Romford

Romford is first recorded in 1177 as Romfort, which is formed from Old English 'rūm' and 'ford' and means "the wide or spacious ford".[12] The naming of the River Rom is a local 'back-formation' from the name of the town; and the river is elsewhere known as the Beam. The ford most likely existed on the main London to Colchester road where it crossed that river.[12]

Romford in 1851

The town developed in the Middle Ages on the main road to London and the regionally significant Romford Market was established in 1247.[3] The original site of the town was to the south, in an area still known as Oldchurch. It was moved northwards to the present site in the later medieval period to avoid the frequent flooding of the River Rom. The first building on the new site was the 1410 Chapel of St Edward[13] (since replaced by the 1850 Parish Church of St Edward the Confessor. The early history of Romford and the immediate area is agricultural and it is recorded as being the location of a number of mills used to grind corn.[3] The area was a focus of the leather industry from the 15th to the early 19th centuries and there is record of a wide range of industries such as cloth making, weaving, charcoal burning, metal working and brewing.[3] Communications played an important part in its development; the main road to London was maintained by the Middlesex and Essex Turnpike Trust from 1721 and Romford became a coaching town in the 18th century.[14]

Several failed attempts were made in the early 19th century to connect the town to the Thames via a Romford Canal.[15] It was initially intended to terminate at a basin near to the Star Brewery, to transport agricultural products to London and, eventually, to serve growing industrial sites in Romford. A later proposal included an extension to Collier Row, whereby timber from Hainault Forest could be transported to the Thames for use in the Royal Dockyards. Only two miles of canal were constructed and the canal company were unable to reach the town.[16]

The development of the town was accelerated by the opening of the railway station in 1839 which stimulated the local economy and was key to the development of the Star Brewery. Initially Eastern Counties Railway services operated between Mile End and Romford, with extensions to Brentwood and to Shoreditch in 1840. A second station was opened on South Street in 1892 by the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway on the line to Upminster and Grays, giving Romford a rail connection to Tilbury Docks. The two stations were combined into one in 1934.[14] Light industry slowly developed, reaching a peak in the 1970s with a number of factories on the edge of town, such as the Roneo Vickers office machinery company, Colvern manufacturers of wireless components, May's Sheet Metal Works and brush manufacturers Betterware.[3] Suburban expansion increased the population and reinforced Romford's position as a significant regional town centre. The Liberty Shopping Centre was constructed in the 1960s, and has been modernised and supplemented with further shopping centres throughout the town, including The Mall, opened in 1990 (as 'Liberty 2'); and The Brewery, opened in 2000 on the site of the old Star Brewery.[17]

Romford formed a chapelry in the large ancient parish of Hornchurch in the Becontree hundred of Essex; as well as the town it included the wards of Collier Row, Harold Wood, and Noak Hill.[18] Through ancient custom the area enjoyed special status and a charter in 1465 removed the parish from the Becontree hundred and the county of Essex and it instead formed the independent liberty of Havering governed from a court house in the market place.[4] Over time the vestry of Romford chapelry absorbed the local powers that would usually be held by the parish authorities in Hornchurch[18] and in 1849 Romford became a separate parish within the liberty.[19] Improvement commissioners were set up in 1819 for paving, lighting, watching, and cleansing of the marketplace and main streets.[18] As the town grew this arrangement became ineffective at controlling sanitation and in 1851 a local board of health was set up for the parish; although its area was reduced in 1855 to cover only the town ward.[18] The remainder of the parish became part of the Romford rural sanitary district in 1875. These changes and the introduction of the Romford Poor Law Union in 1836[18] eroded the powers of the liberty and it was finally abolished in 1892 and reincorporated into Essex.[4]

The Local Government Act 1894 reformed local government and created the Romford Urban District and Romford Rural District to replace the local board and sanitary district; following which the Romford parish was split into Romford Urban and Romford Rural along the lines of the urban district.[18] In 1900 the parish was recombined and the urban district expanded to cover all of the former area of the historic chapelry, except for Noak Hill which remained in the rural district and had become a parish in its own right in 1895.[18] The enlarged urban district formed part of the London Traffic Area from 1924 and the London Passenger Transport Area from 1933.[20] The suburban expansion of London caused an increase in population during the 1930s[5] and the urban district was expanded further in 1934, taking in the parishes of Havering-atte-Bower and Noak Hill.[6] It was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Romford in 1937.[6] In 1965 the municipal borough was abolished and its former area was combined with that of Hornchurch Urban District; it was again removed from Essex and since then has formed the northern part of the London Borough of Havering in Greater London.[21] For elections to the Greater London Council, Romford was part of the Havering electoral division until 1973 and then the Romford electoral division until 1986.

Romford Urban District (1) absorbed Havering-atte-Bower (2) and Noak Hill (3) in 1934[6]

There was early expansion in the 1840s when 200 cottages were built in the area formerly occupied by an army barracks; it was known as New Romford.[14] To acknowledge the military connection, when in 1961 these were in turn replaced with new housing the name Waterloo Road Estate was applied.[22] To the east of the market place from 1850 middle class suburban housing was constructed with a much larger area of 200 acres (80 hectares) built-over to the south of the railway from 1851 and by 1861 the population had grown to 3790.[23] Through a gradual process of selling off former manors, houses were built radiating from the town in all directions for about a mile, and further significant growth occurred between 1910 and 1911 with the construction of Romford Garden Suburb, which included Raphael Park and Gidea Park railway station.[14] Large sections of land to the north of the town at Collier Row were developed in the interwar period and after World War II, the London County Council built the Harold Hill estate to the north east from 1948 to 1958.[14]

The right to supply electricity to the town was secured by the County of London Electricity Supply Company in 1913. Initially power was generated within the Star Brewery site, with the supply switching to Barking Power Station in 1925.[18] Gas supply began in 1825 with gas works of 25 acres (10 ha) constructed by 1938.[18] Following the Telegraph Act 1899 Romford became part of the Post Office London telephone area[24] and the Romford exchange was recorded as having 240 subscribers in 1916.[25] The town water supply initially came from the Havering Well, and 1859 a new public well and pump was built at the east end of the market.[18] The South Essex Waterworks Company started installing mains water supply in 1863 and had offices in South Street. By 1905 its supply was serving Ilford, Collier Row, Ardleigh Green, Brentwood, and Hornchurch. Sewage works were installed by the local board at Oldchurch in 1862, with further works built in Hornchurch in 1869.[18]

Romford Cemetery entrance

Crow Lane or Romford Cemetery was established by the Romford Burial Board in 1871 when space ran out in the parochial cemetery. It was taken over by Romford Urban District Council in 1900 and is now run by the South Essex Crematorium. It is partially enclosed by 19th-century railings, with ragstone gate-piers and two ragstone chapels joined by a gothic porte-cochère. It contains utilitarian monuments, with older graves near the chapels. The trees in the cemetery include holly, cedar and flowering cherry, and rows of common lime and horse chestnut.[26] The cemetery contains the war graves of 118 identified Commonwealth service personnel of the First and Second World Wars.[27]

Climate data for Romford is taken from the nearest weather station at Greenwich, around 10 miles (16 km) southwest of the marketplace.

Romford railway station

The town is served by Romford railway station; it is situated on the Great Eastern Main Line and the Elizabeth line, in London fare zone 6.[43] Elizabeth line trains call at the station, formed of high-frequency services between London Paddington and Shenfield.[44] Services will extend through central London to Reading when the line is opened fully.

Some Greater Anglia services to/from Southend Victoria and Colchester Town also call at the station. A branch line shuttle on the Romford to Upminster Line is operated by London Overground.[44]

Romford is a hub of the London Buses network, with services to Canning Town, Stratford, Leytonstone and Dagenham; there are also feeder services from the large housing developments at Collier Row and Harold Hill.[45] There are night bus services to Stratford, Harold Hill and Paddington.[46] Romford town centre has a very high Public Transport Accessibility Level score of 6.[8]

There is a proposal that Romford will be served by a future extension of the East London Transit.[47]

The A12 trunk road passes to the north of Romford, while the A118 road from Stratford connects with it at Gallows Corner at the start of the A127 road to Southend.[48]