A short history of the city of Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city on the River Nene in the north-west of Cambridgeshire in the east of England. It is situated 75 miles north of London.
The city has been a unitary authority area since 1998 with an estimated population of 164,000 (at June 2007).
Peterborough was designated a New Town in 1967 following the New Towns Act after the Second World War. The Peterborough Development Corporation was formed in partnership with the city and county councils to house London's overspill population in new townships, namely Bretton, Orton and Paston/Werrington. A fourth, Castor, was never built but the Hampton township sits to the south of the city and continues to grow.
Are you a Peterborough ex-pat? Tell us your story
Peterborough rail station lies upon the East Coast Main Line route from London King's Cross (a 50 minute journey) running up to Edinburgh and also connects directly with Cambridge, East Anglia, the Midlands and the west of England. By road it intersects the A1(M) for north-south journeys and the A14 and A47 along east-west routes.
Information and demographics
| Population | 163,300 |
| Population density | 1,238/sq mi (478/km2) |
| Ethnicity | 86.8% White; 8.2% Asian or Asian British; 2.1% Black or Black British; 1.1% Chinese or Other; 1.8% Mixed Race |
| Telephone area code | 01733 |
| Postcode area | PE |
Population data source: ONS 2009.
Peterboroughs around the world
We might like to think that we Peterborians are special, but in fact there are quite a few of us scattered across the globe. There's a Peterborough in Canada, another in Australia and a few more besides.
