Houses in Acton are often large Victorian or Edwardian properties, many of which were converted into flats in the later 20th century. Houses tend to be found in Victorian enclaves between major roads or railway lines, rather than spreading right through the area. Its attractions are that it is quite close into London, and well served by transport links, and it has well regarded schools, including the Japanese school and King Fahad Academy.

Gunnersbury (a small area between Gunnersbury Lane, Uxbridge Road, and Gunnersbury Avenue) is an attractive area with large detached houses and gardens almost in Ealing. Gunnersbury Park is on the other side of Gunnersbury Avenue and it is close to Acton town tube station. Acton town on the other side of Gunnersbury Lane (also called South Acton) contains Edwardian houses in the Mill Hill Park conservation area. The South Acton estate is a large council estate.

North of the High Street is Acton Central (although the train station called Acton Central is some distance away to the Acton Central is the area between Hangar Lane Uxbridge Road and Horn Lane. This conservation area contains attractive family house. To the east near Horn Lane there is another group of attractive houses. It becomes less attractive as you go north towards the railway lines, but there are some 1930s houses in the streets just below the railway lines. Above the railway lines and you are into West Acton which contains the Hangar Hill Garden Estate, now a conservation area, built in the 1930s in mock Tudor style. But otherwise, this part of Acton is heavily chopped up by railway lines. Off Horn Lane is an area called Poets Corner because many of the streets are named after famous English poets. This area contains terraced houses in an attractive setting. Further north, above Eastern Avenue, come north Acton and East Acton which contains a smattering of nice period houses, but the area is generally commercial.

There is evidence that Acton has been inhabited for 12,000 years. ”Actun” was an old English name meaning “Settlement among the Oaks”. In the Middle Ages it was part of the manor of Fulham owned by the Church. In the 18th century, Acton was a health and leisure resort because of the local spa at Acton Wells. The original village was centred round St Mary’s Church on the Uxbridge Road, which was rebuilt in 1865-77. The areas was originally agricultural. But the introduction of the Paddington Canal in 1801 and various train lines during the 19th century brought increasing industrialisation and by the 1930s Acton had become the biggest industrial centre south of Coventry. In 1900 there were 205 laundries in South Acton which was known familiarly as “Soapsuds Island”. The Goldsmiths Company in London inherited most of East Acton in 1657 and held it for several centuries. Various members of the company have provided their names to local streets. There was also a golf course in East Acton which was buried under council housing in the 1920s but the street names there all commemorate golf in one way or another. Acton had a famous aerodrome in the early days of flight, and Great Western Railway built a garden village nearby in the 1920s.