Northwood is located within the London Borough of Hillingdon and the historic county of Middlesex, on the border with Hertfordshire.
The area consists of the elevated settlement of Northwood and Northwood Hills, both of which are served by stations on the Metropolitan line of the London Underground.
Northwood Hills includes Haste Hill and is separated by green buffers on almost all sides.
The land on which Northwood Hills, Haste Hill Golf Club and most of Northwood now stand was once the Great Common Wood. This covered 860 acres in the 16th century, which residents would use for grazing their livestock and collecting firewood. Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury achieved enclosure from Parliament and sold 568 acres of the wood in 1608 for £4000. The remaining woodland became Copse Wood, part of the Ruislip Woods, a national nature reserve.
The Northwood Hills public house opposite the tube station is where Sir Elton John first performed professionally in 1962.
The area is well served by public and private schooling and numerous golf courses and open spaces.
Moor Park is a private residential estate that takes its name from Moor Park, a country house which was originally built in 1678–9 for James, Duke of Monmouth, and was reconstructed in the Palladian style in circa 1720 by Giacomo Leoni. It is built on what used to be an area of Ruislip Moor, which is where the name Moor Park originates. The house and immediate grounds are now occupied by Moor Park Golf Club.
The area borders Northwood to the south. The estate is around 6 square miles in size, with gated, private roads; extending from Ruislip Woods through to Northwood, and finishing at Merchant Taylors' School. The neighbourhood consists mostly of upscale houses, some dating back to the original 1930s developments. Homeowners can commute to London via Moor Park station on the Metropolitan line of the London Underground.
There are excellent schools in the area in both public and private sectors and independent and multiple shopping facilities in Northwood, Northwood Hills and Moor Park.