80 articles
Farnborough, Hampshire
Farnborough is a town in Hampshire, England, southwest of London, best known as the birthplace of British aviation, where Samuel Cody made Britain's first official airplane flight in 1908.
Folkestone
Folkestone: coastal town in Kent, England (population about 50,000), former cross-channel ferry port and Victorian resort at the Channel Tunnel entrance, now known for the Folkestone Triennial, Creative Quarter, and the £22m A Brighter Future regeneration scheme.
Gillingham, England
Gillingham, England: a town in north west Kent, one of the five Medway towns on the Medway estuary. Birthplace of Will Adams, twinned with Ito and Yokosuka, Japan; former dockyard town of about 108,000 residents.
Godalming
Godalming: historic market town in south-west Surrey, England, on the River Wey, about 22,000 inhabitants. Former wool-trade borough chartered in 1575; first British town with public electricity, 1881.
Gravesend
Gravesend is a historic riverside town in Gravesham, Kent, on the south bank of the Thames opposite Tilbury. Recorded as Gravesham in Domesday Book, a ferry port with royal ferry rights, New Tavern Fort, Fastrack transit and major town centre regeneration.
Guildford
Guildford: county town of Surrey, England, on the River Wey where it cuts the North Downs; borough population 143,649 (2021 Census), home to Guildford Castle, Guildford Cathedral, and the University of Surrey.
Hastings, England
Hastings, England: seaside town and borough in East Sussex, about 53 miles from London, population about 91,000 (2021). Original Cinque Port, site linked to the 1066 Battle of Hastings, later a Victorian resort and fishing town.
Henley-on-Thames
Henley-on-Thames is a historic riverside market town in South Oxfordshire, England, first recorded in 1179 and best known as the home of Henley Royal Regatta, held annually since 1839.
High Wycombe
High Wycombe (Wicumun, first recorded 970) is a Buckinghamshire market town, Britain's historic chair-making centre: 4,700 chairs a day by 1875, home of G-Plan, Parker Knoll, Ercol, chair arches, the Mayor Weighing, and RAF High Wycombe.
Horsham
Horsham: medieval market town in West Sussex, England, on the River Arun. Name unchanged since a 947 Saxon charter; market charter 1233; joint county town with Chichester from 1889; dormitory town for London.
Hove
Hove, the western half of Brighton and Hove on England's south coast, is a Victorian seaside new town known for Regency Brunswick Town, Hove Museum, Hove station, and the King Alfred seafront redevelopment.
Islip
Islip, Oxfordshire village and parish in Cherwell district, England, site of a scheduled winged-corridor Roman villa with unusual double enclosures, occupied from the late 1st century AD; distinct from Islip, New York.
Lewes
Lewes: historic market town and former inland port on the tidal River Ouse in East Sussex, England; county town in a South Downs gap; site of the 1264 Battle of Lewes and the October 2000 flood that damaged 613 homes.
London Borough of Southwark
The London Borough of Southwark is an inner London borough on the south bank of the Thames, created in 1965 and home to the Tate Modern and The Shard.
Maidenhead
Maidenhead: Berkshire Thames-side town, formerly South Ellington, founded on a 1250 bridge on the London–Bath road; chartered 1582; Brunel's 1839 railway bridge; Elizabeth line station; Nicholson Quarter regeneration.
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, on the River Medway. Recorded as Meddestane in 1086, chartered in 1549, known for its Archbishop's Palace, the 1648 Battle of Maidstone, and brewing and papermaking industries.
Margate
Margate is a seaside town in Thanet, Kent, England, one of England's earliest resorts, home to Dreamland's Grade II Scenic Railway (1920) and the Turner Contemporary (2011), with major ongoing regeneration.
Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Marlow, Buckinghamshire: Thames-side commuter and visitor town between Reading and Windsor, an old inland port with a William Tierney Clark suspension bridge (1833), links to Mary Shelley, T. S. Eliot, and Jerome K. Jerome, and the 14th-century Old Parsonage.
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes: Buckinghamshire new town designated 23 January 1967, Britain's largest post-war new town, built on a 1 km road grid with 322 km Redways; recommended for renewed new-town status in 2025.
New Alresford
New Alresford: Hampshire market town founded c.1200 by Bishop Godfrey de Lucy with a T-shaped plan and Great Weir; Georgian rebuilding after 1689 and 1736 fires; Watercress Line terminus; conservation area since 1969.
Newbury, Berkshire
Newbury, Berkshire: market town in the Kennet valley, West Berkshire, England. Known for its 1596 Elizabethan charter, clothier Jack of Newbury, two Civil War battles, the Kennet and Avon Canal, Newbury Racecourse, and nearby Greenham Common.
Northfleet
Northfleet is a Thames-side town in Gravesham, Kent, historically a major cement-making center from James Parker's 1792 Roman cement works, now part of Ebbsfleet Garden City regeneration.
Oxford
Oxford, England: university city on the Thames and Cherwell, home of the University of Oxford, population about 165,200, with a knowledge-intensive economy, severe housing costs, and protected historic skyline.
Pangbourne
Pangbourne is a village in West Berkshire, England, on the Thames at the River Pang confluence. First recorded AD 844 (Pegingaburnan, Paega's people's stream), Domesday manor, Reading Abbey holding, Victorian riverside resort after the 1840 railway.
Petersfield
Petersfield, Hampshire: a South Downs market town founded in the 12th century, on the London-Portsmouth line since 1859, with a 65-minute Waterloo commute, £485,000 average house prices, and a Sunday Times 2026 top-11 South East ranking.
Portsmouth
Portsmouth: port city and unitary authority on Portsea Island, Hampshire, England; home of the Royal Navy's main base with about 211,500 residents, chartered in 1194, a city since 1926, facing local government reorganisation.
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a Kent seaside town and port on the Isle of Thanet, population about 40,000, home to the UK's only Royal Harbour (George IV, 1821), built 1749-1850, a Dunkirk embarkation point.
Reading, Berkshire
Reading, Berkshire: Thames Valley town and unitary borough at the Kennet-Thames confluence, 182,907 residents, major UK tech and insurance center, M4 and rail hub, Saxon origins and 1121 abbey.
Rochester, Kent
Rochester, Kent: historic town on the east bank of the River Medway, England, also Roman Durobrivae. Known for its Norman castle (sieges of 1088, 1215, 1264), cathedral founded in 604, Dickens associations, and loss of city status in 1998.
Romford
Romford, Essex/Havering market town on the London-Colchester Roman road; 1247 market charter, railway 1839, major retail centre with 21 million shoppers, adopted masterplan 2025.