Old Chiswick is the area of the original village beside the river Thames for which the modern district of Chiswick is named. The village grew up around St Nicholas Church, founded c. 1181 and named for the patron saint of fishermen. The placename was first recorded c. 1000 as Ceswican ('Cheese farm'). In the Middle Ages the villagers lived by fishing, boatbuilding, and handling river traffic. The surrounding area was rural until the late 19th century.

The village's main street, Church Street, includes the half-timbered former Burlington Arms pub from the 15th century, and the former Lamb Tap pub. The old Post Office was once the home of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The riverside street, Chiswick Mall, grew from humble beginnings to a row of grand houses, including Walpole House, from the 17th century onwards. The street still floods on high spring tides. Behind the riverfront is the Griffin Brewery, the only survivor of the five malthouses in Chiswick in 1736. Nearby is the 18th century Chiswick Square, the houses in brown brick with red dressings, and the Arts and Crafts Gothic St Mary's Convent.

The village was once the home of the Chiswick Press, where William Morris had some of his books printed. John I. Thornycroft & Company founded their shipyard at Church Wharf at the west end of Chiswick Mall in 1864, building the first naval destroyer, HMS Daring, there in 1893.

Old Chiswick occupies a roughly rectangular area between the river Thames with Chiswick Mall running beside it to the southeast, Church Street to the southwest, Chiswick Lane South to the northeast, and Mawson Lane (now beside the Great West Road) to the northwest, while Chiswick Square is off Burlington Lane, to the west of Church Street. The small island of Chiswick Eyot lies off the downstream half of Chiswick Mall, a street that still floods on high spring tides.

Not far away to the west are Hogarth's House and Chiswick House and Gardens; they are not in the Old Chiswick Conservation Area. Of the other constituent medieval villages of modern Chiswick, Strand-on-the-Green lies to the west; Little Sutton and Turnham Green to the north. The area is in the London Borough of Hounslow; to the northeast is Hammersmith Mall; across the river is Barnes.

The name "Chiswick" was first recorded c. 1000 as Ceswican, with the meaning from Old English of "cheese farm". Between 1600 and 1900 the area of the old village was known as "Chiswick town" or locally as "the town". By 1980 the usual name for the area was "Old Chiswick".

Old Chiswick was a definable place with a recorded population by 1590. The community lived beside and from the river; in 1458, the church was dedicated to Saint Nicholas, who was the patron saint of fishermen. The village had a ferry, and people made their living by fishing, boatbuilding, and handling river traffic. The risk of flooding from the tidal river kept the fields of the Chiswick peninsula free of housing until 1900.

St Nicholas Church, Chiswick was founded c. 1181. Most of the current church dates from 1882 to 1884, when it was rebuilt to a design by the Gothic Revival architect John Loughborough Pearson, except for the surviving west tower, which was built for William Bordall (vicar 1416–1435). There are some fine 18th century wall-mounted monuments in the tower, and an exceptional one in the south chapel to Sir Thomas Chaloner, 1615. The alabaster sculpture portrays Chaloner, chamberlain to king James I; he and his wife are kneeling at a prayer desk under a curtained canopy, held open by men in boots.