South East England

History

The Meonhill Vineyard, near Old Winchester Hill in east Hampshire on the South Downs south of West Meon on the A32, is an example of a site where the Romano-British grew Roman grapes.

Second World War

Much of the Battle of Britain was fought in this region, especially in Kent. RAF Bomber Command was based at High Wycombe. RAF Medmenham at Danesfield House, west of Marlow in Buckinghamshire, was important for aerial reconnaissance. Operation Corona, based at RAF Kingsdown (at West Kingsdown next to Brands Hatch in Kent, between the A20 and M20), was implemented to confuse German night fighters with native German-speakers, and coordinated by the RAF Y service.

Bletchley Park in north Buckinghamshire was the principal Allied centre for codebreaking. The Colossus computer, arguably the world's first, began working on Lorentz codes on 5 February 1944, with Colossus 2 working from June 1944. The site was chosen, among other reasons, because it is at the junction of the Varsity Line (between Oxford and Cambridge) and the West Coast Main Line. The Harwell computer (Dekatron), now at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley, was built in 1949 and is believed to be the oldest working digital computer in the world.

Scientific heritage

John Wallis of Kent introduced the symbol for infinity and the standard notation for powers of numbers in 1656. Thomas Bayes was an important statistician from Tunbridge Wells; his theorem (of probability theory) is used for spam filters and Google's search.

Sir David N. Payne at the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre invented the erbium-doped fibre amplifier, a type of optical amplifier, in the mid-1980s, which became essential for the internet. Henry Moseley at Oxford in 1913 discovered his Moseley's law of X-ray spectra of chemical elements that enabled him to be the first to assign the correct atomic number to elements in periodic table; he did not receive any Nobel Prize as it is not awarded posthumously (he was killed in 1915 at Gallipoli with the Royal Engineers). Carbon fibre was invented in 1963 at the RAE in Farnborough by a team led by William Watt. The Apollo LCG space-suit cooling system originated mostly from work done at RAE Farnborough in the early 1960s.

Donald Watts Davies invented packet switching in the late 1960s at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington. Packet-switching was taken up by the Americans to form the ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.

Surrey's Alec Reeves invented pulse-code modulation (PCM) in 1937 (at ITT's research laboratories in Paris), the standard for digital audio recordings.

Sir John Herschel, son of the astronomer, from Kent, invented the term photography in 1839, meaning light writing.

and discovered the first photographic fixer, sodium thiosulphate, known as hypo, also in 1839.

GLEEP was Britain's first nuclear reactor, in August 1947 at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) at Harwell, it would stay operational until 1990.

William Harvey of Folkestone, in Kent, discovered the circulation of blood. The Lilly Research Centre in Windlesham, Berkshire, part of Eli Lilly, developed Olanzapine in 1996 (for bipolar disorder, selling around $5bn worldwide annually). Beecham Research Laboratories at Brockham Park in 1959 discovered meticillin (or methicillin), the first semi-synthetic penicillin (beta-lactamase stable), deriving from their discovery in 1958 of 6-APA, the core constituent; the team, led by Prof George Rolinson, won the Mullard Award in 1971. Bipyridine compounds (Paraquat-Gramoxone and Diquat) were discovered for herbicide use in 1954 by William Boon at ICI's Plant Protection division at Jealott's Hill, being released onto the market in 1958. AZT/Retrovir (zidovudine) was first manufactured by Wellcome in 1987 in Kent; they also introduced Zovirax (aciclovir), and the naturally occurring digoxin, a cardiac glycoside. After a plane crashed near his house in Oxford in 1940, Sir Peter Medawar helped the injured pilot, and in the process discovered homograft rejection, leading to organ transplantation using azathioprine. Viagra (Sildenafil) was synthesized at Pfizer in Sandwich, Kent.

Industrial heritage

Sir Francis Pettit Smith of Kent invented the screw propeller.

On 3 May 1830 the world's first passenger train service, the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway (6 miles or 10 km) began. It was built by George Stephenson and hauled by the locomotive Invicta. It introduced the world's first railway season ticket in 1834.

Maidenhead Railway Bridge, known for its flat arch, was built in 1839 with 39-metre spans.

The Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment, in Chertsey, developed Chobham armour.

On 12 April 1903, the world's first bus service was by Eastbourne Buses from Eastbourne railway station to Meads.

The world's first submarine telephone cable was laid between England and France in 1891 by HMTS Monarch, enabling London-Paris calls from April 1891. On 3 December 1992, Neil Papworth of Reading, an engineer from Sema Group Telecoms at Vodafone in Newbury, sent the world's first text message from his computer to an Orbitel 901 handset of Richard Jarvis, Vodafone's technical director.

The first public automatic telephone exchange in the UK was at Epsom telephone exchange from 18 May 1912. It was introduced as standard across the UK's 6,700 telephone exchanges in 1922, lasting for around 70 years; it could handle up to 500 lines. It used the Strowger design and was made by Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Company of Liverpool. The world's first automatic telephone exchange had opened in La Porte, Indiana in November 1892.

UK-Belgium 5, laid in 1986 from Kent, was the world's first optical fibre submarine cable, and is 36 miles long.

ThrustSSC, the fastest car in the world in 1997, was built in Aldingbourne, West Sussex, by G-Force Engineering, designed by Ron Ayers, with further work done by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency at Farnborough.

Geography

The highest point is Walbury Hill in Berkshire at 297 m (974 ft).

Britain's tallest native tree, according to The Tree Register in April 2015, is a 144-ft beech at Devil's Dyke in Newtimber Woods in West Sussex.

Settlements

Cities and towns in the region include Aldershot, Ashford, Aylesbury, Basingstoke, Bracknell, Brighton and Hove, Canterbury, Chichester, Crawley, Eastbourne, Farnborough, Gosport, Guildford, Hastings, High Wycombe, Margate, Maidstone, Medway, Milton Keynes, Newport, Oxford, Portsmouth, Ramsgate, Reading, Slough, Southampton, Winchester, Woking and Worthing.

Historical boundaries

Until 1999, there was a south east Standard Statistical Region, which also included the counties of Bedfordshire, Greater London, Essex and Hertfordshire. The former south east Civil Defence Region covered the same area as the current official region.

Alternative definitions

In unofficial usage, the South East can refer to a varying area – sometimes only to London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, and Surrey; but sometimes to an area corresponding to the former Standard Statistical Region. The South East is also occasionally used as a synonym for the home counties.

Demographics

The population of the region at the 2011 census was 8,634,750 making it the most populous English region. The major conurbations of the region include South Hampshire (855,000), Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (474,000) and Reading (318,000). Settlements closer to London are part of the conurbation known as the Greater London Urban Area.

The South East has the highest percentage of people born outside of Britain other than London. According to the 2021 census, 78.8% of residents were White British, 7.1% Other White (inc. 0.8% Irish), 7.0% British Asian, 2.8% Mixed Race, 2.4% Black British, and 1.4% of other groups.

a There was no census in 1941.

Governance and politics

South East England is an official region for statistical and strategic planning purposes, but is not served by any directly elected regional government. From 1998 to 2010 local councils sent to the voluntary South East England Regional Assembly, based in Guildford. Delegates met six times a year and it was responsible for the South East England Development Agency, a project which oversaw investment projects in the region. It was abolished on 31 March 2009 and replaced with South East England Councils in Kingston upon Thames. The region is divided into several local council areas, most composed of two-tiered councils (the tiers are county councils and district councils) and unitary authorities:

Westminster seats

Although traditionally South East of England has been the most Conservative voting region of Britain in terms of both seats and votes, with the recent 2024 election it has become split almost evenly between Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrats. Before 2024, there had already been areas the non-Conservative centers: for example Oxford, Slough and Southampton Test for Labour, and Brighton Pavilion for the Green Party. Currently, out of 91 parliamentary seats, Labour holds 36, the Conservatives 30, and the Liberal Democrats 24.

Eurostat NUTS

In the Eurostat Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), South East England is a level-1 NUTS region, coded "UKJ", which is subdivided as follows:

Education

Schools

Buckinghamshire, Medway and Kent, and Slough have an almost completely selective education system – not just a few grammar schools as other English areas may have – with secondary modern schools as the alternative. Kent has 33 grammar schools, Buckinghamshire 13, Medway 6 and Slough 4. The other areas are comprehensive. The top thirty schools at A level are almost exclusively selective schools; one or two are sixth form colleges. However, the results for each county as a whole are not always directly related to the number of grammar schools, as Kent and Medway perform below average at A-level. The King's School, Canterbury claims to be oldest in England: 597 AD. Herschel Grammar School in Slough is the most oversubscribed school in England, with 14 people per place, Langley Grammar School in Slough is next with 13 per place, then Burnham Grammar School.

508,000 in the region are at state secondary schools (the highest in England) with 101,000 in Kent (the highest in England for a county and completely selective) then 70,000 in Hampshire, 60,000 in Surrey, 45,000 in West Sussex, 36,000 in Oxfordshire, 35,000 in Buckinghamshire. The lowest is 6,000 at Bracknell Forest, then Reading with about 6,000. Of all regions, the South-East has the greatest percentage that attend a grammar school: 12%; the next highest is the South-West with 6%. The most-educated people (NQF level 4 or above) in the region live in Elmbridge (51%), then Waverley, and Epsom and Ewell; 33% of people are at this level for the South-East, only second to London at 40%.

The region has the highest number of sixth formers, outside of London, in England; the highest number is in Kent, the highest for England, then Buckinghamshire (also completely selective), then Surrey. For state school pupils, there is patchy STEM participation. Hampshire has the most passing STEM subjects in England and in the region, followed by Kent, Surrey and Buckinghamshire. For STEM subjects, Portsmouth is lowest by some distance (6 people passed A level Chemistry) and is almost the worst in England. Southampton also gets low STEM subject results. Bracknell Forest gets low STEM results, for its economic prosperity, but does not include private schools.

For languages, the best is Kent: the county achieves the most A-level language passes in England, although Hampshire is a close second. Both counties get more German A level passes than the whole of North East England. Buckinghamshire and Surrey have high language A-level passes. Hampshire gets the most A-level passes in England (27,500), again more than North-East England (25,000). Although Hampshire is the best at languages, Portsmouth gets the fewest language passes in the region, and some of the lowest in England, with four French A levels, and has only 500 A level passes in total; next lowest are Slough, Bracknell Forest, and Southampton.

Universities

The best known university in the region is the University of Oxford, famous for its academic achievements, and also for its ornate colleges and its rowing crews on the Thames. It was ranked the fourth best university in the world by the Times Higher Education Supplement in 2013.

Other universities include:

University of Brighton, Brighton and Eastbourne

University of Buckingham, Buckingham

Buckinghamshire New University, High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Uxbridge and Great Missenden

Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, Medway towns and Tunbridge Wells

University of Chichester, Chichester and Bognor Regis

University of Kent, Canterbury

The University of Law, Guildford (as well as eight other UK campuses outside South East England)

University of Reading, Reading, Henley-on-Thames

The Open University, Milton Keynes

Oxford Brookes University, Oxford

University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth

Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham

Solent University, Southampton

University of Southampton, Southampton

University of Surrey, Guildford

Economy

Overall, the South East of England is a very prosperous area with the second largest regional economy in the UK (after London), valued at £177 billion in 2006. GDP per capita in 2007 was estimated at £22,624, compared with a UK average of £19,956, making South East England the second richest region per capita, behind London. However prosperity varies significantly across the region and despite its image of wealth there are large pockets of deprivation. GDP per capita in Berkshire and Milton Keynes is more than twice that of East Sussex and the Isle of Wight.

The region's Manufacturing Advisory Service is on the A30 in Hook, north Hampshire The UKTI service for the region is on Victory Park in Whiteley, off junction 9 of the M27, opposite the Solent Hotel.

The South East Coast Ambulance Service has three headquarters, one each for Kent, Surrey and Sussex. These are on the B2163 at Coxheath (for Kent), on the A217 at Banstead (for Surrey), and on the A277 in Lewes (for Sussex). The South Central Ambulance Service is headquartered on the B4100 next to Bicester Town railway station, with offices at Otterbourne, Hampshire and Wokingham. The charity-funded air ambulances are Kent Air Ambulance at Marden, Kent; Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance at Thruxton, Hampshire; Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance at Dunsfold Aerodrome, Surrey; and the Thames Valley Air Ambulance at RAF Benson.

Many high technology companies are located near the M3 in Surrey and the M4 in Berkshire. Sun Microsystems had their UK base in Blackwater near Camberley until 2009. Microsoft and Oracle have their UK headquarters next door to each other in Reading (Wokingham borough), as do the Yell Group and Logica (near junction 11 of the M4). The Gatwick Diamond is also a hub for hi-tech industry, centred at Gatwick Airport with Epsom to the north and Burgess Hill to the south. The largest company, by turnover, in the South East is Vodafone, followed by Ineos.

Transport

The main road transport routes are along the M1 through Buckinghamshire; the M40 through Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire; the M4 through Berkshire and Buckinghamshire; the M2 motorway/A2 and M20 through Kent; the M23 through Surrey and West Sussex; the M3 through Surrey and Hampshire. All these routes connect to the M25, which runs near to and occasionally through the region's border with Greater London.

The A34 provides a north–south road link through Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Hampshire. The east–west corridor through the south of the region is provided by the A27 and the M27.

The main intercontinental airport is Gatwick Airport, with regional airports at Kent International Airport (Ramsgate), Shoreham Airport and Southampton Airport. Heathrow Airport is in Greater London but also serves (and is serviced by) the South East region.

The Great Western Main Line passes through Berkshire, Oxfordshire and southern Buckinghamshire. The South Eastern Main Line and High Speed 1 pass through Kent; the latter connects to the Channel Tunnel. The Brighton Main Line passes through Surrey and West Sussex. The North Downs Line runs from Berkshire then through Surrey to connect with Sussex and Kent. The West Coast Main Line passes through northern Buckinghamshire. The Chiltern Main Line is a major commuter line between Birmingham and London passing through central Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. The Port of Dover and the port at Folkestone have many ferry services to France and though none currently run to Belgium.

As part of the transport planning system the Regional Assembly is under statutory requirement to produce a Regional Transport Strategy (RTS) to provide long term planning for transport in the region. This involves region wide transport schemes such as those carried out by the Highways Agency and Network Rail. Within the region the local transport authorities carry out transport planning through the use of a Local Transport Plan (LTP) which outlines their strategies, policies and implementation programme.

The most recent LTP is that for the period 2006–11. In the South East region the following transport authorities have published their LTP online:

Economic activity by county

Berkshire

Companies in Berkshire essentially follow the M4 corridor. In Theale are Nvidia UK (components for smartphones), The Range, Bathstore, and Plumb Center. SPP Pumps (owned by Kirloskar Group) is at the Arlington Business Park; on the same estate PepsiCo is next to the GWML railway. Porsche Cars Great Britain is in Calcot, Tilehurst, west of Reading near Theale Interchange. Harley-Davidson UK is in Pangbourne. Vodafone, and High and Mighty are based in Newbury; Bayer UK (Aspirin, Rennie and Alka-Seltzer) is to the west; National Instruments UK is to the east off the A4 on the Newbury Business Park, and Quantel was off the A4 and is now Snell (former Snell & Wilcox, previously in Lower Earley), an important video technology company, near Aricent UK.

The Atomic Weapons Establishment is in Aldermaston on the Hampshire boundary. The Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre and Xtrac Limited are at Thatcham. The Royal School of Military Survey is in Hermitage. East of the A34, north of the M4, at Compton since 1992 is the UK HQ of Baxter Healthcare, part of a global company which is working on a vaccine for H1N1, and next door is the Institute for Animal Health, which also researches H1N1.

Retriever Sports, on the Mill Street Ind Est near Slough railway station, is the world's largest manufacturer of darts equipment. Mars Limited has a large chocolate factory, run under the name of Effem Holdings Ltd, also in Slough on the enormous Slough Trading Estate which makes 3m Mars bars a day; nearby is Johnson Controls UK (car seats), and ICI Paints, Polyfilla, and Dulux. Horlicks is made by GSK there. Oki UK (desktop printers) are based next to Mars. Honda UK, Citroën UK, Fiat UK, Douwe Egberts UK (and its owner Sara Lee UK), BlackBerry UK, Black & Decker Europe, Amazon UK, Ingres UK, Telefónica O2 Europe UK and Reckitt Benckiser are also in Slough.

Toyota Material Handling UK (fork lifts) is next door to Slough Heat and Power station. Lonza UK makes biopharmaceuticals (monoclonal antibodies) on the A4. Honda Motor Europe is at the Langley Roundabout (A4/B470) of the M4 at Brands Hill, part of Colnbrook with Poyle, and near the Queen Mother Reservoir; on the opposite side of the M4 in Langley (Slough borough) is Royal Mail's Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre, and next door is Pentax Ricoh Imaging UK, next to Langley's leisure centre.

Hovis, Ben & Jerry's (Unilever), FM Global UK (insurance), and Morgan Crucible, are in Windsor; Nintendo UK is next to the Royal Mews Riding School. Centrica is in Dedworth, next to Windsor Racecourse. Groupe SEB UK (owner of Krups, Moulinex, Rowenta, and Tefal) is next to Windsor & Eton Riverside railway station and near the castle (previously next to Langley railway station until 2012). CA Technologies UK is at Ditton Park in Datchet, home of the former Radio Research Station until 1979, which discovered the ionosphere in the 1920s. Ledco, near B3020/A329 junction in Sunninghill and Ascot, is the UK distributor of LED Lenser torches, made by Zweibrüder Optoelectronics. Hitachi, Corel UK, NSK Europe (off the A308 to the north), Weight Watchers UK (next to Desborough School) and the Rank Group (leisure) are in Maidenhead.

Buckinghamshire

High Wycombe is known historically for its furniture industry, and has the Association of Master Upholsterers & Soft Furnishers. Hyundai UK and Tetra Pak UK are at Wycombe Marsh on the A40, and Dreams, the UK base of Ariston (now owned by Indesit), Wilkinson Sword, Merisant UK, and Staples are based in High Wycombe; Cofely (energy services) and Rank Hovis are off the M40 Handy Cross Interchange, with The Perfume Shop, the food technology centre of Premier Foods, and Instron Europe (tension testing machines), off the A4010. To the north of the town centre is Sennheiser UK (audio equipment). RAF High Wycombe (Air Command) is at Bradenham on Grim's Ditch (Chilterns) off the A4010. To the west of the town, United Biscuits have their group technical centre on Sands Ind Estate, off the A4010, near the rugby ground of London Wasps. Swedish Match UK (all their matches are made in Sweden) are in Totteridge. Johnson & Johnson UK have their base at Booker next to the M40 near Handy Cross, with Janssen-Cilag UK (Imodium); Taylor Wimpey is off the A4010, with Focusrite, a big industry player in consoles for sound recording, with Novation Digital Music Systems MIDI controllers and keyboards.

Pilot Pen UK is on the Wessex Road Industrial Estate in Wooburn and Bourne End; Psion Teklogix UK is in the middle of Bourne End, east of Marlow, on the A4155 (Symbian, found on most smartphones until 2010, was developed from Psion's EPOC); nearby are Kawasaki UK and Nuance Communications UK. In Wooburn Green, to the east off the A4094 is Menarini UK Takeda UK (both pharmaceuticals). Wyeth UK (pharmaceuticals) is in Burnham, next to the M4 Huntercombe Spur junction. Saclà Italia UK (pesto) is in Beaconsfield; Grünenthal UK (pharmaceuticals) is off the Stokenchurch Interchange of the M40.

The UK base of Robert Bosch is in Denham. Martin-Baker is in Higher Denham, and InterContinental Hotels Group is in Denham Green (formerly in Windsor) at Broadwater Park on the A412. On the edge of Uxbridge, but on the Buckinghamshire side of Shire Ditch in (New) Denham is Amgen UK (biotechnology), Bristol Myers Squibbb UK (pharmaceuticals), and Mondelēz International UK (former Kraft); on the other side of the A4020 in the south of Denham next to River Colne, on the Great London boundary, is Medirest, Eurest, at the HQ of Compass Group UK. Pioneer UK is in Stoke Poges on the former site of the Fulmer Research Institute; Hitachi Data Systems EMEA is at Sefton Park (a former Glaxo research centre) on the B416, now home of Urenco Group (international uranium enrichment).

DX Group (couriers), are next to Muller Martini UK (binding), and Cummins have a design plant at Rideway Trading Est next to the M25 at Iver; Pinewood Studios is in Iver Heath; it takes its name as it is next to the adjacent pine trees in the 530 acres of Black Park. Avid Technology UK (industry-standard Pro Tools audio and Sibelius notation software) is also based at Pinewood. Timberland Europe is at Wexham Springs, in Wexham west of Pinewood Studios in the same place is Servier Laboratories UK and Sun Chemical Europe (the world's largest producer of printing inks). STMicroelectronics UK (French-Italian, based in Geneva), is based next to Trend Micro UK (Japanese) on Globeside Park at Marlow, next to the A404 and nearby are Expansys and Whistl (former TNT Post UK, part of PostNL), both north of Marlow railway station; Techtronic Industries UK (Ryobi power tools) is on the same estate. Dun & Bradstreet UK (credit references) is on the A404 bypass at the A4155 Westhorpe Interchange. GE Healthcare has its world HQ in Little Chalfont. Uniq plc (bought by Greencore in November 2011) was in Chalfont St Peter, next to the A413 and River Misbourne, off the B416 Kingsway Roundabout, next to Citrix UK; Doro UK (Swedish mobile phones) are off the A413. Bahlsen UK is in Gerrards Cross off the B416.

Hampshire

The Army have a large garrison in Aldershot, with Sandhurst being nearby. Elica also make extractor hoods in Aldershot, and the European HQ of the Computer Sciences Corporation consulting firm is based at the A323/A325 roundabout. Rentokil Initial have their head office and pest control division next to Blackwater railway station, north of the A30, towards Camberley. Farnborough has many international aerospace companies as well as Sofa Workshop. Nokia UK, which had also been a R&D base for Nokia Siemens Networks on the A327, left in 2012; further along the A327 is Autodesk UK.

DKB Household UK (Zyliss) is off the A327 in North Farnborough; at the A325/A327 roundabout is Parametric Technology Corporation UK (known for its industry-standard PTC Creo Elements/Pro (Pro/ENGINEER) CAD/CAM software) with Red Hat UK. Thomson Local directory is on the A325 next to Farnborough railway station, next to the Catholic National Library; opposite is the design centre for Qualcomm UK (W-CDMA UMTS mobile technology) with Hogg Robinson Group UK (its worldwide headquarters are in Basingstoke). BAE Systems with CORDA is south of the airfield at the Farnborough Aerospace Centre, off the A325/A3011 Queen's Roundabout. Sun Microsystems had their UK headquarters at Guillemont Park (former Guillemont Barracks until 1997) north of the M3 Minley Interchange at Blackwater and Hawley, until 2009.

The Ford Southampton plant of Ford, near Southampton Airport and Stoneham Interchange (A335) of the M27, closed in July with production of the Transit moving to the Ford Otosan plant in Gölcük, Kocaeli (Turkey). Skandia Insurance have their UK base there. Carnival Corporation & plc, the world's largest cruise ship operator, has one of its two headquarters at Carnival House. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is in the town centre near the A3057. Swatch UK (and Omega UK) are based near Millbrook Flyover (A33).

B&Q and Draper Tools are based in Chandler's Ford. Prysmian Cables & Systems, who make high-tension electric cables (for offshore windfarms), communication cables and fire-resistant cable, are off the B3037 in Eastleigh, next to a rail servicing plant and the River Itchen. Bacardi-Martini and London Camera Exchange are in Winchester and four miles (6.4 km) north-west, Arqiva (broadcasting infrastructure, at the former technical division of the IBA) are based in Crawley, Hampshire. The Adjutant General's Corps HQ (former Royal Army Pay Corps) is at Worthy Down Camp off the A34 north of Winchester at Kings Worthy, since 2012 the home of the Defence School of Personnel Administration. To the north-west, the Leckford Estate, with Longstock Park, next door provides much of the milk, mushrooms, fruit, honey and free-range chicken for Waitrose; John Spedan Lewis, founder of John Lewis, lived there until his death in 1963.

Kent

BAE Systems Electronics, Intelligence & Support, next to Rochester Airport, manufacture helmet mounted displays and head-up displays; it was GEC Avionics, previously Marconi Avionics and Elliott Flight Automation, and Kent's biggest employer in the 1980s; the display technology originated from acquiring Cintel in 1963; the site was a Shorts factory in the war, and built many Short Sunderlands. The Royal Engineers and the Royal School of Military Engineering are based in Chatham at Brompton Barracks. London Thamesport is on the Isle of Grain. Metsä Board UK (paper) is off the A289 near Medway Tunnel, and next to the Universities at Medway, Chatham. Sleepeezee (owned by the Simmons Bedding Company) is at Conquest Ind Est in Strood on the A228 next to the River Medway. Bose UK are on the Gillingham Business Park, off the A278 near the A2 Bowaters Roundabout; on other side of A278 is Delphi Diesel Systems.

Bovis Homes is near Gravesend and in Northfleet on the B2175, Kimberly-Clark (formerly Bowater-Scott until 1996) makes Andrex toilet rolls. Caterham Cars manufacturers of British sports cars including the Caterham 7 have their manufacturing facilities in Dartford. Laing O'Rourke is off the A206 in Stone, east of the Dartford Tunnel on Crossways Business Park, where Mazda UK are; in the same building is Forest Laboratories UK (bought by Actavis in 2014), who make Veno's (cough mixture, the brand was bought from Beechams-GSK in 2011), Sudocrem, Otomize (Dexamethasone) and Bisodol (indigestion), made in Dartford; Crosswater (taps and showers) is in Stone, further along the A206 near the Thames Europort.

Bluewater in Greenhithe is the third-largest shopping centre in the UK; it was built on the former Blue Circle Swanscombe Cement Works, which closed in 1990. South East Water is in Snodland. H+H UK (aerated concrete) is based at the A25/A227 roundabout at Ightham, south of Wrotham; to the east is Geographers' A-Z Map Company off the A227 near the railway station, near the M26. Aylesford Newsprint (owned by Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget and Mondi Group), between the M20 and River Medway, makes newsprint and is Europe's largest recycler of paper.

Rolex since 2010 has had its European headquarters (it moved from Bexley) at Kings Hill near West Malling on the A228; Kimberly-Clark have their UK HQ there, on the former RAF West Malling wartime airfield, near FLIR Systems UK (thermal imaging); opposite is the Charities Aid Foundation and to the east is Voyages-sncf.com (former Rail Europe before 2013, who operate InterRail) near the Tonbridge and Malling council offices. Readers in Teston, to the south on the A26, are the UK's leading manufacturer of cricket balls. DS Smith Paper (former Bowater-Scott), Britain's largest paper manufacturer is at Kemsley, north of Sittingbourne, off the A249/B2005 Grovehurst Road Junction. Shepherd Neame Brewery in Faversham is Britain's oldest brewer. Brake Bros is on the Eureka Business Park, off the A251 north of M20 junction 9 in Boughton Aluph; nearby is Coty Rimmel UK (perfumes) and Houchin (owned by ITW), who make ground power units for airport aprons.

Oxfordshire

Oxford University Press, Blackwell UK, Electrocomponents and Amey plc are in Oxford as is the BMW plant that builds the Mini. BMW assemble the MINI at Cowley; in the south of Oxford is Unipart and TI Automotive UK. South of Oxford in Littlemore, off the A4074 at the Oxford Science Park is Nominet UK (UK domain names). SAE Institute has its world HQ on Littlemore Park off the A4074. Grafton Merchanting GB (Buildbase, and Hirebase) are on Oxford Business Park in Cowley, with Electrocomponents next to Publishing Technology, Blackwell UK and Harley Davidson UK; to the south on the side of the B480 is Oxfam GB at Oxfam House, BT iNet, and TI Automotive; further north along the B480 at the B4495 junction is Macmillan Education, a leading worldwide publisher of school textbooks, with Genzyme UK (owned since 2011 by Sanofi).

Ascari are in Banbury. Kenco coffee is made at Kraft Foods Banbury owned by Mondelēz International (former Kraft before October 2010) with Café HAG and Carte Noir off A422/A423 roundabout opposite a Tesco; the site was built to make Bird's Custard in 1964, by General Foods who were bought by Kraft in 1990, and claims to be the biggest coffee-production site in Europe; Nestle make much of their coffee in South Derbyshire. On other side of A422 to Kraft is a manufacturing site of Dematic UK, with Terex MHPS (former Demag Cranes), and Kannegiesser UK (industrial clothes washers). On north-east side of Banbury is the large site of Norbar Torque, who are a main international manufacturer of torque wrenchs. Next door is a large factory of Barry Callebaut UK, a Swiss manufacturer of cocoa (for Nestle and Cadbury), on the Wildmere Road Ind Est, north of the A422 near the M40 junction 11. Prodrive are on the north of the estate, and iSOFT are on the east near the M40. Further north was a main site of Alcan Extrusions (former British Aluminium, bought by Alcan in 1982), which closed in 2008.

Yaskawa UK (Motoman robotic welding equipment) is on the Wildmere Ind Est, off the A422 near junction 11; Kärcher UK (pressure washers) are nearby off the A423. Marussia F1 are in the east of Banbury. Hook Norton Brewery is to the south-west. Travelodge UK is at the A418/B4445 roundabout in Thame next to CPM Group (the UK's largest field marketing company), with Lucy Electric (switchgear) in the east of Thame off the B4012, with the UK site of UMC (branded televisions from Slovakia). Kubota UK, the tractor manufacturer, on the B4445, is the UK market leader of ride-on (diesel) lawn mowers; Kidde Products UK (fire protection) is off the B4012. Renault F1 is in Enstone; off B4030 at Enstone Airfield Complex, Airbus Helicopters UK (Eurocopter before 2014) is at London Oxford Airport. Agilent Technologies (former Magnex Scientific) make superconducting magnets for NMR applications on the A44 next to the railway at Yarnton. Solid State Logic (mixing consoles) is at Begbroke on the A44, which has the Begbroke Science Park.

Surrey

Allianz Insurance has its UK headquarters in Guildford as do Ericsson, Colgate-Palmolive, Constellation Brands, Electronic Arts (formerly in Chertsey before 2008), Sanofi, the CTC, Surrey Satellite Technology, Avaya and Philips. Alexander Dennis is off the A320 at Worplesdon on the north of Guildford on the Slyfield Industrial Estate, towards Jacobs Well. Lionhead Studios and BAE Systems Digital Intelligence are near the Royal Surrey County Hospital. BOC are also in Guildford. UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory is high in the Surrey Hills.

Mövenpick Ice Cream is off the A248 at St Martha, to the east of Guildford; Vivid Imaginations, in Artington to the south, own the UK rights to Crayola. The former company, now owned by the Linde Group, was based in Windlesham. British Car Auctions is on the A325 in Farnham. Motor company McLaren and McLaren Automotive are based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking as are the UK base of Yum Restaurants (owner of KFC), SABMiller, BIW Technologies, SPSS, and Capgemini. ISS is next to the railway on the Sheerwater Ind Est. In the south of Woodham, next to the Basingstoke Canal, is Playtex, and to the east is Fernox (water treatment, owned by Alent) Towards Woking along the railway is Pirbright (home of the Pirbright Institute), where Merial Animal Health also make vaccines. Tupperware is in Knaphill.

Friends Life have an office in the north of Dorking in the former HQ of Friends Provident and Kuoni Travel are on the former Deepdene estate. Kimberly-Clark is in the north of Reigate; Esure and Sheilas' Wheels is on the A25 south of Reigate College; Canon is to the south in Woodhatch. SGN is in Horley. Bristow Helicopters is at Redhill and the food research centre Campden-BRI is at Nutfield. Cubic is on the Perrywood Business Park south of Redhill, next door is Rapiscan Systems.

In the area straddling the M25, the huge Compass Group is based in Chertsey as is Samsung, Siemon, Crest Nicholson, Kone, IWG, and Britax. Papa John's Pizza is off the A320 near the M25; Ubisoft is on the B375. Juniper Networks is off the B3121), Pandrol and Royal Caribbean Group are in Addlestone; at Hamm Moor (in the east of Addlestone) on the A317 and Weybridge Business Park is Thales Group and the UK corporate headquarters of Toshiba, who have another base in Camberley; further west along the A317 is Aviator Park, on the B3121, a former main research site of Plessey Radar, later GEC Marconi.

Near Weybridge are the UK headquarters of Sony with SSP Group (situated in Byfleet) and Procter & Gamble (next door to each other on The Heights Business Park near the former Brooklands racing circuit) with Kia and Petroleum Geo-Services, and Gallaher Group to the north, next to the Brooklands Museum; to the east is Verint Systems on the B374. In Weybridge are the local newspaper group Newsquest, Yamaha; BAE Systems Regional Aircraft is on the Brooklands Ind Park off the A318 (since 2001 it has no longer manufactured). On Sprint Ind Est in Byfleet, west of Weybridge, off the A318, AIM Altitude (former Henshalls) make cabin galleys for airliners. The Central Veterinary Laboratory, which is run by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, with the Animal and Plant Health Agency, is in New Haw to the west on the other side of the M25. Mouchel is in West Byfleet.

Sussex

The RSPCA is on the A24 in Southwater, south of Horsham. Campina UK is in Horsham. Dunkin' Donuts UK on the B2237 in the south of Horsham centre at the Prewett's Mill Roundabout in the same building as Beam Global UK (Bourbon whisky), and its subsidiary Thomas Lowndes & Co (formerly owned by Allied Domecq, and the UK's leading supplier of culinary alcohol). RSA Insurance Group (former Royal and Sun Alliance, and the UK's largest commercial insurer) has its main office in Horsham.

The Caravan Club is in East Grinstead, with Rentokil Specialist Hygiene, and Initial Medical Services. Roche Diagnostics UK headquarters and CAE Inc. UK are in the Victoria Business Park off the A273 in the west of Burgess Hill near Tesco; further to east is the HQ of Filofax, and Heidenhain GB, who make linear encoders for CNC machines.

Southern Water is on the A2032 in Durrington, Worthing; Durrington Bridge House on the Barrington Road Ind Estate, next to Durrington-on-Sea railway station, in Goring-by-Sea has HMRC's national office for its Voluntary Arrangement Service (former Enforcement & Insolvency Service, for IVAs) and members voluntary liquidation, company administrations, and voluntary arrangements. GSK in east Worthing is the former Beecham Pharmaceuticals, on the western edge of Sompting, which makes antibiotics such as Augmentin; to the south of GSK on the same estate is Electronic Temperature Instruments, a worldwide manufacturer of thermometers, and the UK's largest manufacturer of digital thermometers. B & W is an important loudspeaker company in the north of Worthing at the A2032/A24 junction in West Tarring. Eurotherm make temperature controllers.

Virgin Atlantic is off the A23, with Paslode UK (nail guns) next-door, on the Manor Royal Ind Estate in the north of Crawley, as is Edwards (former BOC Edwards), an international engineering company that makes vacuum pumps, with another plant on the A259 in Kingston by Sea, Shoreham. Also on Manor Royal are the headquarters of Spirent, G4S, Doosan Babcock Energy, Pilz UK and TUI Travel PLC with TUI Airline Management (the fifth largest European air carrier). Air Miles (now called Avios since November 2011) is on Fleming Way Roundabout of the A23 north of Crawley in the former headquarters of British Caledonian, at County Oak retail park, and to the west is the British Dualit brand of catering electrical equipment (iconic toasters).

Nestlé UK is moving its headquarters from City Place Gatwick to Manor Royal Business District in Crawley from September 2023. To the south, on the east of Manor Royal, is Monier Redland (roof tiles) and ARINC UK (avionics), and a large site of Thales, with its civilian aircraft simulation TTS division (former Redifon) now owned since 2012 by L-3 Communications); much of Thales in Crawley is the former Mullard, who made radars, and Thomson Racal Defence Electronics (and Thorn EMI); Thales in Crawley make much of the Royal Navy's electronic (mission) systems. UK Power Networks (electrical operator for region) is south of Manor Royal in Three Bridges; SEEBOARD was based on the A23 in Broadfield. Invensys have many sites in Crawley. WesternGeco (geophysical services) is at the end of the Gatwick Interchange M23 spur.

Culture

The culture of South East England has been influenced a number of factors: by its part of contributing to the "idealised English identity", due to the region's historic idyllic rural landscape; its serving for Greater London as commuting hinterland, and, in recent times, the concentration of the UK's creative industry across the South East as well as London.

Literature, TV puppetry and animation, cinema, music and cuisine

Ashdown Forest in East Sussex was the inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood in the Winnie-the-Pooh stories by A.A. Milne who also lived in the nearby village of Hartfield and visited the forest with his son Christopher Robin. Alice Liddell, also known as Alice Hargreaves, the inspiration for Alice in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, spent the majority of her childhood living in Oxford, and in her later years lived in and around Lyndhurst, Hampshire after her marriage to Reginald Hargreaves. She is buried in the graveyard of St Michael and All Angels Church in the town. Roger Hargreaves lived in Lower Sunbury on the River Thames on the next to Richmond upon Thames borough boundary, and wrote his Mr. Men books. Mary Tourtel from Canterbury created Rupert Bear. Frank Hampson, of Dan Dare, drew all his pictures when he lived in the east of Epsom, off the A2022. Buckinghamshire's E. L. James, author of the erotic romance Fifty Shades Trilogy, has the UK record for the fastest-selling paperback of all time.

Trumpton (1967) was based on Plumpton, East Sussex, with other titles in the series based on nearby villages; Trumpton was actually shot by Gordon Murray's company in Crouch End, London. Gerry Anderson's AP Films filmed Thunderbirds on the Slough Trading Estate near to the site's cooling towers, being first broadcast in 1965. The Native American woman Pocahontas is buried at St George's Church, Gravesend in Kent and was the inspiration for the popular Disney animated film of the same name.

The first multiplex cinema in the UK was in Milton Keynes, in the mid-1980s.

Elgar wrote his Cello Concerto at Fittleworth, West Sussex, in 1919. Isaac Watts, a hymn writer from Southampton, wrote When I Survey the Wondrous Cross and O God, Our Help in Ages Past. John Goss, who wrote the hymn tune for Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven, came from Fareham. At Chalfont St Giles, Milton finished Paradise Lost. Olney in Buckinghamshire is known for the Olney Hymns - Amazing Grace, and for Henry Gauntlett, the composer of the tune of Once in Royal David's City. The Christian non-profit music festival Big Church Day Out takes place annually on the last Saturday and Sunday of May at Wiston House, Wiston in West Sussex.

Pimm's was invented by James Pimm of Kent in the 1820s. Banoffee pie was invented in 1972 in Jevington in East Sussex. Maria Ann Smith from Sussex emigrated to Australia and created the Granny Smith apple. Horticulturist Richard Cox lived in Colnbrook, where he bred his Cox's Orange Pippin, a popular apple. Elizabeth David, a cookery writer who revolutionised the nation's home cooking in the 1950s, came from Sussex.

Media

The BBC operate South Today (BBC South) out of Havelock Road, Southampton and South East Today (BBC South East) from Tunbridge Wells, Kent. ITV News Meridian (ITV Meridian) which has sub-regions for the South and South East based in Whiteley, near Fareham.

Television coverage for Buckinghamshire is complex and is split three ways depending on location. The western part of the county is in the BBC South and ITV Meridian (South Coast sub-region). Much of Milton Keynes UA is covered by BBC East based in Norwich, with the Look East programme; similarly the ITV region for most of Milton Keynes is ITV Anglia with the ITV News Anglia programme, also from Norwich. South of the county is covered by BBC London News and ITV London News which both broadcast from London.

That's Solent TV, a subsidiary TV station from That's TV based in Portsmouth, covers Portsmouth, Isle of Wight, Southampton and Winchester.

BBC Local Radio services in the region include Berkshire, Surrey, Sussex, Solent, Oxford, and Kent, with Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes served by BBC Three Counties Radio (which also covers Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, and falls under the BBC East region).

Commercial radio stations include:

Heart South serves much of the region, created in 2019 by the combination of Heart Sussex and Surrey (formerly Heart Sussex of Brighton and Mercury FM in Crawley), Heart Thames Valley (Heart Berkshire and Heart Oxfordshire), Heart South Coast (Heart Dorset and New Forest and Heart Hampshire), and Heart Kent. Milton Keynes is served by - and is the studio base of - Heart East (via the former Heart 103.3/Horizon Radio)

Capital South (previously known as Galaxy South Coast/Power FM based in Segensworth and Juice 107.2 in Brighton)

Greatest Hits Radio South operates on the former frequencies of The Breeze (previously Andover Sound, Newbury Sound (former Kick FM), Reading 107 FM, and Kestrel FM (Basingstoke)), Spirit FM (Chichester), and 96.4 Eagle Radio (Guildford). In Buckinghamshire, Greatest Hits Radio East took the place of Mix 96 (Aylesbury) on FM and this was added to the Herts/Beds/Bucks DAB multiplex.

Sport

Badminton England is at Milton Keynes. The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) is headquartered at Hamble in Hampshire. The World Squash Federation is headquartered in Hastings. England Hockey is headquartered at Bisham Abbey on the south side of the Thames. The first World Transplant Games were held in Portsmouth in 1978.

The All England Jumping Course at Hickstead (Royal International Horse Show) is held (usually) at the A2300 Hickstead Interchange on the side of the A23, west of Burgess Hill, next to the River Adur in Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common. There are many horse-racing stables on the Lambourn Downs. The Epsom Derby is held in early June. In the mid 18th century, the Hambledon Cricket Club, in south-east Hampshire, was the focal point of modern cricket. It was here where a number of innovations were made to the game until the formation of Marylebone Cricket Club and the opening of Lord's Cricket Ground in 1787.

The BDO World Darts Championship are held in early January at Lakeside Leisure Complex.

Wentworth Golf Club in Surrey is the home of the BMW PGA Championship.

Charles William Miller, who went to school in Southampton, was responsible for taking football to Brazil. He had a Scottish father and a Brazilian mother; around the same time, Alexander Watson Hutton, a Scottish teacher, had taken football to Argentina; Dresden English Football Club, founded by British workers, would bring football to Germany.