Hill Close Harpenden, St Albans

25 addresses across 2 postcodes (AL5), about 150 m long, classed as a local road. USRN 37308521.

  • Sales: 14 recorded sales since 1995; in 2020 the median was £314,500 across 2 sales.
  • Energy: 23 homes have an energy certificate (C: 15, D: 4, E: 4).
  • Flood: 3 addresses on its postcodes are in areas at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers, the sea or surface water.
  • Council tax: Most homes around it are in council tax band D; Band D in St Albans costs £2,419 a year in 2026-27.
  • Broadband: Gigabit broadband is available to 100% of premises.
  • Transport: The nearest railway station is Harpenden, about 1.5 km (0.9 miles) away in a straight line.
  • Green space: There is a small park or garden about 180 m away, and Batford Springs Local Nature Reserve (5.9 hectares) is about 550 m (0.3 miles) away.
  • Air: Background air pollution in 2024 was 9.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.3 of PM2.5, within UK legal limits.
  • Height: Its addresses are 97 to 101 m above sea level.
  • Noise: 1 of its 25 addresses is modelled at 55 dB or more from road traffic.
  • Doctors: The nearest GP surgery is Elms Medical Practice, about 1.1 km (0.7 miles) away, with 2 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile).
  • People: About 260 people lived in the census areas around it in 2021; 41% of households owned their home and 32% of adults held a degree or other higher qualification.
  • Crime: 136 crimes were recorded within 250 m between September 2025 and August 2026, most often anti-social behaviour.

Sales on this street

Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, sales registered up to 28 August 2026, loaded 28 October 2026. Sales reach the register two weeks to two months after completion, so the last two months are incomplete. Matched by postcode and street name.

Sales by year (standard sales only; repossessions and buy-to-let transfers excluded)
YearSalesMedian priceLowestHighest
20202£314,500£264,000£365,000
20161£650,000£650,000£650,000
20102£181,250£175,000£187,500
20092£186,000£182,000£190,000
20063£160,000£146,000£160,000
20042£141,500£120,000£163,000
20011£89,950£89,950£89,950
20001£91,000£91,000£91,000
Most recent sales (14)
DateAddressTypePriceNotes
3 Aug 202023 AL5 5JEFlat or maisonette£264,000Leasehold.
31 Jul 202022 AL5 5JEFlat or maisonette£365,000Leasehold.
12 Feb 2016APRIL HOUSE, 25 AL5 5JEDetached£650,000New build.
19 Nov 201023 AL5 5JEFlat or maisonette£175,000Leasehold.
19 Apr 201021 AL5 5JEFlat or maisonette£187,500Leasehold.
11 Dec 200922 AL5 5JEFlat or maisonette£190,000Leasehold.
10 Dec 200924 AL5 5JEFlat or maisonette£182,000Leasehold.
26 Oct 200621 AL5 5JEFlat or maisonette£160,000Leasehold.
16 Jun 200622 AL5 5JEFlat or maisonette£146,000Leasehold.
9 Feb 200623 AL5 5JEFlat or maisonette£160,000Leasehold.
29 Oct 20042 AL5 5JEFlat or maisonette£120,000Leasehold.
2 Sep 200424 AL5 5JEFlat or maisonette£163,000New build. Leasehold.
10 Apr 200123 AL5 5JEFlat or maisonette£89,950Leasehold.
15 Nov 200023 AL5 5JEFlat or maisonette£91,000Leasehold.

Energy performance certificates

Source: Energy Performance of Buildings Register (MHCLG), register as at 1 November 2026. Latest certificate per address; certificates last ten years, so the oldest here dates from November 2008 and some homes have none. Address data © Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail, shown for understanding the energy efficiency of buildings only.

23 homes with a current certificate; median floor area 47 m². Most common: Flat (20); Maisonette, semi-detached (2); Maisonette, end-terrace (1). Built: 1950-1966 (21); 1967-1975 (2). Tenure at assessment: rented (social) (19); owner-occupied (2).

Each home's certificates and sales (2 addresses)

Council tax

What each band costs in St Albans in 2026-27: Band D £2,419 a year on average, including the police, fire and any county and parish charges.

ABCDEFGH
£1,613£1,882£2,150£2,419£2,957£3,494£4,032£4,838

Homes by band in the neighbourhood around this street: most are in band D (58% of about 670 homes).

Sources: Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties, homes at 31 March 2026 (counts rounded to the nearest 10; some small counts withheld), for the neighbourhood (census area of about 700 homes) around it, not just this street; 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 street's postcodes is in one.
  • Listed buildings on or by this street: 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 on or by this street. 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.

Roadworks

No street works under way, planned or finished in the last three months on this street, in permits up to 31 October 2026.

Source: Department for Transport, Street Manager open data, permits and works up to 31 October 2026. It is published once a month, so works arranged or started since then are not shown, and dates are the ones planned unless the works have started or finished. Emergency works are often permitted after they begin.

Flood risk

Rivers, the sea or surface water: in this street's postcodes, 0 addresses are in areas at high risk, 3 at medium risk and 3 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 on this street is in flood zone 2 or 3.

PostcodePlanning zoneAddresses at high / medium / low riskGroundwater
AL5 5JEnot in 2 or 3 0 / 3 / 3 unlikely
AL5 5JDnot in 2 or 3 0 / 0 / 0 unlikely

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.

© 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.

Height above sea level

The street's 25 addresses are between 97 m and 101 m above sea level (98 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

Source: Ofcom Connected Nations, data as at January 2026. Percentages are of premises in each postcode that can get the service, not take-up or speed achieved.

Availability by postcode (% of premises)
PostcodeSuperfast (30 Mbit/s+)Ultrafast (300 Mbit/s+)GigabitBelow 10 Mbit/s
AL5 5JD100%100%100%0%
AL5 5JE100%100%100%0%

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 middle of the street, 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 stationsHarpenden 2.8 million journeys in 2024–251.5 km (0.9 miles)
Luton Airport Parkway 4.7 million journeys in 2024–256.3 km (3.9 miles)
Luton 3.7 million journeys in 2024–257.9 km (4.9 miles)
Bus stops13 stops within 400 m (0.2 miles), 43 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Willow Way Batford70 m
Bus or coach stationAirport Bus Station Luton Airport6.2 km (3.9 miles)
Car parksNCP1.4 km (0.9 miles)
EV charging points1 within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Apcoa Charging Station1.4 km (0.9 miles)
Airport with scheduled flightsLondon Luton Airport LTN5.6 km (3.5 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 middle of the street. Nothing here says whether a practice is taking new patients or a dentist new NHS patients.

NearestDistance
GP surgeries2 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Elms Medical Practice1.1 km (0.7 miles)
Pharmacies4 pharmacies within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Boots1.5 km (0.9 miles)
NHS dentists6 practices within 1.6 km (1 mile); nearest Special Care Dental1.1 km (0.7 miles)
HospitalHarpenden Memorial Hospital1.1 km (0.7 miles)
Police stationHarpenden Police Station1.5 km (0.9 miles)
Cash machines1 machines within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest The Cooperative Food Batford, Batford100 m

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 middle of the street 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 garden2 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Unnamed 1,180 m²180 m
Largest park within 800 m (0.5 miles)Batford Springs Local Nature Reserve 5.9 ha550 m (0.3 miles)
Play area3 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Porters Hill Play Area 2,280 m²320 m
Playing field3 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Porters Hill Park 1.5 ha290 m
Allotments6 within 800 m (0.5 miles); nearest Riverside Allotments 7,360 m²240 m

Within 800 m (0.5 miles): 2 parks and gardens, 6.0 hectares in all.

Landmarks

3 listed buildings are within 1 km (0.6 miles).

Natural landmarks within 5 km (3.1 miles)
NameWhat it isFrom the middle of the street
Holcroft's SpringWood780 m (0.5 miles) north-east
Sauncey WoodWood850 m (0.5 miles) north-east
The OsiersWood880 m (0.5 miles) north-west
Bower HeathWood1.2 km (0.7 miles) north
Westfield WoodWood1.2 km (0.7 miles) west
Lydekker PondLake or reservoir1.4 km (0.9 miles) south-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 middle of the street. 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)9.54010
Fine particles (PM2.5)7.3205
Particles (PM10)11.64015

All three are within the UK legal limits; PM2.5 is 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
55 to 59100
Under 55242525

1 of the street's 25 addresses is modelled at 55 dB or more from road traffic, above the WHO guidelines.

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 St Albans: see them on the St Albans page.

Nearest schools

Source: Get Information About Schools (Department for Education), 3 November 2026; Ofsted monthly management information as at September 2026. Distances are straight lines from the middle of the street to the school; catchments and admissions are not shown. Since November 2025 Ofsted gives report-card grades by area, not one overall grade; older grades stand until a school is re-inspected.

SchoolPhaseAgesDistanceInspection
Batford Nursery SchoolNursery3–5330 m No published inspection
Sauncey Wood Primary SchoolPrimary4–11360 m No overall grade (May 2025, graded inspection without an overall judgement): Quality of education: Good; Behaviour and attitudes: Good; Personal development: Good; Leadership and management: Good
Sir John Lawes SchoolSecondary11–18530 m (0.3 miles) Outstanding (Mar 2023, overall grade under the previous framework)
Manland Primary SchoolPrimary4–11540 m (0.3 miles) No published inspection
Katherine Warington SchoolSecondary11–19790 m (0.5 miles) Good (Feb 2024, overall grade under the previous framework)
The Lea Primary School and NurseryPrimary3–11850 m (0.5 miles) No overall grade (Oct 2024, graded inspection without an overall judgement): Quality of education: Outstanding; Behaviour and attitudes: Outstanding; Personal development: Outstanding; Leadership and management: Outstanding
St George's School ChristianSecondary11–18940 m (0.6 miles) No overall grade (Mar 2025, graded inspection without an overall judgement): Quality of education: Outstanding; Behaviour and attitudes: Outstanding; Personal development: Outstanding; Leadership and management: Outstanding
Crabtree Junior SchoolPrimary7–111.2 km (0.7 miles) Outstanding (Nov 2023, overall grade under the previous framework)
Crabtree Infants' SchoolPrimary4–71.2 km (0.8 miles) Outstanding (Feb 2024, overall grade under the previous framework)
Harpenden AcademyPrimary4–111.4 km (0.9 miles) No published inspection
High Beeches Primary SchoolPrimary5–111.5 km (0.9 miles) No published inspection
St Nicholas CofE VA Primary School Church of EnglandPrimary4–111.6 km (1 mile) No published inspection

Food hygiene ratings nearby

Source: Food Standards Agency, Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, extract of 3 November 2026. Each rating is shown with the date it was given; a business may have been re-inspected since the extract. Within 500 m (0.3 miles) of the middle of the street.

BusinessTypeDistanceRatingRated
Kingfish AL5 5HATakeaway/sandwich shop50 m4 Good24 Jan 2026
Co-op Food Batford AL5 5HARetailers - other50 m5 Very good14 Nov 2024
HCL Catering @ Katherine Warington School AL5 5FHSchool/college/university110 m5 Very good30 Jun 2026
Cosmos Kindergarten AL5 4UNHospitals/Childcare/Caring Premises190 m5 Very good16 Sep 2026
Tesco Express AL5 5ALRetailers - supermarkets/hypermarkets210 m4 Good30 Mar 2026
The Malta AL5 5AHPub/bar/nightclub250 m5 Very good14 Mar 2024
Scarlett's Kitchen AL5 5AHRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen270 m5 Very good2 Jun 2026
Balti Village AL5 5AJTakeaway/sandwich shop370 m5 Very good17 Dec 2025
Skylarks Day Care AL5 5BQHospitals/Childcare/Caring Premises400 m (0.2 miles)5 Very good30 Aug 2024
Batford Day Care Limited AL5 5BQHospitals/Childcare/Caring Premises400 m (0.2 miles)5 Very good23 Feb 2026
Lea Grange Care Home AL5 4UNHospitals/Childcare/Caring Premises410 m (0.3 miles)5 Very good27 Apr 2026
The Cherry Tree @ The Malta AL5 5AHRestaurant/Cafe/Canteen440 m (0.3 miles)5 Very good9 Mar 2026
Gibraltar Castle AL5 5AHPub/bar/nightclub440 m (0.3 miles)5 Very good30 Apr 2025
Amble Inn AL5 4ULPub/bar/nightclub500 m (0.3 miles)5 Very good28 Mar 2025

Crime within 250 m

Source: data.police.uk street-level crime, September 2025 to August 2026. Police forces move every crime to the nearest of about 760,000 anonymised map points before publishing, so these are crimes near this street, not on it, and a busy point can collect crimes from a wider area. Counts are of records, not convictions.

136 recorded crimes by category
CategoryCrimes
Anti-social behaviour50
Violence and sexual offences39
Criminal damage and arson14
Vehicle crime11
Other theft9
Shoplifting4
Public order2
Drugs2
Burglary1
Possession of weapons1
Other crime1
Bicycle theft1
Theft from the person1

Most of these are attached to: On or near Lea Business Park (31); On or near Willow Way (22); On or near Hill Close (22); On or near Pickford Hill (15); On or near Supermarket (12).

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 street's postcodes are in: 258 residents in 126 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 streetEngland
Median age3740
Children under 1521%17%
Aged 65 and over11%18%

Homes

Around this streetEngland
Owned (outright or with a mortgage)41%61%
Owned outright22%33%
Shared ownershipunder 1%1%
Social rented44%17%
Private rented15%21%

Work and commuting

Around this streetEngland
Adults (16 and over) in work62%57%
Unemployment (of those working or looking for work)8%6%
Retired (of adults)13%22%
Long-term sick or disabled (of adults)4%4%
Work mainly from home (of those in work)37%32%
Travel to work by car or van50%48%
By train, Underground, metro or tram3%4%
By any public transport, including bus3%8%
On foot or by bicycle9%10%
Work within 10 km (6 miles) of home (of those who travel to work)64%65%
Work 30 km (19 miles) or more away9%8%

Education and languages

Around this streetEngland
Degree or other higher qualification, Level 4+ (of adults)32%34%
No qualifications15%18%
Apprenticeship as highest qualification9%5%
Main language English (aged 3 and over)91%91%
Cannot speak English well or at all3%2%

Deprivation

The neighbourhood around this street is in decile 5 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.

What has changed

Nothing new since the change feed started on 30 October 2026. New sales and energy certificates, and hygiene ratings, school inspections and flood figures nearby, will be listed here as the sources update.

Everything that has changed on and near this street

Postcodes on this street

Source: ONS Postcode Directory August 2026, ONS UPRN Directory September 2026, OS Open Linked Identifiers September 2026. A postcode can cover more than one street; the share shows how many of its addresses are on this one.

  • AL5 5JE: 24 addresses of 25 in the postcode
  • AL5 5JD: 1 address of 10 in the postcode

Nearby streets

Willow Way · Noke Shot · Millstone Way · Pickford Hill · Northfield Road · St Martins Close · Southview Road · Noke Shot · Fulmore Close · Wroxham Way · Turners Close · Viking Close

All the streets in AL5 and across St Albans.

What this page cannot tell you

  • Whether a particular house is at risk of flooding, subsiding or anything else: the flood map is a model of areas and there is no property-level data here.
  • What a home is worth now: sales are historic prices for the homes that happened to sell.
  • How safe the street is: crime points are moved to anonymised locations and many crimes are never reported.
  • Whether you would get a place at a school: distances are straight lines, not catchments.
  • Who lives on the street now: census figures describe the small areas around it in March 2021, during a lockdown.
  • How long a journey takes or how often anything runs: transport distances are straight lines to the nearest stops.
  • Whether a GP practice is taking new patients, or a dentist new NHS patients.
  • How loud a home is inside, or noise from industry, neighbours or smaller airfields: noise figures are models of road, rail and air traffic outside.

How each figure on this page is matched to the street and worked out: methodology.