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Northampton is a large market town and a local government district in central England on the River Nene, and the county town of Northamptonshire, in the English East Midlands region.
The district has a population of 194,800, whilst the Urban Area has a population of 189,474. By this measurement, it is the 21st largest settlement in England and is the UK's third largest town without official city status, after Reading and Dudley. It is situated 67 miles (108 km) north of London.
Traditionally Northampton has been a major centre of shoemaking and other leather related industries. Shoemaking has virtually ceased, though the back streets of the town still show the pattern of small shoe factories surrounded by terraced houses for the outworkers. Northampton's main industries now include distribution and finance, and major employers include Barclaycard, Panasonic, Coca Cola & Schweppes Beverages Ltd, and Carlsberg.
Northampton is the most populous district in England not to be a unitary authority, a status it failed to obtain in the 1990s local government reform.
It is also one of the most populous urban districts not to be a London Borough, metropolitan borough or city; on this basis the council claims that it is the largest town in England. Various other boroughs could claim the title, sometimes taking into account areas outside their civic boundaries, or outlying areas not usually considered part of the town.
Northampton's population has increased greatly since the 1960s, largely due to planned expansion under the New Towns Commission in the early-1960s. Other factors are the rail link and the busy M1 motorway that both lead direct to London. Northampton is within 70 miles of central London, and by train it takes approximately 1 hour to journey between the two. This transport link to the South East has proved attractive, with already high house prices in and around London rising rapidly since the 1990s causing many people to move increasingly further away from the area in order to commute from more reasonably-priced housing. Most of Northampton's housing expansion has taken place to the east of the town with developments such as Canterbury Court, and on the western outskirts at Upton and to the south adjacent to an improved junction on the M1 at Grange Park, a development of some 1,500 houses actually in South Northants Council area.
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