The town was one of the rotten boroughs, but recovered with the coming of the railway. It now has two centres, the original one east of the railway station, and one to the west, known as Weyhill.
Haslemere is now largely a commuter town for Guildford and London, lying on the main train line from London Waterloo to Portsmouth, but it also acts as a centre for local areas of Hampshire and West Sussex.
Famous residents of Haslemere have included Arthur Conan Doyle, Alfred Lord Tennyson, George Bernard Shaw and George Eliot.