Leighton Buzzard, United Kingdom

Leighton Buzzard developed into a thriving market town supported by good road, canal and, later, rail links to the agricultural hinterland and London. The town's market charter was granted in 1086 and is still active today. The High Street has numerous historical buildings, more than 70 of which are listed. They include the notable Bank Building on the Market Square (now home to Barclays Bank), designed by the eminent architect Alfred Waterhouse, designer of London's Natural History Museum, London. They also include the Old Town Hall, later used as a fire station and now as a restaurant.

The Grand Junction Canal opened in 1800. It skirted the western edge of the town, but lay just over the parish and county boundary (the River Ouzel), being in the neighbouring parish of Linslade in Buckinghamshire. The London and Birmingham Railway was built in the 1830s and passed just over half a mile west of the centre of Leighton Buzzard; Leighton railway station opened with the line in 1838. Although named after Leighton Buzzard, the station (like the canal) was actually in the parish of Linslade. When built, the station was in open countryside, with Linslade village lying 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the station at what is now known as Old Linslade. New development was subsequently laid out between the station and the canal, known initially as Chelsea or New Linslade, before assuming the name Linslade.

Linslade has always had Leighton Buzzard postal addresses, forming part of the Leighton Buzzard post town. Linslade remained administratively separate from Leighton Buzzard until 1965, when it was transferred from Buckinghamshire to Bedfordshire, and the urban districts of Leighton Buzzard and Linslade merged into a single Leighton-Linslade Urban District. The Office for National Statistics uses the name Leighton Buzzard for the whole built-up area, including Linslade.

The town has had a long association with the Rothschild family, since Lionel de Rothschild bought neighbouring farmlands to the west of the town in 1873. Over time the farm developed into the Ascott House estate located less than 2 miles (3 km) from the town. In the late 19th century, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild used the now demolished Leighton House and its stabling, on the High Street, as a hunting box. The family still maintain links with the town through their ownership of Southcourt Stud in Southcote.

The town has a strong history of dissenters and is home to one of the oldest Friends meeting houses in the region. Established in the 18th century, local Quakers continue to meet in the Meeting House on North Street.

After the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 Leighton Buzzard became the centre of a poor law union that consisted of 15 surrounding parishes with the union workhouse (still standing) being sited in Grovebury Road.

In 1847, additional land was obtained adjacent to the workhouse on which to build an isolation hospital. It had twenty beds over three wards, one each for patients with diphtheria, scarlet fever and typhoid. Jane Sarah Downer was appointed nurse-matron of the hospital in 1899, and worked there until at least 1911. Downer had trained under Eva Luckes at The London Hospital between 1895 and 1897, and then worked on the Private Nursing Staff for one year, before her appointment as matron in Leighton Buzzard.

During World War II, RAF Leighton Buzzard, a secret communications facility described as "the largest telephone exchange in the world", was located to the south of Stanbridge Road. Also the headquarters of No. 60 Group RAF, which controlled the air defence radar network across Britain, operated from Oxenden House (now demolished) off Plantation Road.

The Great Train Robbery took place in 1963 at Bridego Bridge just outside Leighton Buzzard. The robbers were held at the Old Police Station on Wing Road Linslade while waiting to be seen by the local magistrate after being captured a month after the robbery.

Leighton Buzzard station was the location for part of the film Robbery, which is based on the ‘Great Train Robbery’.

The UK's first and only TXE1 electronic telephone exchange went into service here in 1968. The large building, built on the site of the former Lake House, that housed this and later exchanges, can be found in Lake Street.

The population of Leighton-Linslade was originally recorded in the 2001 census as 32,417. Part of Billington parish was transferred in 2003 to Leighton-Linslade, and the revised census result including this area was 32,753. At the 2011 census, the population of the Leighton-Linslade built-up area was recorded by the Office for National Statistics as 37,469, and was estimated to have reached 43,203 in 2020.

The town is expanding southwards, with the development of sites in southern Leighton Buzzard through the Southern Leighton Buzzard Development Brief. It is also expanding eastwards, with several developments forming the Eastern Leighton Linslade Urban Extension Scheme.