River is a village and
civil parish in
Kent, England, situated between the historic town of
Dover and the neighbouring village of
Temple Ewell. "Village" is a somewhat loose term for River; it is a community of several thousand and is probably more usefully regarded as a suburb of Dover. After a period of rapid housing development in the 1960s and 1970s, the size and population of River has largely stabilised in recent decades, and little new development is now seen. This is partly because River lies in a steep chalk valley which affords little scope for further expansion. However, it is also true that the Dover area is historically not in the vanguard of high economic growth, being tied almost exclusively to the cross-channel port and various support industries, which have witnessed a gradual decline since the opening of the
Channel Tunnel. In transport terms River is well connected, being close to the
A2 and
A20 trunk routes, having a
railway station at Kearsney with direct services to London, and of course being only from the Port of Dover itself.