The London Borough of Bexley is within the Thames Gateway, an area designated as a national priority for urban regeneration.

Prior to the 19th century the area now forming the borough was sparsely populated: very few of the present settlements were mentioned in the Domesday Book, although the village of Bexley has a charter dated 814 AD.

[11] The coat of arms of the borough depicts symbols for the main rivers in the area, the Bexley Charter Oak, the industry and the Kent boundary.

The ridge of higher ground in South London crosses the Borough from its high point of Shooters Hill, on the boundary with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, to end above the River Thames at Belvedere, where the land drops down to the old port of Erith.

This high land, whose geology is the sand and pebbles of the Blackheath beds,[13] and which results in heathland, provided a natural course for the old Roman road of Watling Street, which ran between Crayford and Welling.

By the earlier 20th century, both were created Urban District Councils (UDC), as was Foots Cray (an ancient village site).

Crayford was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and its parish later included the hamlets of North End and Slade Green.

Other settlements include Welling, which has a higher population than Bexleyheath, a staging post on the Dover Road, which was at one time of less importance than the nearby East Wickham (also an ancient village), was absorbed in Bexley UDC.

Some came into being when large estates and farmland were broken up for the sole purpose of suburban building: these include Blackfen, Lamorbey and part of Falconwood.

The Borough owns and maintains over one hundred parks and open spaces, large and small; and there is still a part of the Erith Marshes bordering the River Thames.

The largest of the open spaces are Foots Cray Meadows, Lesnes Abbey Woods, Danson Park and Hall Place Gardens.

Hall Place is a former stately home, today a Grade I listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument, beside the River Cray on the outskirts of Crayford, south-east of Bexleyheath and north-east of Old Bexley.

It is situated just off the A223, Bourne Road, south of Watling Street (A207) and north of the Black Prince interchange of the A2 Rochester Way with the A220.

Currently, the building houses a museum of local artefacts, and a history and tourist information centre.

Hall Place also has three galleries inside the house, presenting art exhibitions and museum displays.

[16] The greater part of the population are nominal Anglicans, but there are a number of Roman Catholic churches and nonconformist congregations.

In 2008 the former Crayford Methodist Church was purchased by the North West Kent Muslim Association to become a mosque serving Bexley and Dartford boroughs.

The principal roads through the Borough include the A2 trunk road; the A20 (Sidcup By-pass) which generally marks its southern boundary; the A207, which is the route of the erstwhile Watling Street; the A206 which takes traffic from Woolwich and Dartford; and the latter's newer counterpart, the A2016 through Thamesmead.