SW8 5BY Wandsworth

Live postcode, introduced October 1985. Ward: Nine Elms. Region: London.

Streets

Council tax

What each band costs in Wandsworth in 2026-27: Band D £1,028 a year on average, including the police, fire and any county and parish charges.

ABCDEFGH
£685£800£914£1,028£1,257£1,485£1,714£2,056

Homes by band in the neighbourhood around this postcode: most are in band F (41% of about 2,520 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: no postcode centre in this postcode is in one.
  • Listed buildings within 100 m of this postcode: none.
  • Article 4 direction (removing permitted development rights): none recorded, though not every council has published theirs.
  • Tree preservation orders: none recorded, though not every council has published theirs.
  • Green belt: no.

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.

Flood risk

No address in this postcode is in an area at high, medium or low risk of flooding from rivers, the sea or surface water. The rest are in areas at very low risk: less than a 0.1% (1 in 1,000) chance a year.

Rivers and the sea alone: of the 32 homes the Environment Agency counts, 0 are in areas at high risk, 0 medium, 0 low and 32 very low.

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: the postcode centre is in flood zone 3. Zone 3 is a 1% (1 in 100) or greater annual chance of flooding from rivers, or 0.5% from the sea, ignoring defences.

Sources: 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.

Height above sea level

The postcode's 34 addresses are between 2 m and 4 m above sea level (3 m on average).

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 stationsVauxhall 16 million journeys in 2024–25590 m (0.4 miles)
Battersea Park 2.2 million journeys in 2024–251.4 km (0.9 miles)
Queenstown Road (Battersea) 806,000 journeys in 2024–251.5 km (0.9 miles)
Underground, metro or tramVauxhall Underground Station490 m (0.3 miles)
Nine Elms Underground Station500 m (0.3 miles)
Pimlico Underground Station580 m (0.4 miles)
Bus stops6 stops within 400 m (0.2 miles), 45 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest St George Wharf Pier Nine Elms60 m
Bus or coach stationVictoria Station1.7 km (1.1 miles)
Ferry terminalVauxhall St George Wharf Pier340 m
Car parks1 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Battersea Power Station Car Park790 m (0.5 miles)
EV charging points61 within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Shell Recharge340 m
Airport with scheduled flightsLondon City Airport LCY13.1 km (8.2 miles)
Nearest large airportLondon Heathrow Airport LHR22.9 km (14 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. 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 surgeries12 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Mawbey Group Practice670 m (0.4 miles)
Pharmacies23 pharmacies within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Medirex Pharmacy670 m (0.4 miles)
NHS dentists25 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Riverside Dental Spa340 m
HospitalThe Gordon Hospital1 km (0.6 miles)
Police stationClapham Police Station1.4 km (0.9 miles)
Cash machines1 machines within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Roadchef - Sedgemoor Services S/b, Rooks Bridge690 m (0.4 miles)

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 garden10 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Pimlico Gardens and Shrubbery 4,330 m²260 m
Largest park within 800 m (0.5 miles)Vauxhall Park 3.2 ha530 m (0.3 miles)
Play area16 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Unnamed 180 m²190 m
Playing fieldWestminster School Playing Field 3.7 ha1.1 km (0.7 miles)
AllotmentsUnnamed 1,020 m²910 m (0.6 miles)

Within 800 m (0.5 miles): 10 parks and gardens, 9.2 hectares in all.

Landmarks

The nearest historic landmark is Pimlico Gardens, a registered park or garden (Grade II), 270 m north-west. 156 listed buildings are within 1 km (0.6 miles), 2 of them Grade I and 20 of them Grade II*.

Historic places
NameWhat it isFrom the postcode's centre
Pimlico GardensRegistered park or garden, Grade II270 m north-west
Brunswick HouseListed building, Grade II*310 m east
St George's Square GardenRegistered park or garden, Grade II420 m (0.3 miles) north-west
Vauxhall BridgeListed building, Grade II*460 m (0.3 miles) north-east
Vauxhall BridgeListed building, Grade II*470 m (0.3 miles) north-east
Electricity Transformer StationListed building, Grade II*710 m (0.4 miles) north-west
The Jewel TowerScheduled monument1.6 km (1 mile) north
The Chapter House and Pyx Chamber in the abbey cloisters, Westminster AbbeyScheduled monument1.7 km (1 mile) north
Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's ChurchWorld Heritage Site1.7 km (1.1 miles) north
Natural landmarks within 5 km (3.1 miles)
NameWhat it isFrom the postcode's centre
Duck PondLake or reservoir1.6 km (1 mile) west
Ladies PondLake or reservoir1.8 km (1.1 miles) west
St James's Park LakeLake or reservoir2 km (1.3 miles) north
Chelsea ReachTidal water2.1 km (1.3 miles) west
Holly Grove ShrubberyWood4.4 km (2.7 miles) east
Knight's HillHill5 km (3.1 miles) south-east

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)24.54010
Fine particles (PM2.5)9.4205
Particles (PM10)16.04015

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
70 to 743400
60 to 64010
55 to 590330
Under 550034

34 of the postcode's 34 addresses are modelled at 55 dB or more from road traffic, and 34 from railways, above the WHO guidelines.

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: 260 residents in 139 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 age4340
Children under 155%17%
Aged 65 and over26%18%

Homes

Around this postcodeEngland
Owned (outright or with a mortgage)47%61%
Owned outright35%33%
Shared ownershipunder 1%1%
Social rented11%17%
Private rented41%21%

Work and commuting

Around this postcodeEngland
Adults (16 and over) in work58%57%
Unemployment (of those working or looking for work)7%6%
Retired (of adults)25%22%
Long-term sick or disabled (of adults)4%4%
Work mainly from home (of those in work)57%32%
Travel to work by car or van8%48%
By train, Underground, metro or tram13%4%
By any public transport, including bus23%8%
On foot or by bicycle12%10%
Work within 10 km (6 miles) of home (of those who travel to work)90%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)62%34%
No qualifications7%18%
Apprenticeship as highest qualification4%5%
Main language English (aged 3 and over)80%91%
Cannot speak English well or at all5%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 Battersea Park Road.