Suburban development of the mid twentieth century means that the built up area of Beeston is now continuous with the former villages Chilwell to the west and Wollaton to the northeast, although Beeston is still separated from Bramcote to the northwest by the Beeston Fields Golf Course.
Beeston grew from its village status with its development as a silk weaving centre in the early nineteenth century. The first silk mill was burned down (along with Nottingham Castle) in the Reform Bill riots of 1831. With the decline of the silk industry, many of the former mills moved to light industrial uses in the early twentieth century. Equipment produced by the Beeston Boiler Company is still to be found all around the former British Empire. Beeston was also chosen by the Swedish Ericsson telephone company as its UK base. Telephone manufacturing, now under the Plessey name continued to be a major local employment until the 1980s. The pharmaceutical and retail chemist group Boots has it headquarters on a campus 1km southeast of Beeston. This site is partly within the boundaries of the City of Nottingham. The grade 1 listed modernist buildings on Boots campus - designed by engineer Owen Williams - are very difficult to see from any public highway.
Beeston has a railway station served by Midland Mainline services to Leicester and London St Pancras and local services.
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