The town of Kingston upon Thames was an ancient borough, having been formally incorporated in 1441, with a long history prior to that as a royal manor dating back to Saxon times.

[11] Since 2000, for elections to the London Assembly, the borough forms part of the South West constituency.

Goldsmith retained his seat at the 2015 general election, with a greatly increased majority of 23,015.

[13] Goldsmith regained the seat for the Conservatives in the 2017 general election with a significantly reduced majority of 45 votes.

[15] In 1997 Ed Davey overturned the previous Conservative majority of more than 10,000 in Kingston and Surbiton, to win by 56 votes after three recounts.

Davey's was one of six Liberal Democrat losses in London and 49 overall as the party suffered its worst election results since its formation in 1988.

[18] The following table shows the ethnic group of respondents in the 2001 and 2011 census in Kingston upon Thames.

Kingston benefits from one of the biggest and most visited shopping areas outside of central London, with a varied selection of high street stores, and a large number of independent boutiques and retailers.

The borough is home to the highest number of South Koreans in Europe, in the town of New Malden.

Some of the borough's attractions are: Kingston is the 3rd largest retail centre by employment, in London.

Sega Amusements International, responsible for the production of arcade games outside Japan, has its head office in Chessington, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.

Railway stations in the borough: In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: driving a car or van, 26.1% of all residents aged 16–74; train, 7.1%; bus, minibus or coach, 7.1%; on foot, 6.9%; work mainly at or from home, 4.3%; bicycle, 2.8%; underground, metro, light rail, tram, 2.5%.

In 1966 the newly created London Borough added a set crests and supporters taken from the localities merged into it.

[30] Although not officially 'twinned', The Royal Borough of Kingston has a partner city of Oldenburg in Germany and Gwanak-gu, an administrative subdivision of Seoul, in South Korea.