Portal:South East England
The South East England Portal
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England that are in the top level category for statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex. South East England is the third-largest region of England, with a land area of 19,072 square kilometres (7,364 sq mi), and is also the most populous with a total population of 9,642,942 in 2024.
South East England contains eight legally chartered cities: Brighton and Hove, Canterbury, Chichester, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Portsmouth, Southampton and Winchester. Officially it does not include London, which is a separate region. The geographical term for "South East England" may differ from the official definition of the region; for example, London, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex are sometimes colloquially referred to as being in the south east of England. This article only considers the South East as being the official statistical region.
In medieval times, South East England included much of the Kingdom of Wessex, which was the precursor to the modern state of England. Winchester was the capital of England after unification of the various states, including the kingdoms of Kent, Sussex and Mercia. Winchester stopped being the administrative capital of England some time in the 13th century as its influence waned while the City of London dominated commerce. The last monarch to be crowned at Winchester was Richard II in 1377, although the last monarch to be crowned by the Bishop of Winchester was Queen Mary I in 1553.
Today, the region's close proximity to London has led to South East England becoming a prosperous economic hub with the largest economy of any region in the UK, after London. The region is home to Gatwick Airport (the UK's second busiest airport). The coastline along the English Channel provides numerous ferry crossings to mainland Europe. South East England is also known for its countryside, which includes two national parks: the New Forest and the South Downs, as well as the North Downs, the Chiltern Hills and part of the Cotswolds. The River Thames flows through the region and its basin is known as the Thames Valley.
It is also the location of a number of internationally known places of interest, such as HMS Victory in Portsmouth, Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, Thorpe Park and RHS Wisley in Surrey, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, Windsor Castle in Berkshire, Leeds Castle, the White Cliffs of Dover and Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, Brighton Palace Pier, and Hammerwood Park in East Sussex, and Wakehurst Place in West Sussex. The region has many universities; the University of Oxford is the oldest in the English-speaking world, and ranked among the best in the world.
South East England is host to various sporting events, including the annual Henley Royal Regatta, Royal Ascot and The Derby, and sporting venues include Wentworth Golf Club and Brands Hatch. Some of the events of the 2012 Summer Olympics were held in the south east, including the rowing at Eton Dorney and part of the cycling road race in the Surrey Hills. (Full article...)
Selected article
Wormshill (/wɜːrmzˈhɪl/ wurmz-HIL), historically Wormsell, is a small village and civil parish within the Borough of Maidstone, Kent, England. The parish is approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of the Swale and 8 mi (13 km) east of Maidstone. The village of Frinsted lies 0.6 mi (1 km) to the east and Bicknor 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) to the north-west; while Hollingbourne is 3 mi (5 km) to the south-west. The village lies on an exposed high point of the North Downs, within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Archaeological and toponymic evidence of Wormshill's existence predates its appearance in the Domesday Book of 1086. The village contains a number of heritage-listed buildings, which include a Norman church, a public house and one of the oldest surviving post office buildings in the United Kingdom. The fields and woodland surrounding Wormshill have changed little in the past 500 years, and the village itself remains rural with a low population density compared to the national average. The population of 200 is a mixture of agricultural workers employed by local farms, and professional residents who commute to nearby towns. (Full article...)
Selected pictures
Slough Trading Estate plays a major part in making Slough an important business centre in South East England (from Portal:Berkshire/Selected pictures)
The church at Breamore in the west of the county, north of the New Forest (from Portal:Hampshire/Selected pictures)
Credit: Tony HobbsScotney Castle is a country house with gardens in the valley of the River Bewl in Kent, England. (from Portal:Kent/Selected pictures)
The grandstand at Ascot Racecourse (from Portal:Berkshire/Selected pictures)
The interior of Portsmouth Cathedral (from Portal:Hampshire/Selected pictures)
One of the several golf courses in Woking's borough in the mid/north-west of the county (from Portal:Surrey/Selected pictures)
Credit: Marco SinibaldiAround AD 50 the Romans built a lighthouse which still stands to its full height in the grounds of Dover Castle. (from Portal:Kent/Selected pictures)
Oxford skyline from the University Church of St Mary the Virgin (from Portal:Oxfordshire/Selected pictures)
Trees on Southampton Common in winter (from Portal:Hampshire/Selected pictures)
Credit: CharlesdrakewThe bridge over the River Arun at Greatham. (from Portal:West Sussex/Selected pictures)
The lower end of the Staines-upon-Thames reach of the Thames, showing typical trees of the next reach and Penton Hook Island, a small nature reserve. (from Portal:Surrey/Selected pictures)
Mermaid Street in Rye showing typically steep slope and cobbled surface (from Portal:East Sussex/Selected pictures)
Walton Bridge built in the 2010s is a landmark of the northerly Spelthorne and Elmbridge boroughs (from Portal:Surrey/Selected pictures)
Georgian hotel/restaurant typical of many larger Surrey villages and its oldest towns. (from Portal:Surrey/Selected pictures)
View looking east along West Street, New Alresford (from Portal:Hampshire/Selected pictures)
Epsom Downs, a racecourse which hosts The Derby annually. One of four in the county. (from Portal:Surrey/Selected pictures)
McLaren Technology Centre, Woking (from Portal:Surrey/Selected pictures)
Credit: O1iveSt Mary in Castro (or St Mary de Castro) is the church at Dover Castle.(from Portal:Kent/Selected pictures)
Credit: Paddy BriggsSt Lawrence Ground is the home of Kent County Cricket Club and is notable as a first-class cricket ground that has a tree within the boundary. (from Portal:Kent/Selected pictures)
Hayling Island's mainly shingle beach with Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower beyond (from Portal:Hampshire/Selected pictures)
Windsor Castle, viewed from the Long Walk (from Portal:Berkshire/Selected pictures)
Credit: Michael HaslamHowletts Wild Animal Park was set up as a private zoo in 1958 by John Aspinall in Canterbury, Kent. (from Portal:Kent/Selected pictures)
Great Fosters restaurant/hotel, Runnymede (from Portal:Surrey/Selected pictures)
Donnington Castle in Berkshire (from Portal:Berkshire/Selected pictures)
The West window of Romsey Abbey (from Portal:Hampshire/Selected pictures)
Reading Festival in 2007 (from Portal:Berkshire/Selected pictures)
Credit: Hans MusilCanterbury Cathedral is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site. (from Portal:Kent/Selected pictures)
Highclere Castle in the far north of Hampshire, a large country house in the Jacobethan style by the architect Charles Barry, with a large park designed by Capability Brown, used as the set for Downton Abbey. (from Portal:Hampshire/Selected pictures)
Painshill Park in Cobham has follies on natural, but landscaped slopes by part of the Mole disguised as ornamental lakes and the Great Cedar thought to be the largest Cedar of Lebanon in Europe. In the mid-north of the county. (from Portal:Surrey/Selected pictures)
. (from Portal:East Sussex/Selected pictures)
Credit: Adam MillerThe Swale refers to the strip of water separating North Kent from the Isle of Sheppey. (from Portal:Kent/Selected pictures)
Credit: O1iveDover is a major channel port in the English county of Kent (from Portal:Kent/Selected pictures)
Twyford Post Office and stores, between Winchester and Southampton (from Portal:Hampshire/Selected pictures)
Credit: Dave Bushell.A Eurostar on High Speed 1 going through the Medway Towns (from Portal:Kent/Selected pictures)
Odiham High Street in the north-east of Hampshire (from Portal:Hampshire/Selected pictures)
Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park in the north-west of the county (from Portal:Surrey/Selected pictures)
The mill at Greywell in the north-east of Hampshire (from Portal:Hampshire/Selected pictures)
Credit: StephenDawsonThe Channel Tunnel terminal at Cheriton near Folkestone in Kent, from the Pilgrims' Way on the escarpment on the southern edge of Cheriton Hill, part of the North Downs. (from Portal:Kent/Selected pictures)
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Selected biography
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Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He is known primarily for both his solo career and his eight-year run as the founder and lead vocalist of Genesis. A winner of multiple major awards, he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis and as a solo artist.
While attending Charterhouse School in Surrey, Gabriel was a member of the band Garden Wall, which merged into Genesis in 1967. Beginning with From Genesis to Revelation (1969), Gabriel acted as their lead vocalist and principal lyricist, and several of the albums released during his tenure, such as Nursery Cryme (1971), Foxtrot (1972) and Selling England by the Pound (1973), are considered progressive rock classics. Known for his theatrical performances and stage costumes, Gabriel's relations with his bandmates became strained around the release of the concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in 1974, and Gabriel left the band in 1975 following a world tour to support the album. He was replaced by drummer Phil Collins. Gabriel took a brief musical hiatus before launching a successful solo career with four self-titled studio albums, which spanned progressive rock, new wave, post-punk, and world music styles. They contained the hit singles "Solsbury Hill" (1977), "Games Without Frontiers" (1980), "Shock the Monkey" (1982), and "Biko" (1980), a protest song against apartheid in South Africa.
In 1986, Gabriel released the worldbeat-influenced album So, his best-selling release; it is certified triple-platinum in the UK and quintuple-platinum in the US. Considered to be one of the best albums of the 1980s, it transformed him from a cult artist into an international superstar. The album's most successful single, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards. A 2011 Time report said "Sledgehammer" was the most played music video of all time on MTV. He released further albums Us (1992) and Up (2002), the latter his last album of new songs for 21 years. During the interim, he contributed the song "Down to Earth" to the Pixar film WALL-E (2008), recorded a cover album of other artists' songs, Scratch My Back (2010), and sponsored a companion album on which his own songs were covered by the same artists, And I'll Scratch Yours (2013). He embarked on the Back to Front Tour (2012–14), and the Rock Paper Scissors Tour with Sting (2016). Gabriel released a new album, I/O, in 2023, and supported it with the I/O The Tour that year. He has been releasing songs to the lunar cycle for the follow-up album O\I (2026).
A supporter of world music for much of his career, Gabriel co-founded the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival in 1982 and wrote the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), which is considered a landmark in the world and new age genres. He founded Real World Studios in Wiltshire, where he produces and promotes world music through his Real World Records label. Gabriel was an early pioneer of digital distribution methods for music through his co-founding of OD2, one of the first online music download services. He has also been involved in numerous humanitarian efforts. Beginning with Amnesty International’s A Conspiracy of Hope tour in 1986, he has headlined several human rights benefit concerts, including Amnesty's Human Rights Now! tour in 1988, and co-created the human rights organisation Witness in 1992. He developed the idea for The Elders, an organisation of public figures recognised as peace activists, alongside Nelson Mandela and Richard Branson in 2007.
Gabriel has won three Brit Awards, seven Grammy Awards, 13 MTV Video Music Awards, the inaugural Pioneer Award at the BT Digital Music Awards, the Q Lifetime Achievement, the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Polar Music Prize. He was named a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI London Awards for his "influence on generations of music makers". In recognition of his human rights activism, he received the Man of Peace award from the Nobel Peace Prize laureates in 2006, and Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people worldwide in 2008. AllMusic has described him as "one of rock's most ambitious, innovative musicians, as well as one of its most political". In 2026, Loudwire ranked him as the second greatest progressive rock singer of all time. In recognition of his musical achievements, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of South Australia in 2015. (Full article...)
On This Day in South East England
8 August:
1963: The Great Train Robbery took place at Ledburn in Buckinghamshire.
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