Was my house at SE2 9BS built on a landfill?

Possibly near one: 1 historic landfill site is recorded within 1km, the nearest 840m away. Check the boundary on the map above; only sites whose boundary overlaps the property mean it was built on landfill.

Does living near a historic landfill matter?

Usually not day to day — thousands of English homes sit near closed tips. What matters is distance, what was deposited (inert rubble is very different from special waste), and how long ago the site closed. Mortgage lenders and insurers rarely take issue unless a formal search flags a specific risk.

Is this the same as a contaminated land search?

No. This is the EA's historic landfill dataset. The contaminated-land register is separate, held by councils, and covered by the formal environmental search your conveyancer orders during a purchase.

1 historic landfill site within 1km of SE2 9BS

Name: EA Historic Landfill Sites
Creator: Environment Agency
License: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/environment-agency-conditional-licence/environment-agency-conditional-licence

The Environment Agency's Historic Landfill dataset (October 2025 revision) records 1 closed landfill site within 1km of postcode SE2 9BS. The nearest is Riverside Golf Course, 840m to the north-east.

Recorded sites, nearest first

Riverside Golf Course840m to the north-east
Inert

What these waste types mean

Inert:: builder's rubble, subsoil, concrete, brick. Doesn't decompose or generate gas; the lowest-concern category.

Map

Shaded areas are recorded landfill boundaries (indicative, digitised at 1:10,000). Marker shows the postcode centre.

One historic landfill site is recorded within 1km

The nearest recorded site is several hundred metres away. At this distance a historic landfill is rarely of practical significance to a property — it's context, not a warning.

The recorded waste nearby is inert only — builder's rubble, subsoil, concrete. Inert waste doesn't decompose or produce gas, which makes it the lowest-concern category by some margin.

Sensible next step: nothing urgent. If you're buying, the environmental search your conveyancer orders as a matter of course will cover this and more.

What this data does — and doesn't — cover

Licensed-era records only. Waste licensing began in 1974. Older tips — especially small pre-war ones — are incompletely recorded, so absence from this data does not mean no landfill ever existed here.
Not the contaminated-land register. Councils hold a separate register of land determined as contaminated. A historic landfill entry is not a contamination determination, and vice versa.
Boundaries are indicative. Digitised at 1:10,000 scale; some are buffers around a point rather than surveyed edges.
Not a substitute for a formal environmental search. If you're buying, your conveyancer's environmental search checks this and several other sources.

EA Historic Landfill dataset, October 2025 revision. More on the methodology page.

See all historic landfill sites around Swanley, Kent (42 recorded sites).

Common questions

Was my house at SE2 9BS built on a landfill?: Possibly near one: 1 historic landfill site is recorded within 1km, the nearest 840m away. Check the boundary on the map above; only sites whose boundary overlaps the property mean it was built on landfill.
Does living near a historic landfill matter?: Usually not day to day — thousands of English homes sit near closed tips. What matters is distance, what was deposited (inert rubble is very different from special waste), and how long ago the site closed. Mortgage lenders and insurers rarely take issue unless a formal search flags a specific risk.
Is this the same as a contaminated land search?: No. This is the EA's historic landfill dataset. The contaminated-land register is separate, held by councils, and covered by the formal environmental search your conveyancer orders during a purchase.