Redhill, Surrey

Redhill does the shopping, the commuting and the Friday nights so Reigate doesn't have to, and Reigate has never once said thank you. The town exists because a turnpike and then the Brighton railway needed a gap in the Greensand Ridge, and it has behaved like a junction ever since, with most of its traffic on the way to somewhere else. It started out as Warwick Town and only became Redhill when the post office moved, which tells you everything about a place that answers to wherever the mail and the trains happen to be.