It was a suburb of London and formed part of the Metropolitan Police District.
It was created as an urban district on 1 April 1934 from parts of the abolished districts of Bromley Rural District and Chislehurst Urban District, taking in the entirety of Chelsfield, Cudham, and Knockholt parishes, and most of Farnborough, part of Keston, most of Orpington, most of St Mary Cray, part of St Paul's Cray and part of West Wickham.
The area of the new urban district was re-constituted as a single civil parish called Orpington; as an urban parish it had no parish council, with Orpington Urban District Council being the lowest level representative body.
[1] The urban district was within the Metropolitan Police District and part of the review area of the Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London.
Its former area was combined with that of other districts to form the London Borough of Bromley.