page_title: Guildford
section_title: Administration
hierarchical_section_title: Guildford / Administration
caption_attribution_description: Guildford &amp; Cathedral of Surrey
context_page_description: Guildford
  is a town in Surrey, England, 27 miles southwest of London on the A3 trunk road midway between the capital and Portsmouth.
  The town has a population of about 80,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford which had an estimated 147,889 inhabitants in 2018.
  Guildford has Saxon roots and historians attribute its location to the existence of a gap in the North Downs where the River Wey was forded by the Harrow Way. By AD 978 it was home to an early English Royal Mint. The building of the Wey Navigation and the Basingstoke Canal in the 17th and 18th centuries, respectively, connected Guildford to a network of waterways that aided its prosperity. In the 20th century, the University of Surrey and the Anglican Guildford Cathedral were added.
  Due to recent development running north from Guildford, and linking to the Woking area, Guildford now officially forms the southwestern tip of the Greater London Built-up Area, as defined by the Office for National Statistics.
context_section_description: The town of Guildford forms part of the larger area administered by the borough of Guildford, which in turn forms part of the county of Surrey. Whilst the rest of the borough's area is split into civil parishes, the urban area of Guildford in unparished. Thus, within the town of Guildford, the Borough Council takes the role of both first and second tier local authority, whilst the County Council forms the third tier of local authority.
  Though often referred to as a city, Guildford is a town, but has applied for city status several times. Guildford's 2002 application to be granted the status of a city was unsuccessful, losing out to Preston, the only English town that was formally recognised as a city as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations. Traditionally, the establishment of a diocesan cathedral in a town conferred city status. Guildford is a significant economic hub in Surrey, a county with no cities.
  Although Guildford was historically regarded as the county town for Surrey, the council itself has its administrative base in Kingston upon Thames which, although formerly in Surrey, is now in Greater London. Public sector organisations of note that have headquarters in Guildford include Surrey Police, the South East England Development Agency and the Government Office for the South East.
caption: Guildford Cathedral
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