The hippocampus is traditionally thought to transmit contextual information to limbic structures where it acquires valence. Using freely moving calcium imaging and optogenetics, we show that while the dorsal CA1 subregion of the hippocampus is enriched in place cells, ventral CA1 (vCA1) is enriched in anxiety cells that are activated by anxiogenic environments and required for avoidance behavior. Imaging cells defined by their projection target revealed that anxiety cells were enriched in the vCA1 population projecting to the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) but not to the basal amygdala (BA). Consistent with this selectivity, optogenetic activation of vCA1 terminals in LHA but not BA increased anxiety and avoidance, while activation of terminals in BA but not LHA impaired contextual fear memory. Thus, the hippocampus encodes not only neutral but also valence-related contextual information, and the vCA1-LHA pathway is a direct route by which the hippocampus can rapidly influence innate anxiety behavior. •Anxiogenic stimuli are differentially represented along the DV axis of the HPC•Inhibition of the vHPC in anxiogenic environments reduces avoidance behavior•vCA1 outputs to LHA but not BA control anxiety-related behavior•The majority of vCA1-LHA projection neurons represent anxiogenic stimuli Jimenez et al. show that vCA1 neurons exhibit stable representations of anxiogenic environments that are required for avoidance behavior. The direct projection from vCA1 to the lateral hypothalamus is enriched in anxiety cells and can rapidly control anxiety-related behavior.