Orpington

Description:

Orpington, along with a handful of other towns in the borough is considered part of the London stockbroker belt.  It is on the south eastern edge of Greater London and the ‘London Plan' identifies it as one of the major 35 centres in the London region.

Although the population of Orpington itself is just over 15,000, the surrounding neighbourhoods considered part of the town number some 75,000 people; these areas include Chelsfield, St Mary Cray and St Pauls Cray among others.

Orpington has excellent transport links into central London by train and is also ideally situated to get to by road via the nearby junction of the M25, leading to M20, M2 and M26.  This puts Orpington within easy reach of Gatwick Airport.

Orpington has a very busy town centre, second only to Bromley in the borough.  It's bustling High Street with many brand name shops is supported by the Walnuts shopping centre  and together they offer over 250 retail businesses.  There is also a market which can be found near to Orpington College which is open three days a week.  The retail park on Sevenoaks Way is less than a mile from the High Street and contains big name retailers in large outlet stores such as Magnet, Homebase, PC World and Halfords.

Orpington is also popular with other, non retail, businesses, as office space is considerably cheaper than that of nearby Bromley.

Orpington College is the second largest college in the borough with over 5,000 students.  It offers GCSEs, A & A/S Levels as well as numerous vocational qualifications.  It also offers an enviable Adult Education service.

Orpington contains the well equipped Walnuts Leisure Centre which includes a swimming pool, a gym and squash courts amongst other facilities.  The other main leisure centre is at the Priory School, which has a floodlit Astroturf pitch for football and other team games as well as tennis courts, cricket nets, netball courts and a sports hall with a fitness and dance studio.

Goddington Park contains pitches for football, rugby and cricket and it is where Orpington Football Club are based from.  Orpington has one of the area's top rugby union clubs in Westcombe Park based here too.

The town has two main points of interest for tourists:

• The Priory Gardens - which incorporates The Priory House (an example of a medieval ‘Hall House'), Orpington Library and Bromley Museum, exploring the past 10,000 years of history in the London Borough of Bromley.
• Crofton Roman Villa - located next to Orpington Railway Station you can see the remains of a Roman Villa, which was occupied between AD 140 and 400.