Camberley, United Kingdom

Camberley is in the far west of Surrey, adjacent to the boundaries of Hampshire's Hart district and Berkshire's Bracknell Forest district. It lies directly between the A30 national route and M3 motorway (junction 4 exit). It is at the northern edge of the Blackwater Valley conurbation, 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Farnborough, 8 miles (13 km) south of Bracknell and 17 miles (27 km) east of Basingstoke.

The town of Blackwater, 3 km (1.9 mi) to the west is identified by the Government Statistical Service (including its ONS office) as within the Camberley Built-up-Area but is in the Hart District of Hampshire and has its own town council (both take in Hawley).

Camberley primarily lies on the Bagshot Beds, deposited in the Eocene. This sandy layer contains seams of clay and areas of pebble gravel.

Camberley's town centre is host to The Square shopping centre, controversially purchased by Surrey Heath Borough Council for £110 million in 2016. This is a late 1980s development. The High Street has a number of shops as well as bars and clubs. There are a number of secondary shopping streets including Park Street, Princess Way and parts of London Road, including the "Atrium" development. Camberley's town centre is suffering a decline in footfall and increases in vacancies as shoppers in affluent areas move their spending online and towards leisure and experience activities as opposed to traditional retail.

Major employers include Siemens, which moved its UK headquarters to the area in 2007. Burlington Group who moved into Watchmoor Park in 2009 and Sun Microsystems, until they were taken over by Oracle in 2010, whose UK headquarters was located just across the Hampshire border in Minley next to the M3 motorway at junction 4a. Krispy Kreme UK are based in Albany Park, an industrial estate just outside Camberley in nearby Frimley.

Camberley Theatre, in Knoll Road, opened as the Camberley Civic Hall on 1 October 1966. It closed in May 1995 for a £1.3M refurbishment and reopened as Camberley ArtsLink in November of the same year. In December 2001, the venue was again rebranded, adopting its current name. A second refurbishment, involving the rebuilding of the frontage, was completed in December 2021.

There are several works of public art in Camberley. The Concrete Elephant, adjacent to the London Road in Yorktown, was installed at the yard of Trollope & Colls in 1964. It had been commissioned for the Lord Mayor's Show the previous year and the artist, Barbara Jones, designed the sculpture using pipework from the company's product range. The current tenants of the site, HSS Hire, are required to maintain the artwork as part of their lease.

Into Our First World, by Ken Ford, was unveiled outside the borough council offices in March 1993. The sculpture, cast in silicon bronze, depicts a figure reclining beneath a tree. It explores the relationship between humanity and the natural world, and its form echoes the sweet chestnut tree growing behind it. The Right Way, by Rick Kirby was unveiled outside the Atrium in January 2009. It depicts three metal figures pointing in different directions along Park Street and Obelisk Way.

The first school to open in the Camberley area, a National school, was established in 1818. Originally housed in a cottage close to the Royal Military College, one of its early pupils was the composer, Arthur Sullivan. In 1871, it moved to a site adjacent to the St Michael's Church vicarage. By 1872, there was a second school in Yorktown, which may have been a school for nonconformists, although its origins are uncertain.

The first Cordwalles School was founded in Elliot Place, Greenwich, in 1805 and one of its early pupils was the future prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli. In 1875, it moved to Cordwalls Farm, Maidenhead, from which it acquired its name. The school merged with Kingswood School, Camberley, which had been established on part of the former Collinwood Estate in 1910. In 1939, the school was evacuated to Market Drayton, but did not return to Camberley at the end of the war. The site was used by Ballard School in the 1950s.

Barossa Secondary School began teaching its first pupils in September 1963, although the official opening ceremony did not take place for another two years. The secondary modern school, on the Old Dean estate, was constructed on a site adjacent to the former Ballard School.