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Otford Conservation Area covers some 16 hectares and contains about forty listed buildings and part of the scheduled monument of the Archbishops’ Palace. It was designated in 1969 and extended in 1976, 1990 and 2006.
The focal point of the Conservation Area is the pond and the surrounding green, but the boundaries include the historic High Street down to the bridge over the River Darent beyond Broughton Manor. Troutbeck, an early 20th Century property whose
grounds are edged by the river on two sides, lies on the extreme north eastern boundary, and Park Farm is included in the north west.The southern end of the boundary is the north side of Bubblestone Road whose properties include some of the ruined walls of the Palace, although the extent of the monument stretches further east than the Conservation Area.
The countryside around is designated as Green Belt and to the north is the North Downs Special Landscape Area and part of the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The land to the south and east of the remaining Palace is designated an important area of green space, and there is another, outside the Conservation Area but to the west of the railway.
The Conservation Area includes residential, retail and public buildings - a true cross section of village property, and the historic nucleus of the settlement. The ages of the properties range from modern to medieval, and there is plenty of open space.