On the North Downs, it is on three of the four main compass points separated from other settlements by open area buffers with Metropolitan Green Belt status.

Banstead Downs, although a fragment of its larger historic area and spread between newer developments, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

The manor was owned by increasingly wealthy gentry, then by the church, before it fell into the hands of the Crown in the 13th century; Edward I visited more than once.

Henry VIII made Banstead part of Catherine of Aragon's dowry, but took it away again and gave it to a court favourite, Sir Nicholas Carew.

Carew was later beheaded for treason, but the manor, once covering most of the village but mostly sold piecemeal, stayed in his family until the 18th century.

On 20 November 1683, King Charles II and the Duke of York attended a race meeting near the core of the village.

The town also gained a reputation as a health resort during that era, famous for its "wholesome air", and London physicians recommended a visit to Banstead to their ailing patients.

Banstead's housing stock is generally low density and set in overwhelmingly green surroundings; there are a few listed buildings of some historical and architectural interest.

The area historically had many other hamlets, which gradually gained their own village or town status; they stretched as far as Reigate across the widest part of crest of the North Downs.

[20] There are various restaurants and coffee bars as well as largely upmarket independent stores and the professional offices: six estate agencies, three firms of solicitors and a notary public.

Other than High Street jobs the large village has some in the public sector: in council offices and NHS facilities to the west of the Banstead's centre, and in various local schools.

Self-employed such as contracting engineers and domestic tradespeople make up some of the labour force but most of Banstead's residents commute out of the district for employment: annual exits from the town's station rose from 93,069 in the tax year 2004–05 to 128,148 in 2011–12.

The Anglican parish church of All Saints, made of knapped flint, partially dressed in stone, with sturdy tower and medieval spire, was built in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Records survive showing the site of the church was donated by Nigel de Mowbray, Lord of the Manor.

Originally a Bronze Age bowl barrow, it was enlarged circa the sixteenth century, and is believed to have been the site of one of a series of beacons/bonfires that stretched from the south coast towards London warning of the arrival of the Spanish Armada.

After being sent by panel to treatment there in the late 1960s, singer-songwriter Vincent Crane wrote the song "Banstead," which featured on the 1970 album sharing his band's name Atomic Roooster.

The four tumuli (burial mounds) that can be seen on the Downs have been identified as dating from Saxon times and are known as the Gally Hills because they are the site of a 15th-century gallows.

Banstead Cricket Club have played at Avenue Road since its formation in 1842 making it one of the ten oldest in the county.

It is named after the wife of Sir Ralph Neville a local High Court judge who bought the land in 1895 when for sale as building plots.