Basingstoke is an affluent, low-unemployment and well-to-do town in Hampshire with a population of around 150,000 inhabitants (including nearby villages). The local region`s financial hub, Basingstoke is also the home of Britain`s oldest and most respected motoring organisation, the AA, who have their central office in the town.
At the present time the town economy is mainly based around the industries of electronics, pharmaceuticals and insurance, although it also boasts a vibrant retail sector especially since the completion in 2002 of the Festival Place shopping centre, home to all the big high-street names. The town centre also has arts and entertainment venues like the Haymarket Theatre, the Milestones Museum of local history and the Vue cinema to pull in the crowds. Basingstoke is situated near Reading and the county town of Winchester and has efficient transport links to surrounding urban centres as well as the capital, and so it has proved an extremely popular place for commuters to live: the town has ideal placement for access to both M3 and M4 motorways as well as only being 45 minutes from Waterloo on the train. The area`s Tudor past can be seen to this day in the ruins of Basing House which stand in the village of Old Basing just outside the main urban sprawl of Basingstoke. In more recent years the town`s population mushroomed as London`s commuter belt moved outwards with the growth of the capital, and in the sixties the town centre was totally rebuilt converting a once historic town to a much-mocked maze of concrete which, it was joked, was only fit for accountants to live in.