of the circle, and its register entry shows the extent of that designated landscape.
Ground beneath the circle
London Clay Formation, which the BGS lists as clay, silt and sand, is what the 1:50,000 bedrock map shows at five of five sample points in the circle, and no superficial deposit is recorded above it.
London Clay contracts in long dry spells and expands when rain returns, and tree roots deepen that cycle, so where the BGS viewer shows it, crack shape and width, drain runs and the spread of nearby roots are all recorded.
The 1:50,000 mapping is regional rather than site-specific, so it frames an inspection without settling what lies under one plot.
Flood zones
Every zoned area on the Environment Agency's planning flood map comes from rivers, with Flood Zone 3 over 2.5% of the circle and Flood Zone 2 over 1.5%.
Because those zones are drawn as if no defences existed and say nothing about one property, an address is also run through the GOV.UK long-term flood risk check, which includes surface water.
Housing in six statistical areas
Six LSOAs with at least half their area inside the circle, E01000209, E01000211, E01000215, E01000216, E01000217 and E01000225, hold about 4,420 dwellings in the VOA Council Tax stock of properties 2025, whose counts are rounded to the nearest 10.
Building from 1900 to 1939 dominates the VOA build-period table: 43.9% of dwellings date from 1900-1918 and 31.9% from 1919-1939, while 11.1% are from 1945-1972, 6.1% from 1973-1999, 5.9% from 2000 onwards and 0.7% from before 1900.
By type, flats and maisonettes make up 50.2% in the same VOA release, followed by semi-detached houses at 22.9%, terraced houses at 14.0%, detached houses at 11.8% and bungalows at 1.4%.
Bands F, G and H hold 21.7%, 24.4% and 4.8% of the stock on the VOA band counts, so 50.9% of dwellings sit in band F or above.
The LSOAs only approximate the circle, yet with about three homes in four dated before 1940 by the VOA tables, the age of roofs, chimneys and drains comes early in a brief, as do the lease plan and repairing duties for a flat.
Guides for this neighbourhood and the wider practice
Pages in the first list are written for this neighbourhood, one instruction type each, and the second list leads to the practice-wide page for the same service.
Guides around the circle
The Barnet guide covers the whole borough, while the Hampstead Garden Suburb guide deals with the conservation area that overlaps the circle. Golders Green, Finchley, Hendon and Childs Hill each have a guide set on a study area of its own, and so does Woodside Park, further north in the borough.
Questions about homes within the circle
How much of the circle lies inside a conservation area?
About 35.9%, or 63.4 hectares, falls inside the Hampstead Garden Suburb conservation area. The rest of the 750-metre circle is outside that boundary, so the mapped line is checked for the exact address before anyone assumes that conservation-area controls, or the matching Article 4 direction, apply to it.
Which architects does the council's Area 3 appraisal name?
Barnet's appraisal for Temple Fortune Lane and Willifield Way names Guy Dawber, Edwin Palser and Albert Lakeman for groups on the lane, and Lucas for houses dated 1908-09. It also says houses there were designed in groups by architects closely associated with Unwin.
Is the Free Church the only Grade I building in the circle?
It is the only Grade I list entry: the Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church. The NHLE dataset returns 128 entries inside the circle in all, 4 at Grade II* and 123 at Grade II, and one entry can cover several buildings.
Were most homes here built before or after 1940?
Before, on the VOA figures. In the six statistical areas used, the Council Tax stock of properties 2025 dates 43.9% of dwellings to 1900-1918 and 31.9% to 1919-1939, against 5.9% from 2000 onwards. Those LSOAs only approximate the circle, so a building's own date is still confirmed.
What does clay ground mean for a rendered semi-detached house?
London Clay is what BGS mapping at 1:50,000 shows at every one of the five sample points, with nothing recorded above it. Clay moves with the seasons, more so near trees, and white render can hide the cracks that movement leaves, so the render, any bays and the drains are looked at together.
Is any part of the circle in a river flood zone?
A small part, all of it river-related: Flood Zone 3 covers 2.5% of the circle and Flood Zone 2 covers 1.5% on the Environment Agency's planning map. Planning zones disregard defences and are drawn for areas rather than individual properties, so the GOV.UK flood risk service is the next check for a specific address.
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