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Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the population of the town was 143,184. The wider Borough of Slough had a population of 158,500.
Slough's population is one of the most ethnically diverse in the United Kingdom, Focus on Ethnicity and Diversity. UK National Statistics. Retrieved 16 February 2008. attracting people from across the country and the world for labour since the 1920s, which has helped shape it into a major trading centre. In 2017, unemployment stood at 1.4%, one-third the UK average of 4.5%.
Slough has the highest concentration of UK Headquarters of global companies outside London. Slough Trading Estate is the largest industrial estate in single private ownership in Europe, with over 17,000 jobs in 400 businesses. Blackberry, McAfee, Burger King, DHL, Telefonica and Lego have head offices in the town.
From the mid-17th century, began to pass through Slough and Salt Hill (later absorbed into Slough), which became locations for the second stage to change horses on the journey out from London. By 1838 and the opening of the Great Western Railway, Upton-cum-Chalvey's parish population had reached 1,502. In 1849, a branch line was completed from Slough to Windsor & Eton Central, opposite Windsor Castle, for Queen Victoria's convenience.
1918 saw a large area of agricultural land to the west of Slough developed as an army motor repair depot, used to store and repair huge numbers of motor vehicles coming back from the battlefields of the First World War in Flanders. In April 1920, the Government sold the site and its contents to the Slough Trading Co. Ltd. Repair of ex-army vehicles continued until 1925, when the Slough Trading Company Act was passed allowing the company (renamed Segro) to establish an Industrial park.Fraser (1973), p. 109. Spectacular growth and employment ensued, with Slough attracting workers from many parts of the UK and abroad. Slough Town Hall, which was designed by Charles Holloway James and Stephen Rowland Pierce, was completed in 1937.
During the Second World War, Slough experienced a series of The Blitz, mostly in October 1940 (the largest number of people, five, dying as a result of a raid on the 13th), and an emergency hospital treating casualties from London was set up in Slough. Local air raid deaths and deaths at the hospital account for the 23 civilian lives recorded lost in the borough area.[2] CWGC Cemetery Report. Accessed 18 September 2012. Information in this paragraph based on attached casualty reports.
After the war, several further large housing developments arose to take large numbers of people migrating from war-damaged London. Between 1955 and 1957 the town was the site of the Slough experiment, a large-scale road safety trial.
The old Slough library was opened on 28 November 1974. It was officially called the Robert Taylor Library, named after Alderman Taylor in recognition of his contribution to the library service. The library was officially opened by the Mayor, Councillor DR Peters, on 15 May 1975. It was demolished in May 2017 as part of the programme of redevelopment in the town centre.
In December 2009, two key components of the project were signed: the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) signed its agreement to provide £11m of funding for infrastructure and Thames Valley University (TVU) courses which were due to remain in the town found a new home at the Centre in Farnham Road, Slough. In parallel to the town centre redevelopment plan, Segro (owner of the Slough Trading Estate) planned to spend £600 million over the following 20 years on the estate. This was intended to create environmentally sustainable buildings, open green spaces, two hotels, a conference centre, cafés, restaurants and better transport facilities to improve links to Slough town centre and the surrounding residential areas. It was claimed that the plan would create more than 4,100 new jobs and contribute around £100m a year to Slough's economy. If both plans went ahead, nearly £1 billion would be spent on redeveloping Slough over the next 20 years.
In 2009, Herschel Park (known as Upton Park until 1949), named for astronomer William Herschel, was relandscaped in a multimillion-pound effort to bring it back to its former Victorian era glory. Herschel Park multi-million Pound refurbishment. The park was featured in an episode of the documentary programme Who Do You Think You Are? focusing on the TV presenter Davina McCall.
In 2010, £2 million was set aside to improve disabled access to Slough railway station in preparation for an expected increase in use during the 2012 London Olympics. Preparations were under way for the regeneration of the Britwell suburb of Slough, involving tearing down a dilapidated block of flats and the closing of the public house the Jolly Londoner in Wentworth Avenue and replacing them with new homes, as well as relocating the shopping parade in the street to nearby Kennedy Park.
As part of the Heart of Slough project, construction work on a new bus station began in March 2010, following weeks of demolition work to half of the existing bus station and the removal of Compair House near the railway station. It was opened in May 2011.
Redevelopment on this scale has been strongly criticised by conservation groups. The Twentieth Century Society has stated that
A tragically high quantity of good buildings have been demolished in Slough in recent years, including grand Art-Deco-styled factories by the likes of Wallis Gilbert and high-quality post-war offices. More are to come down as the town tries to erase its past and reinvent itself from scratch. Despite famously heckling Slough, John Betjeman's praise for the town hall's architecture as 'a striving for unity out of chaos' in 1948 has never been so relevant as today. C20 believes that the redevelopment of the town hall would be an act of vandalism to the civic centre and is supporting the Campaign to Save Slough's Heritage in their request for a review of the decision.
During November 2016, the Slough Queensmere and Observatory shopping centres were sold to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) in a deal worth £130 million.
In February 2025, it was reported that the council was considering a number of options to merge with larger local authorities, including joining a London borough or becoming part of the Greater London Authority.
Most of the area that now makes up Slough was anciently part of Buckinghamshire, however, Poyle was historically in Middlesex. The town developed by the expansion and amalgamation of villages along the Great West Road. Over the years Slough has expanded greatly, incorporating a number of different villages. Original villages that are now suburbs of Slough include Chalvey, Cippenham, Colnbrook, Langley, Poyle, Upton, and Wexham.
Named neighbourhoods include Brands Hill, Britwell, Huntercombe, Manor Park, Salt Hill, Upton Lea and Windsor Meadows. The urban area merges into the neighbouring parishes of Burnham, a small area of Taplow near Cippenham, Farnham Royal and Stoke Poges which remain in the county of Buckinghamshire and Datchet which is in Berkshire. Eton is narrowly buffer zone by the Jubilee River and by green space (mainly the college playing fields) from part of Slough, and the two areas formerly formed the Eton birth, marriages and deaths registration district.
Rainfall is low compared to most of the British Isles, with under annually, and 105 days reporting over 1 mm of rain.
Despite its diverse population, English is the most spoken language in 2021, with over 110,212 citing English as their first language. Those stating other languages is significantly lower due to the large shares of the British Asians and Black population speaking English as their first language. Aside from English, the most commonly spoken languages are Punjabi language, Polish language, and Urdu.Census 2021 - Slough Insights Retrieved 19 June 2024.
| + Top countries of birth (2021 census) ! Country of birth ! Number resident | |
| United Kingdom | 87,350 |
| India | 17,107 |
| Pakistan | 14,418 |
| Poland | 8,912 |
| Romania | 3,551 |
| Kenya | 1,940 |
| Sri Lanka | 1,385 |
| Somalia | 1,336 |
| Italy | 1,125 |
| Philippines | 1,064 |
Such local government districts were converted into urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894. In 1900 the Slough urban district was enlarged to absorb most of the residual parts of the old Upton-cum-Chalvey parish that had been outside the urban district, including Chalvey. The urban district was further enlarged in 1930, when it was significantly expanded to take in most of the neighbouring parish of Langley (including the village), the Salt Hill area from the parish of Farnham Royal, and the Cippenham area from the parish of Burnham. In 1938 the urban district was incorporated to become a municipal borough.
In 1974, the Municipal Borough of Slough was replaced by a larger non-metropolitan district with borough status called Slough. The enlarged district gained the Britwell and Wexham Court areas, and was transferred from Buckinghamshire to Berkshire. The borough was enlarged in 1995 to take in Colnbrook with Poyle.
In 1998 Slough Borough Council became a unitary authority when Berkshire County Council was abolished and the borough council took on the former county council's functions in the borough.
Since 2015, Slough has had a Youth Parliament to represent the views of younger people.
In the mid-19th century, the only major employer apart from the brickfields was James Elliman, who started as a draper in Chandos Street. In 1847, he changed business and manufactured his Elliman's Embrocation and Royal Embrocation horse liniment at factories in Wellington Street and Chandos Street. Elliman became a major benefactor to the town, and is remembered today in the names of local roads and schools.
In September 1851, William Thomas Buckland, an auctioneer and surveying from nearby Wraysbury, began livestock sales in a field near the Great Western Road Railway Station belonging to the North Star Inn. Originally held on the first Tuesday of every month, the Cattle Market's popularity soon saw this increased to every Tuesday. A move to Wexham Street was necessitated by the postwar redevelopment of the town. The Slough Cattle Market was run by Messrs Buckland and Sons until its final closure in 1988. The History of Buckland & Sons by Edward Barry Bowyer FRICS (1973).
In 1906, Horlicks, one of the founders of the eponymous Horlicks company, opened a purpose-built red-brick factory near Slough Railway Station to manufacture his malted milk product. In 2015, the business was sold by Glaxo Smith Kline and in 2017, manufacturing at the site ceased altogether. The site is currently proposed to become residential making use of the original buildings as much as possible.
Starting in the 1920s, Slough Estates Ltd, the operator of the original Slough Trading Estate, created and operated many more estates in the UK and abroad. The Slough Trading Estate meant that the town was largely insulated from many of the effects of recession. For many years, Slough's economy was mainly manufacturing-based. The company Zwicky Limited, a manufacturer of liquid pumps, filters, compression valves and aircraft refuelling units, runway sweepers were based in Slough.
In the last 20 or so years, there has been a major shift from a manufacturing to an information-based economy, with the closure of many factories (some of which had been in Slough for many decades). The factories are rapidly being replaced by office buildings. Hundreds of major companies have sited in Slough Trading Estate over the years, with its proximity to London Heathrow Airport and good motorway connections being attractive. In the 1960s, Gerry Anderson's film company was based in Slough, and his Supermarionation series, including Thunderbirds, were filmed there.
The UK headquarters of Mars, Incorporated is in Slough, the main factory having been established in 1932 by Forrest Mars Sr. and Frank C. Mars. It produced the Mars Bar in Slough over 70 years ago. One of the Mars factories has been demolished and some production has moved to the Czech Republic. The European head offices of major IT companies such as BlackBerry, McAfee, CA Technologies, PictureTel and Compusys (among others) are all in the town. O2 is headquartered in the town across four buildings. The town is also home to the business support organisation Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce Group and National Foundation for Educational Research, which is housed in the Mere.
Recent new offices include those of Nintendo, Black and Decker and Abbey business centres. Location of registered office of Amazon.co.uk Ltd. Retrieved 27 December 2008. The registered office of Furniture Village lies in the town. "Furniture Village Limited", Companies House. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
The motor trade has long been represented in Slough. Until 1966, Citroën assembled cars in a Liverpool Road factory (later used by Mars Confectionery), and it retains its UK headquarters in the town. Ford built D Series and Ford Cargo lorries at its factory in Langley (a former Hawker Aircraft site) from 1936 to the 1950sp120, The Changing Face of Slough, Slough Museum, Breedon Books, Derby, 2003 until the site was redeveloped for housing in the 1990s. Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Fiat and Maserati now have offices in the town.
Reading: Great Western Railway operate fast services to Reading every half an hour which take about 15 minutes, as well as slow services every fifteen minutes which take 30 minutes.
London Paddington: Great Western Railway operate express services to London every half an hour which take 14 minutes, as well as slow services every fifteen minutes taking 26 minutes.
Slough has services on the Elizabeth line, a new railway line across central London opened in 2022.[10]
The Western Rail Approach to Heathrow is a £500m rail project announced by the Department for Transport; Network Rail announced the route in 2014. It will directly serve Slough with four trains every hour, reducing travel times to Heathrow to six minutes. It is expected to be operational in the early 2020s.
Slough Cricket Club play at the Upton Park ground.
Slough RFC is a Rugby union club that also plays at Upton Park.
Slough Hockey Club is a field hockey club that also plays at Upton Park and competes in the Women's England Hockey League and the South Central Hockey League.
Slough Jets is an ice hockey team that plays in the NIHL South Division 1.
Reading F.C. Womens and Republic of Ireland Womens goalkeeper Grace Moloney was born and lives in the town.
Thames Valley University (Slough Campus) is currently closed due to the Heart of Slough project. The new campus was scheduled to be opened in 2013 as part of the University of West London, but as of March 2022 there had been no progress, as the former site of the university had been sold for housing.
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