Slough

Slough is one of the most ethnically diverse towns in the UK. It is home to the Slough Trading Estate, the United Kingdom's first such estate, the largest in single ownership, and one of the largest in Europe overall. This, coupled with extensive transport links, makes it one of the most important business centres in the south east of England.

The poet John Betjeman wrote, in his poem Slough as a protest against the 850 factories and a new town in what had been formerly a rural area, and the onslaught of the suburban lifestyle:

   Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
   It isn't fit for humans now
   There isn't grass to graze a cow.
   Swarm over, death! 

The BBC comedy series The Office is set in Slough, reiterating Betjeman's view of the place as a depressing industrial wasteland. In fact the character David Brent comments on Betjeman's poem in the series, and it also appears on the inside sleeve of the video and DVD of Series 1.