SW1W 8JH Westminster

Live postcode, introduced June 1981. Ward: Knightsbridge & Belgravia. Region: London.

Streets

House prices and rents in Westminster

A typical home in Westminster cost £887,206 in August 2026, 14.3% less than a year before. That is 25% less than five years earlier and 15% less than ten years earlier.

HomeTypical price, Aug 2026
Detached£3,935,497
Semi-detached£2,810,593
Terraced£1,641,592
Flat or maisonette£784,694
Bought by a first-time buyer£791,770

Private renters in Westminster paid £3,209 a month on average in September 2026, 0.4% less than a year before. That is 36% more than five years earlier.

HomeAverage rent a month, Sep 2026
One bedroom£2,557
Two bedrooms£3,320
Three bedrooms£3,912
Four or more bedrooms£5,447

Sources: UK House Price Index (HM Land Registry, with the ONS and the Welsh Government), to August 2026; ONS Price Index of Private Rents, to September 2026. Figures for the whole council area. The typical price is adjusted for the mix of homes that sold, so it is not the value of any one home. Rents are the average paid on all private tenancies, new and existing, so they move more slowly than rents being advertised.

Council tax

What each band costs in Westminster in 2026-27: Band D £1,050 a year on average, including the police, fire and any county and parish charges.

ABCDEFGH
£700£816£933£1,050£1,283£1,516£1,749£2,099

Homes by band in the neighbourhood around this postcode: most are in band H (69% of about 1,130 homes).

Sources: Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties, homes at 31 March 2026 (counts rounded to the nearest 10), for the neighbourhood (census area of about 700 homes) around it, not just this postcode; Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, council tax levels 2026-27. Bands are charged as fixed shares of Band D; the actual bill depends on the parish and on discounts such as the single-person discount. Check a home's own band with the official council tax band checker.

Planning and heritage

  • Conservation area: yes, Belgravia (council page). Extensions, demolition, some windows and doors, and work on trees need consent.
  • Listed buildings within 100 m of this postcode: 16.
  • Article 4 direction (removing permitted development rights): Article 4 Basement Development Permitted Rights Removed.
  • Tree preservation orders: 3 protected trees within 100 m of this postcode.
  • Green belt: no.

Listed buildings

Brownfield land registered for housing within 1 km (0.6 miles)

Source: planning.data.gov.uk (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), compiled from councils and, for listed buildings, Historic England's National Heritage List. Conservation areas, Article 4 directions, tree preservation areas and the green belt are checked at each postcode's centre. Listed buildings and protected trees are counted within 100 m of this postcode. Councils publish Article 4 directions, tree preservation orders and brownfield registers to different standards, and some not yet. Planning applications are not here: there is no national open record of them yet.

Energy projects nearby

No wind turbine or waste plant within 5 km (3.1 miles), and no solar farm, battery site or other project of 1 MW or more within 2 km (1.2 miles), of the postcode, operating or planned.

Source: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Renewable Energy Planning Database, Q2 2026 extract, Open Government Licence: renewable electricity and storage projects over 150 kW, operating, being built, permitted or applied for. Shown: wind turbines and plants that burn or digest waste within 5 km (3.1 miles), other projects of 1 MW or more within 2 km (1.2 miles); refused, withdrawn and abandoned projects are left out. Distances are from the nearest postcode centre to each project's grid reference.

Flood risk

Rivers, the sea or surface water: in this postcode, 0 addresses are in areas at high risk, 0 at medium risk and 1 at low risk. Each address counts once, at the higher of its rivers-and-sea and surface-water risk.

Rivers and the sea alone: no home is in an area at risk.

High: 3.3% (1 in 30) or more chance of flooding a year. Medium: 1% to 3.3%. Low: 0.1% to 1%. Very low: under 0.1%. The rivers and sea figures allow for flood defences. Counts cover whole postcodes, which can include other streets.

Flood zone for planning: no postcode centre is in flood zone 2 or 3.

Recorded floods

No recorded flood covers the centre of this postcode.

Recorded floods are where floodwater was seen or surveyed after a flood. Many floods were never mapped, an outline over a postcode's centre does not mean every home in it flooded, and homes outside one may have. Ask the seller whether the home itself has flooded.

Sources: Environment Agency Recorded Flood Outlines; Environment Agency Flood risk: postcode search tool data (loaded 29 October 2026), Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea: postcodes in areas at risk (loaded 29 October 2026) and Flood Map for Planning (loaded 28 October 2026). Flood zones are checked at each postcode's centre point. These are models of areas, which their publishers say are not suitable for showing whether an individual property is at risk, and they do not cover flooding from sewers or drains. Check an address on the official long-term flood risk service.

© Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2026. All rights reserved. Some features are based on digital spatial data from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, © NERC (CEH); the postcode data is produced in part from PAF® and Multiple Residence Data, © Royal Mail Group Limited.

Coastal erosion

No projected coastal erosion zone is within 1 km (0.6 miles) of the postcode.

Sources: Environment Agency, National Coastal Erosion Risk Mapping 2024 (England), and Natural Resources Wales, National Coastal Erosion Risk Management (Wales), Open Government Licence. Distances are from the nearest postcode centre to the edge of each zone; where a postcode centre is inside a zone, some homes on it may not be.

Storm overflows

3 storm overflows within 1 km (0.6 miles) of the postcode spilled 7 times, for 9 hours in all, in 2025. They discharge into R.thames ( Tidal ), Thames Tidal.

OverflowIntoSpillsHoursDistance
Ranelagh Cso Thames Water R.thames ( Tidal ) 1 4 820 m (0.5 miles)
Smith Street Sr Cso Thames Water Thames Tidal 0 0 860 m (0.5 miles)
Smith Street Main Line Cso Thames Water R.thames ( Tidal ) 6 5 870 m (0.5 miles)

A storm overflow lets sewage diluted with rainwater into a river, stream or the sea when heavy rain overwhelms the sewers, so the spills here affect the water they run into, not homes. A spill is counted the regulators' way: a first 12 hours, then each 24 hours it goes on.

Source: Environment Agency, Event Duration Monitoring storm overflow annual return for 2025, from the water companies' monitors on each overflow in England, Open Government Licence. Distances are from the nearest postcode centre to each overflow's outlet. A year's figures are published the following spring; a monitor that worked for less of the year undercounts.

Coal mining

No postcode centre here is in a coalfield: the Mining Remediation Authority records no coal mining risk here.

Source: Mining Remediation Authority (formerly the Coal Authority), development high and low risk areas, Open Government Licence. Checked at each postcode's centre, so a home near the edge of an area may differ. It covers coal mining only, not other mining (such as tin, lead, iron or chalk), and is no substitute for a coal mining search. About the risk areas.

Radon

The postcode is in a 1 km square in the lowest band of radon potential: fewer than 1 home in 100 is estimated to be at or above the Action Level. It is not a radon Affected Area.

Source: British Geological Survey and UK Health Security Agency, Indicative Atlas of Radon in Great Britain, Open Government Licence. Contains British Geological Survey materials © UKRI 2026. Each 1 km square is classed by the highest radon potential found anywhere in it, so a square's figure can overstate it for much of the square; the detailed map is not open data.

Gas and electricity use

Homes with gas used 20,780 kWh of it on average in 2024, 46% more than the district's 14,270 kWh, and 5,603 kWh of electricity, about the same as the district. There are gas meters for about 92% of the homes.

These are all the homes on the postcode, whatever their size and however many live in them, so they show the kind of homes and heating here rather than what any one home uses. The typical figure is the median: half the homes used less. The district is SW1W.

Source: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, postcode level domestic gas and electricity statistics for 2024 (gas from mid-May to mid-May), Open Government Licence: domestic meters on each postcode, from the gas and electricity industry's meter readings. A postcode with fewer than 5 meters of a fuel has no figures for it.

Historic landfill

No historic landfill site is within 500 m (0.3 miles) of the postcode.

Sources: Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, historic landfill sites (places where waste was put into or onto the land and no environmental permit is now in force), Open Government Licence. Distances are from the nearest postcode centre to the edge of each site as mapped; the outlines and dates come from old records and can be approximate. Landfill still operating is not included.

Height above sea level

The postcode's addresses are about 7 m above sea level.

Source: Ordnance Survey, OS Terrain 50, July 2026: the height of the ground on a 50 m grid, read at each address, in metres above Ordnance Datum (mean sea level at Newlyn). It is the lie of the land, not floor or threshold levels, and is accurate to a few metres. Being low-lying is not in itself a flood risk; the flood section above says what the flood maps show.

Broadband

Superfast 100%, ultrafast 100%, gigabit 100% of premises; 0% cannot get 10 Mbit/s. Ofcom Connected Nations, data as at January 2026.

Getting around

Sources: Department for Transport, NaPTAN (every public transport stop), as at 31 October 2026; Office of Rail and Road, Estimates of station usage 2024–25 (which stations are on the National Rail network, and their journeys: entries and exits in the year to March); OurAirports (public domain, kept by volunteers); car parks and charging points from Overture Maps Foundation, release 2026-10-21.0, which gathers business listings from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and others: not an official register, so some will be missing, private or out of date. Distances are straight lines from the postcode's centre, not routes, and say nothing about how often anything runs. Stations opened since the end of ORR's year appear when ORR publishes the next one, each December; heritage railways are left out.

NearestDistance
Railway stationsLondon Victoria 54 million journeys in 2024–25720 m (0.4 miles)
Battersea Park 2.2 million journeys in 2024–251.7 km (1.1 miles)
Queenstown Road (Battersea) 806,000 journeys in 2024–252 km (1.2 miles)
Underground, metro or tramSloane Square Underground Station190 m
Victoria Underground Station870 m (0.5 miles)
Knightsbridge Underground Station1.2 km (0.7 miles)
Bus stops25 stops within 400 m (0.2 miles), 66 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Sloane Square200 m
Bus or coach stationVictoria Station720 m (0.4 miles)
Ferry terminalBattersea Power Station Pier1.1 km (0.7 miles)
Car parks5 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Ncp290 m
EV charging points64 within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Shell Recharge270 m
Airport with scheduled flightsLondon City Airport LCY14.6 km (9.1 miles)
Nearest large airportLondon Heathrow Airport LHR21.4 km (13 miles)

Local services

Sources: NHS Organisation Data Service, as at 31 October 2026: GP practices, community pharmacies and dental practices with an NHS contract, open now, each placed at the centre of its postcode; hospitals are NHS trust and Welsh health board sites named as hospitals, and may not have an emergency department. Ratings and care homes: Care Quality Commission, latest ratings as at 2 November 2026 (England only; the CQC does not rate dental practices, and Wales's inspectorates give no ratings). Police stations and cash machines from Overture Maps Foundation, release 2026-10-21.0, which gathers business listings: not an official register, so some will be missing or out of date. Distances are straight lines from the postcode's centre. Nothing here says whether a practice is taking new patients or a dentist new NHS patients.

NearestDistance
GP surgeries10 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Belgrave Medical Centre Good Jun 2026240 m
Pharmacies26 pharmacies within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Walden Chemists240 m
NHS dentists25 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Elizabeth Street Dentist250 m
HospitalLister Hospital Outstanding Mar 2024670 m (0.4 miles)
Care homes2 homes within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Garside House Nursing Home Good Oct 20221.5 km (0.9 miles)
Police stationPolice.uk320 m
Cash machines2 machines within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Cashpoint® 33-33A Kings Road Lloyds Bank550 m (0.3 miles)

Nurseries and childcare

The ten nearest nurseries, pre-schools and clubs are all within 740 m (0.5 miles); the nearest is 50 m from the postcode's centre.

ProviderKindPlacesLatest inspectionDistance
LondonSMP Belgravia School SW1W 8JF Out-of-school day care (over fives) Not inspected yet 50 m
Miss Daisy's Nursery School, Belgravia SW1W 9PY Sessional day care 60 Outstanding (Dec 2024, overall grade under the previous framework) 470 m (0.3 miles)
KIDS Chelsea Adventure Playground SW3 4SR Out-of-school day care (over fives) Not inspected yet 590 m (0.4 miles)
Bright Horizons Chelsea Day Nursery and Preschool SW1W 8QN Full day care 49 Good (Oct 2022, overall grade under the previous framework) 640 m (0.4 miles)
Miss Daisy's Nursery School, Knightsbridge SW3 2QF Sessional day care 65 Good (Nov 2024, overall grade under the previous framework) 680 m (0.4 miles)
Sparks Chelsea and Fulham SW1X 0AA Sessional day care (over fives) Not inspected yet 700 m (0.4 miles)
Richer Education Knightsbridge SW1X 0AA Out-of-school day care (over fives) Not inspected yet 700 m (0.4 miles)
Eaton Square Prep School Extended Club Premier F4F Group SW1V 1PH Out-of-school day care 30 Not inspected yet 710 m (0.4 miles)
The Knightsbridge Kindergarten SW1W 9AL Full day care 62 Outstanding (Feb 2024, overall grade under the previous framework) 730 m (0.5 miles)
Venture @ Wiltshire Close Adventure Playground SW3 2NS Full day care (over fives) Not inspected yet 740 m (0.5 miles)

Ofsted also registers 44 childminders and 23 home childcarers (nannies) in Westminster. It does not publish their addresses, so they cannot be shown here; the council's family information service lists those taking children.

Source: Ofsted, childcare providers and inspections management information, as at June 2026, Open Government Licence: providers on the Early Years and Childcare Registers on non-domestic premises, placed at their postcode. Since November 2025 Ofsted gives a standard for each of six areas (Exceptional, Strong, Expected, Needs attention, Urgent improvement) rather than one overall grade; older grades stand until a provider is inspected again. Distances are straight lines from the postcode's centre.

Parks and green space

Source: Ordnance Survey, OS Open Greenspace, April 2026: public parks and gardens, play spaces, playing fields and allotments, with their entrances. Distances are straight lines from the postcode's centre to a site's nearest entrance (or its edge where none is recorded), not walking routes; sizes are the area OS maps for each site. Some sites, such as school playing fields, may not be open to the public.

NearestDistance
Park or garden19 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Ebury Square Gardens 2,410 m²210 m
Largest park within 800 m (0.5 miles)Ranelagh Gardens 5.7 ha410 m (0.3 miles)
Play area7 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Unnamed 400 m²430 m (0.3 miles)
Playing field1 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Unnamed 1.6 ha610 m (0.4 miles)
AllotmentsUnnamed 760 m²2.3 km (1.4 miles)

Within 800 m (0.5 miles): 19 parks and gardens, 17 hectares in all.

Landmarks

The nearest historic landmark is Church of St Mary, a listed building (Grade II*), 40 m. 480 listed buildings are within 1 km (0.6 miles), 14 of them Grade I and 45 of them Grade II*.

Historic places
NameWhat it isFrom the postcode's centre
Church of St MaryListed building, Grade II*40 m
180, Ebury Street Sw1Listed building, Grade I120 m south-east
51-62, Eaton Square Sw1Listed building, Grade II*240 m north
Church of St BarnabasListed building, Grade I240 m south-east
The Grosvenor Estate: Chester SquareRegistered park or garden, Grade II430 m (0.3 miles) north-east
The Grosvenor Estate: Eaton SquareRegistered park or garden, Grade II430 m (0.3 miles) north
The Chapter House and Pyx Chamber in the abbey cloisters, Westminster AbbeyScheduled monument2 km (1.2 miles) north-east
Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's ChurchWorld Heritage Site2 km (1.3 miles) north-east
Natural landmarks within 5 km (3.1 miles)
NameWhat it isFrom the postcode's centre
Chelsea ReachTidal water1.1 km (0.7 miles) south-west
Duck PondLake or reservoir1.4 km (0.9 miles) south
Fountain LakeLake or reservoir1.4 km (0.9 miles) south
Ladies PondLake or reservoir1.5 km (1 mile) south
Ransome's DockLake or reservoir1.7 km (1 mile) south-west
Paddington GreenWood3.5 km (2.1 miles) north-west

Sources: Historic England's registers through planning.data.gov.uk (MHCLG), and Cadw through DataMapWales (Welsh Government): World Heritage Sites within 10 km (6.2 miles), battlefields within 5 km (3.1 miles), registered parks and gardens within 3 km (1.9 miles), scheduled monuments within 2 km (1.2 miles), and Grade I and II* listed buildings within 1 km (0.6 miles). Ordnance Survey, OS Open Names, October 2026: named hills, valleys, lakes, woods, wetlands and coast (it has no rivers). Distances are in a straight line to the middle of each site, and being on a register does not mean there is public access.

Air quality

Source: Defra, modelled background air pollution, annual means for 2024, for the 1 km square that holds the postcode's centre. These are background levels, away from the kerb: beside a busy road nitrogen dioxide in particular can be several times higher. UK limits are the legal annual limits for England and Wales; the World Health Organization's 2021 guidelines are much stricter, and most towns and cities are above them.

Annual means in µg/m³ (micrograms per cubic metre of air)
PollutantHereUK limitWHO guideline
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)24.74010
Fine particles (PM2.5)9.7205
Particles (PM10)16.44015

All three are within the UK legal limits; all three are above the WHO guideline, as in most towns and cities.

Road, rail and aircraft noise

Source: Defra, strategic noise mapping Round 4 (England), modelled for 2021 and published in December 2023, and its airport maps of the same round for the fifteen largest English airports, published in April 2026: Lden, the average sound level over a whole day with extra weight for the evening and night, on a 10 m grid, read at each address. These are models of traffic, not measurements; they leave out smaller airports and airfields, industry and neighbours, and a room at the back of a house is often much quieter than the front. The World Health Organization's guidelines are 53 dB for road traffic, 54 dB for railways and 45 dB for aircraft (below the lowest level shown here).

Addresses by modelled noise level (Lden, dB)
LevelRoad trafficRailwaysAircraft
Under 55141414

None of the postcode's 14 addresses is modelled at 55 dB or more from road traffic, railways or aircraft.

Road safety

Source: Department for Transport, road safety data (STATS19), collisions in 2021 to 2025, as published by November 2026. Collisions in which someone was hurt and which were reported to the police, within 250 m of the postcode's centre. Severity is the worst injury as the police recorded it.

35 collisions in which someone was hurt were reported around the postcode in 2021 to 2025: 0 fatal, 8 serious and 27 slight, in which 8 people were seriously hurt. 7 involved a pedestrian; 21 involved a cyclist; 5 involved a motorcyclist. 23% happened in the dark, and 9% on a wet or icy road. Most were on roads with a 20 mph limit.

By year
YearCollisionsFatal or serious
202162
202270
202340
202472
2025114
The most recent 10 of 35
DateSeverityWho was hurtRoadConditions
11 Dec 2025 18:00 Slight 1 person: 1 cyclist A3217, 20 mph Dark, street lights on, wet road
9 Dec 2025 16:05 Slight 1 person: 1 pedestrian A3214, 20 mph Dark, street lights on, wet road
12 Nov 2025 16:35 Slight 1 person: 1 cyclist A3214, 20 mph Daylight
8 Oct 2025 21:30 Slight 1 person: 1 cyclist A3217, 20 mph Dark, street lights on
11 Sep 2025 17:00 Slight 1 person: 1 cyclist A3214, 20 mph Daylight
12 May 2025 19:39 Serious 1 person: 1 cyclist A3214, 20 mph Daylight
8 May 2025 18:15 Serious 1 person: 1 cyclist A3214, 20 mph Daylight
5 Apr 2025 21:50 Slight 1 person: 1 motorcyclist A3217, 30 mph Daylight
16 Mar 2025 01:50 Slight 1 person Minor road, 20 mph Dark, street lights on
4 Mar 2025 15:35 Serious 1 person: 1 pedestrian A3217, 20 mph Daylight

Only collisions in which someone was hurt and which the police were told about are here: damage-only collisions and near misses are not, and some injuries are never reported. Positions are recorded by the police, usually to within a few metres. Each year's figures are published the following September.

Traffic on nearby roads

The busiest counted road within 500 m (0.3 miles) is the A3217 between A3216 and LA Boundary, with 16,650 motor vehicles a day on average in 2025, 210 m from the postcode.

RoadBetweenVehicles a dayLorriesTen years beforeDistance
A3217 A3216 to LA Boundary 16,650 counted 2025 1% -15% since 2015 210 m
A3216 B302 to A3217 11,422 counted 2025 2% -15% since 2015 280 m
A3214 B302 to A3213 10,265 estimated; counted 2018 2% -20% since 2015 330 m
A3217 LA Boundary to Ecclestone St 16,650 counted 2025 1% -15% since 2015 360 m
A3216 LA Boundary to B302 9,482 estimated; counted 2021 4% -18% since 2015 400 m (0.2 miles)
A3213 Hobart Place to A3214 6,958 estimated; counted 2020 3% -33% since 2015 450 m (0.3 miles)

Each figure is the annual average daily flow: the motor vehicles passing the count point, both ways, on an average day of the year. A point is counted by hand on a weekday every few years and estimated from the trend on similar roads in between. Lorries are heavy goods vehicles, as a share of all motor vehicles.

Source: Department for Transport, road traffic statistics, annual average daily flows to 2025, Open Government Licence. Distances are from the nearest postcode centre to each count point.

Climate, daylight and earthquakes

Monthly temperatures and rainfall, sunrise and sunset through the year, and earthquakes recorded nearby since 1970 are much the same across the area, so they are worked out once for Westminster: see them on the Westminster page.

People and work

Source: ONS Census 2021, taken on 21 March 2021, for the Output Area (a small census area of about 125 households) that this postcode is in: 311 residents in 136 households. The census was taken during a lockdown, so working from home is high and travel to work low compared with now. ONS swaps a few records between neighbouring areas and adds small amounts of noise to counts to protect privacy, so small differences mean little. Industry is not published for areas this small.

Who lives here

Around this postcodeEngland
Median age3840
Children under 1513%17%
Aged 65 and over15%18%

Homes

Around this postcodeEngland
Owned (outright or with a mortgage)54%61%
Owned outright39%33%
Shared ownership0%1%
Social rented4%17%
Private rented42%21%

Work and commuting

Around this postcodeEngland
Adults (16 and over) in work52%57%
Unemployment (of those working or looking for work)7%6%
Retired (of adults)12%22%
Long-term sick or disabled (of adults)under 1%4%
Work mainly from home (of those in work)68%32%
Travel to work by car or van4%48%
By train, Underground, metro or tram9%4%
By any public transport, including bus10%8%
On foot or by bicycle14%10%
Work within 10 km (6 miles) of home (of those who travel to work)87%65%
Work 30 km (19 miles) or more away0%8%

Education and languages

Around this postcodeEngland
Degree or other higher qualification, Level 4+ (of adults)70%34%
No qualifications5%18%
Apprenticeship as highest qualificationunder 1%5%
Main language English (aged 3 and over)80%91%
Cannot speak English well or at all1%2%

Deprivation

The neighbourhood around this postcode is in decile 8 of 10 on the English Indices of Deprivation 2025, where 1 is the most deprived tenth of England's 33,755 neighbourhoods and 10 the least.

Source: English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), by LSOA (about 1,500 people), through the ONS Postcode Directory. The index combines income, employment, health, education, crime, housing and living environment; it ranks areas against each other and does not describe any one household. Ranks in England and Wales are worked out separately and cannot be compared.

The full dossier for this postcode's main street is on Graham Terrace.