Dorking is the second-largest commercial hub in Mole Valley on the district council’s own reckoning, and the council runs the district from Pippbrook in the town. It approved a Dorking Masterplan in April 2025 after a consultation that drew 1,096 responses from the town, covering vacant buildings, streets and public space, walking and cycling, and station connectivity. The town also has its own Business Improvement District, Hello Dorking, on South Street.

The corporate base is real. Unum has had its UK head office at Milton Court since 1965 and is still registered there. Kuoni runs its head office from Dorking Office Park, though the trading company is now DERTOUR UK and the Kuoni shop on the High Street has gone, so describe it as a head office and not a store. Between those two and the council, there is a professional and supplier economy here that has nothing to do with tourism.

Then there is the visitor side. Denbies on London Road is one of England’s largest single-estate vineyards, 380 acres with 265 under vine, open daily and closed only three days a year. Box Hill sits about three miles out and is National Trust, though its postal address is Tadworth rather than Dorking, which is the kind of detail worth getting right. Dorking Walking Week runs 19 to 27 September 2026 inside the wider Good Living Festival. Those are the weeks when people plan a day out and choose on their phones, and we measure the result in enquiries and bookings rather than rankings screenshots.