Orpington is a town on the south-eastern edge of London, touching Kent. Its parish church – All Saints – stands upon pre-Norman foundations and has Saxon work visible. The town also hosts The Priory, a medieval house, rebuilt from an earlier design in 1290.

The town expanded with the arrival of the railway in 1868 and there are surviving late-Victorian terrace houses from that era, such as in the High Street. You can find semi-detached and terrace homes built in the interwar period in Elmcroft Road and Wellbrook Road and large detached houses from the latter period of the 20th century in Sevenoaks Road.

There are lots of very modern developments, such as the terrace houses in Broadwater Gardens and Chine Farm Place and new builds in Hazel Grove.

Kent has many port towns including Dover, Folkestone and Margate. Adjacent counties include East Sussex, Surrey, Essex (across the River Thames) and, as stated earlier, Greater London. Curiously, Kent used to contain an enclave north of the River Thames until 1965 which equates now to the E16 postcode area and which has now been reclassified as part of the London Borough of Newham. JMW Turner, the great impressionist painter, spent part of his childhood in Margate and regularly returned there in later life. The coastline of East Kent is regarded as the inspiration for many of his works, particularly his fantastic seascapes.