[3] Slough's population is one of the most ethnically diverse in the United Kingdom,[4][5] attracting people from across the country and the world for labour since the 1920s, which has helped shape it into a major trading centre.

[8] Blackberry, McAfee, Burger King, DHL, Telefonica and Lego have head offices in the town.

[15] Spectacular growth and employment ensued, with Slough attracting workers from many parts of the UK and abroad.

Slough Town Hall, which was designed by Charles Holloway James and Stephen Rowland Pierce, was completed in 1937.

The Heart of Slough Project is plan for the large-scale redevelopment of the town centre as a focus and cultural quarter for the creative media, information and communications industries created a mixed-use complex, multi-functional buildings, visual landmarks and a public space in the Thames Valley.

[20] Approval was given for the £400 million project by Slough Borough Council's planning committee on 9 July 2009,[21] and work began in 2010 for completion in 2018.

[22] In December 2009, two key components of the project were signed: the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) signed its agreement to provide £11m of funding for infrastructure and Thames Valley University (TVU) courses which were due to remain in the town found a new home at the Centre in Farnham Road, Slough.

[26] In 2010, £2 million was set aside to improve disabled access to Slough railway station in preparation for an expected increase in use during the 2012 London Olympics.

[27] Preparations were under way for the regeneration of the Britwell suburb of Slough, involving tearing down a dilapidated block of flats and the closing of the public house the Jolly Londoner in Wentworth Avenue and replacing them with new homes, as well as relocating the shopping parade in the street to nearby Kennedy Park.

The Twentieth Century Society has stated that [A] tragically high quantity of good buildings have been demolished in Slough in recent years, including grand Art-Deco-styled factories by the likes of Wallis Gilbert and high-quality post-war offices.

Despite famously heckling Slough, John Betjeman's praise for the town hall's architecture as 'a striving for unity out of chaos' in 1948 has never been so relevant as today.

C20 believes that the redevelopment of the town hall would be an act of vandalism to the civic centre and is supporting the Campaign to Save Slough's Heritage in their request for a review of the decision.

[30] During November 2016, the Slough Queensmere and Observatory shopping centres were sold to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) in a deal worth £130 million.

Original villages that are now suburbs of Slough include Chalvey, Cippenham, Colnbrook, Langley, Poyle, Upton, and Wexham.

This part of the Thames Valley is notable for generally having the warmest daytime summer temperatures on average in the British Isles.

As Slough began developing into a town, the need for more urban forms of local government grew.

The enlarged district gained the Britwell and Wexham Court areas, and was transferred from Buckinghamshire to Berkshire.

Until the town developed as an industrial area, nurseries were prominent in the local economy; the Cox's Orange Pippin apple was first raised in Colnbrook (not then within Slough) around 1825, and the dianthus "Mrs Sinkins Pink" was first raised at some point between 1868[49] and 1883[50] by John Sinkins, the master of the Eton Union Workhouse,[51] which lay in Slough.

In the mid-19th century, the only major employer apart from the brickfields was James Elliman, who started as a draper in Chandos Street.

Elliman became a major benefactor to the town, and is remembered today in the names of local roads and schools.

In September 1851, William Thomas Buckland, an auctioneer and surveyor from nearby Wraysbury, began livestock sales in a field near the Great Western Road Railway Station belonging to the North Star Inn.

The company Zwicky Limited, a manufacturer of liquid pumps, filters, compression valves and aircraft refuelling units, runway sweepers were based in Slough.

[53][54][55] In the last 20 or so years, there has been a major shift from a manufacturing to an information-based economy, with the closure of many factories (some of which had been in Slough for many decades).

Hundreds of major companies have sited in Slough Trading Estate over the years, with its proximity to London Heathrow Airport and good motorway connections being attractive.

The European head offices of major IT companies such as BlackBerry, McAfee, Computer Associates, PictureTel and Compusys (among others) are all in the town.

The town is also home to the business support organisation Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce Group and National Foundation for Educational Research, which is housed in the Mere.

Until 1966, Citroën assembled cars in a Liverpool Road factory (later used by Mars Confectionery), and it retains its UK headquarters in the town.

It will directly serve Slough with four trains every hour, reducing travel times to Heathrow to six minutes.

A Smoove bike sharing system was launched in October 2013, targeting commuters travelling between the trading estate and nearby railway stations.

It travels from the terminus basin at Stoke Road to the junction with the main line at Cowley Peachey; it was restored to navigability in 1975 having been disused since 1960.