Business events in Farnborough

Where British aviation started

On 16 October 1908 Samuel Cody flew British Army Aeroplane No. 1 for 1,390 feet over Farnborough. The Farnborough Air Sciences Trust calls it the first official flight of a heavier-than-air machine in Great Britain. Flying here goes back further still: the Royal Engineers Balloon School moved from Aldershot to Farnborough in 1905. After Blériot crossed the Channel in 1909, the War Office set up the Royal Aircraft Factory here that December, and the Royal Flying Corps followed in 1912. The trust's view is that no other single place in the world has contributed so much to aeronautical science over so long.

That history still shapes the town. Farnborough International runs a purpose-built exhibition and conference centre of more than 20,000 square metres, the Farnborough International Airshow, and film studios on the same site.

The town centre

The ONS counted 60,655 people in the Farnborough built-up area at the 2021 Census, making it the larger of Rushmoor's two towns. The borough council describes a centre of high street names, independent businesses and retail parks, with Princes Mead and The Meads shopping centres and a cinema. The market runs on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The ONS business counts are only published for the whole of Rushmoor, which includes Aldershot: 3,395 enterprises in 2026. Of those, 2,940 had fewer than ten staff and 25 employed 250 people or more.

South of the centre, the council has outline planning permission, granted in February 2023, for a civic quarter on land that includes the now-demolished Elles Hall and police station, with up to 960 homes, a new leisure facility, a hotel and more than 1.93 hectares of green space including a central park. The council says it is moving ahead with detailed plans for the leisure facility.

Getting here

Farnborough has two stations, each with its own operator: Farnborough (Main), managed by South Western Railway, and Farnborough North, managed by Great Western Railway. Check which one suits your journey before you set off.

Meeting in Farnborough

We have pages for Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre, Holiday Inn Farnborough, Village Hotel Farnborough and Farnborough Masonic Centre. Aldershot and Fleet are close, and North Hampshire covers the area as a whole.