Chelsea Harbour is a riverside development of the 1980s which took advantage of an abandoned harbour to create an arena with residential mansion blocks and one tower block. It carries the Chelsea name, but is in fact in Fulham. Lots Road and its power station which may be developed in the near future. Between Lots Road and Kings Road there are a collection of red brick workmen’s cottages. Next to Chelsea Harbour on the West is an area called Sands End. This has now been almost completely redeveloped as the Imperial Wharf development, which will even overshadow Chelsea Harbour as a residential complex by the time it is fully occupied. One particular problem of this area is transport, since the tube line is already overloaded.

The streets on either side of Wandsworth Bridge Road are part of a conservation area known as the Peterborough Estate. The estate was constructed by J. Nicholls. On the west side of Wandsworth Bridge Road, between South Park and Kings Road as far west as Peterborough Road, the estate has large red brick Victorian terraced houses. These are the streets south off New King’s Road from Perrymead Street to Peterborough Road. The estate also extends on the east side of Wandsworth Bridge Road as far as Bagley’s Lane. Between Imperial Wharf and Wandsworth Bridge Road, near the river, are some streets of late Victorian terraces, such as Stevendale Road and the roads off it. They are lately Victorian terraced houses. This is below the Peterborough Estate and the streets near the estate are built in similar style.

West of the Peterborough Estate and south of new Kings Road is the Hurlingham conservation area, containing the Hurlingham Club and Park. Streets include Napier Avenue, Ranelagh Avenue and Gardens, and Hurlingham Gardens on the west side of the Park towards Putney Bridge, with some streets running up to New Kings Road. The houses are mainly large detached and semi-detached houses from the late Victorian era. There are some mansion blocks as well, and also new developments from the late 20th century in some places. Moving on round the river past Putney Bridge, you find Bishop’s Park and its conservation area between Fulham Palace Road and Stevenage Road near the river. The streets of the conservation area include Woodlawn Road and the streets running across it to Fulham Palace Road such as Inglethorpe Street and Doneraile Street. These are mainly late Victorian terraced and semi-detached houses in tree-lined roads, not necessarily as big as those in the Hurlingham area. On the river bank itself there are various apartment blocks, many constructed in the 1970s, but with some very recent prestigious ones, with views across the river to the wildlife sanctuary in Barnes.

Parsons Green takes in Kings Road and Fulham Road and goes up as far north as Bishops Road. Streets such as Delvino Road and Crondace Road in the area just west of Walham Green contain terraces of Victorian houses from the 1890s, many with bay windows. Many of the streets between Kings Road and Bishops Road, such as Whittingstall Street and St Maur Road, contain larger Victorian houses.

North of the Fulham Road, the streets around Dawes Road (extending from Bishops Road to Lillie Road) are packed full of medium sized terraced houses built at the end of the Victorian and into the Edwardian era. The more attractive properties are to the south in streets such as Brookville Road, Rosaville Road and Parkville Road

On the other side of North End Road is Fulham Broadway, also known as Walham Green, although what remains of the green is called Eel Brook Common. There are large Victorian houses here and Walham Grove itself is a conservation area. The houses are generally in terraces built in the 1860s. Seagrave Road and Brompton Park Crescent are the limits of this area. Beyond are the railway lines and the Chelsea football ground. On the other side of Fulham Road lies Moore Park Road and streets crossing it as far as King’s Road. There is a variety of Victorian houses, from mid to late period, including terraces and detached houses. Although these are very close to Chelsea football ground, they are physically separated from the roads approaching the club.

The name is supposed to have come from Fulla, an Anglo-Saxon owner of the area, and meant Fulla’s Settlement. There were several villages which gradually got merged into Fulham – Fulham Town, Parsons Green, Walham Green, North End and Sands End. In the 18th century, there was a large number of market gardens and nurseries in the area. Fulham was also the home of some rich Londoners, who mainly lived in Parsons Green which was considered to be the posh part of Fulham. Walham Green, the area round Fulham Broadway, was the location of the local stocks and a whipping post. The Bishop of London traditionally had his home at Fulham Palace. King’s Road which runs from Eaton Square to Fulham was originally a private royal road which Charles II used to reach his palace at Hampton Court. It was only allowed to be used by the public in 1830. Fulham was largely developed into working-class housing in the 19th century, although the Fulham Palace Road area still contained market gardens until the early 20th century. Large gasworks were created near the river in the 20th century and Sands End was created with rows of workers’ cottages for the people who worked at the gasworks.

Earls Court Square is symbolic of the whole area - with large houses converted into flats during the last century. It is surrounded by crescents containing large properties backing onto communal gardens, also converted into flats. These include Eardley Crescent, Kempsford Gardens and (further north) Philbeach Gardens. Between Warwick Road and Earls Court Road is the area of Nevern Square, Nevern Place and other desirable residential streets above Trebovir Road. The large properties here were converted into hotels in the mid- 20th century, but have now mainly been turned into flats. There are also some original Victorian mansion blocks. On the other side of Earls Court Road heading towards Collingham Road, popular residential streets such as Bramham Gardens and Barkston Gardens contain mainly red-brick Victorian buildings, often surrounding private garden squares. There are also enclaves of stucco-faced houses in Courtfield Gardens and nearby streets.

South of Old Brompton Road, the area west of the Little Boltons is also considered part of Earls Court nowadays. There are large terraced houses divided into flats in this area, which includes attractive streets such as Redcliffe Square and the very large mansion block, Coleherne Court.

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.

Acton Green has a claim to be inside Chiswick - it has the W4 postal code – and houses there are often described by estate agents’ particulars as being in “Chiswick Park”, after the local tube station. The area is divided from the main part of Acton by the railway lines and Acton Green extends roughly to St Albans Avenue in the east. The properties in the area was mostly built in the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras. Apart from the original houses, there have been a number of new mews developments in recent years. In contrast to neighbouring Bedford Park, many of the terraced properties have been converted into flats. Some of the streets are very close to the railway lines, but that does not stop flats there being popular. There are also a few mansion blocks and individual new houses. Acton Lane is the spine of the area off which the streets of Acton Green run east and west. To the east are roads such as Kingscote Road and Savile Road. To the west is Church Path and roads off it such as Rothschild Road and Antrobus Road. Near the railway lines there are some converted warehouses, and “Chiswick View” is a block of flats created out of a former transformer station. There are modern mews developments off Church Path.

Possibly the best residential area in Balham is the so-called Nightingale Triangle — the streets between Nightingale Lane, Balham High Road, and the railway lines. The centre is Nightingale Square which contains large Victorian houses. Ramsden Road runs down through the centre of the triangle and divides it in half. It contains Victorian terraces. On the west side of Ramsden Road there are attractive Victorian terraces in streets such as Ravenslea Road, Mayford Road, Chestnut Grove, and the roads off them. To the east of Ramsden Road, there are smaller cottages in roads like Bellamy Street, Pickets Street and Temperley Road.

The roads from Balham High Road east to Cavendish Road contain many attractive period terraces. Yukon and Dinsmore Roads are in a conservation area, as are Old Devonshire Road and Old Balham Road. Beyond Cavendish Road is the Hyde Farm estate between Hydethorpe Road and Tooting Common as far as Redbourne Road. The houses here are almost identical terraces of medium-sized red-brick Victorian houses.

Between Bedford Hill and Tooting Common there are attractive houses in Culverden Road, which borders the Common. There is more mixed housing between Balham High Road and Bedford Hill. Between Balham High Road and Trinity Road is another desirable residential area. St James’s Drive has large houses overlooking Wandsworth Common. Balham Park Road contains the largest and possibly the most expensive Victorian houses in Balham. This is also an area for mansion blocks. Du Cane Court on Balham High Road is a huge 1930s block. Other roads such as Cecil and Marius Roads also contain mansion blocks.

Castelnau runs from Upper Richmond Road and becomes Rocks Lane on the way. At the top it branches left to form Lonsdale Road which runs along the Thames bank towards Barnes Bridge. These streets have huge detached and semi-detached mentions set well back from the road behind gardens and driveways. At the Hammersmith Bridge end there are Edwardian mansion blocks in Riverview Gardens and Clavering Avenue. The streets between Lonsdale Road and Castelnau contain family houses from the Victorian and Edwardian eras through to the 1930s. They include streets such as Nassau Road, Westmoreland Road and Kitson Road. On the east side of Castelnau is the former waterworks which has been converted into the Barnes Waterside estate. Part of the site is now a large nature reserve. Nearby is another new estate, Harrods Village, containing houses and flats in the former Harrods warehouse.

The original Barnes village is in the area below Church Road. Piper Road and neighbouring streets towards Barnes Common contain Victorian houses in Gothic style. Station Road leading from the village pond to the railway station contains Victorian terraces and workers cottages, as well as large Victorian mansions. Towards the railway lines, there are Victorian and early 20th-century semi-detached houses in Cleveland Road and Brookwood Avenue. By the river, The Terrace contains beautiful Georgian houses. On the other side of the Barnes Bridge, Elm Bank Gardens has more Georgian houses as well as an Edwardian mansion block called Elm Bank Mansions.

Inland from the river, there are small cottages in Charles Street, Thorne Street, Archway Street and Westfields Avenue which were originally constructed for local brewery workers. This area is called Little Chelsea because the houses are similar to mews houses across the river.

Battersea is the trendy end of Wandsworth. It has always been popular as a cheaper alternative to Chelsea a short walk across the river. But in recent years its status as a residential area has been enhanced by the transformation of the old commercial river front into a highly desirable new residential area. All along the river front dramatic new blocks of flats have sprung up and former warehouses have been converted. Battersea is an area of contrasting neighbourhoods. As well as the new riverside, Battersea offers Edwardian mansion blocks around the park, and a large area of solid Victorian houses. The drawbacks are that there is no tube link and traffic is congested, but Clapham Junction provides train services in central London.

Nearly all of Battersea’s river front has been turned into new flats. One of the earliest development was Plantation Wharf, near Wandsworth Bridge. On Vicarage Crescent near the river in the west is Valiant House, a 1970s mansion block and an original riverside block. Many other developments have been constructed between Wandsworth Bridge and Battersea Power Station in recent years; these are some of the more prominent examples. Montevetro, Lord Rogers’ glass wedge, towers over the original village church, St Mary’s, near Battersea Bridge. More new blocks, such as Lord Foster’s Albion Wharf overlooks the Thames on Hester Road between Battersea Bridge and Albert Bridge. Waterside Point is in this area too. Battersea Park takes up most of the land between Albert Bridge and Chelsea Bridge and runs right to the river’s edge so there is no development there. But between Chelsea Bridge and the rail bridge is Chelsea Bridge Wharf, a Berkeley Homes’ development. Beyond Chelsea Bridge and Queenstown Road is Battersea Power Station, yet to be developed.

Battersea Park has long been popular for its mansion flats. Prince of Wales Drive on the south side Battersea Park is lined with Victorian mansion blocks such as York Mansions, Overstrand, and Cyril Mansions. Parallel streets behind Prince of Wales Drive – Lurline Gardens and Warriner Gardens – contain similar mansion blocks, but there are houses too. There are more mansion blocks lining Albert Bridge Road, such as Albert and Albany.

Battersea also contains large tracts of Victorian houses. On either side of Queenstown Road there is a conservation area called the Park Town Estate, and also known as the “Diamond” to local estate agents. This contains mainly small mid-Victorian terraced houses. Further west, back towards Latchmere Road, is the Shaftesbury Estate consisting of working men’s cottages built in the Gothic style of the late Victorian era.

Between Clapham Common Northside and Cedars Road there are streets of late Victorian terraced houses known as “The Northside Square” with two and three-storey houses, and some larger houses now mainly converted into flats. There are more Victorian houses and some Edwardian houses in the streets below St John’s Hill and blocks of flats in the streets off Lavender Sweep. Northcote Road runs south from Battersea Rise to Thurleigh Road. This area is called “Between the Commons” - Clapham Common and Wandsworth Common. Here there is a large lattice-work of streets containing terraces of late Victorian and Edwardian houses. The streets nearest Nightingale Lane form part of the Broomwood House Estate. The largest houses are in Bolingbroke Drive which runs along the edge of Wandsworth Common.

There are smaller caches of houses nearer Battersea village and the river. Off Falcon Road is “Little India” - a group of Victorian terraces with street names from the Raj such as Khyber Road and Cabul Road. There is a group of streets called “the Sisters” off Shuttleworth Road (so named because some of them have women’s names, such as Octavia Street and Ursula Street). A conservation area at West Bridge Road contains attractive Victorian houses. Battersea Village is a pre-War flat development near Vicarage Crescent.

Bayswater has the advantage that it is very close to the West End and Central London, and has the largest expanse of parkland in London right across the road. It is more sedate than Notting Hill. Whether that is an advantage or disadvantage is a matter of taste. Bayswater is roughly defined by the W2 postcode. Bayswater is sandwiched between Westway in the North and Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens in the South, and runs from Notting Hill as far east as Edgware Road.

The jewel in the crown is the Hyde Park Estate which is roughly the triangle of streets between Sussex Gardens Edgware Road and Bayswater Road. This is an estate developed by the Bishop of London in the 19th century; the freeholders are now the Church Commissioners. It was originally called Tyburnia - name which is coming back into use. This estate contains mainly Regency houses in stucco faced terraces. There are a few modern houses but they have been inserted tastefully. Gloucester Square contains some of the grandest houses, along with Hyde Park Gardens which has its own substantial communal gardens right opposite Hyde Park. Sussex Square and Connaught Square also contain beautiful terraces of Regency houses. Many of the original houses were long ago converted into flats. The estate was built with mews behind the grand houses and very attractive mews houses are to be found in Hyde Park Garden Mews, Albion Mews and Albion Close. (The area further north from Sussex Gardens, up to Praed Street, falls into Paddington.)

Moving further west along the Bayswater Road, the area between Paddington Station and Queensway, there are a series of long streets running from Bishops Bridge Road to Bayswater Road which still have original large Victorian houses. Inverness Terrace and Gloucester Terrace contain large stucco fronted houses, mainly divided into flats. Many of the houses became hotels in the mid-20th century, as in Westbourne Terrace for example, but now they are gradually being converted back into private homes. Between Inverness Terrace and Gloucester Terrace at the top near Bishops Bridge Road is Hallfield Estate, a large council estate with tower blocks surrounded by gardens. Below the Hallfield Estate and off Gloucester Terrace, is a cluster of smaller streets also containing attractive stucco faced houses from the Victorian era. Further south, below Craven Road, everything is on a smaller scale with a series of attractive mews leading down to Lancaster Gate. Lancaster Gate and Portchester Terrace contain some of the most attractive houses in the area.

On the west side of Queensway are streets which ultimately merge into Notting Hill. These streets similarly contain attractive stucco fronted houses, many of them five storeys high, which were converted into flats in the 1980s. Much of this area was laid out in large squares, such as Leinster Square, Kensington Gardens Square and Princes Square. There are also a number of mansion blocks. Westbourne Grove is now a fashionable street for shops and restaurants. Over the other side of Westbourne Grove towards Royal Oak tube station, are more squares with flats. The housing here is more varied. There are detached villas on a grand scale as well as apartment blocks in Westbourne Park Road. Alexander Street contains houses which are still family homes for the most part.

The various streets of Bedford Park contain about 400 houses. There are some very large detached houses with up to seven bedrooms, and also terraces of smaller houses, right down to workers’ cottages. Very few of the houses have been turned into flats, and there has been a tendency in recent years to convert those that were flats back into single houses. St James’s Court in Bedford Road is a more modern flat development. Saint Catherine’s Court is a block of flats dating from the pre-War period.

Estate agents refer to “Bedford Park borders” or “West Bedford Park”, to try to include nearby streets within the cachet of Bedford Park proper. Such streets include the little roads between Bath Road and Flanders Road, such as Gainsborough Road and Lonsdale Road. There are later houses and mansion blocks in the streets north of Blenheim Road. The streets running west from the Park towards Acton Lane also contain similar houses which are not part of the Park itself.