Lodge Farm Park

Gidea Hall was a manor house in Gidea Park, the historic parish and Royal liberty of Havering-atte-Bower, whose former area today is part of the north-eastern extremity of Greater London. The first record of Gidea Hall is in 1250, and by 1410 it was in the hands on one Robert Chichele. In 1452 Sir Thomas Cooke (c.1410-1478), a Lord Mayor of London, bought the estate and in 1466 was granted a licence to crenellate, which is a licence for the manor house to be fortified. Gidea Hall was forfeit when Cooke was accused of treason, but he was acquitted and the property recovered after payment of a fine. While work on the manor had started in 1466 with the construction of a moat, they were continued by his son Sir Anthony Cooke, one of whose daughters married Sir Nicholas Bacon and came into possession of the Manor of Marks, another large house in the Liberty of Havering. After his return from exile Cooke entertained Queen Elizabeth I at Gidea Hall during her Progress in 1568 when she also visited Copt Hall The final alterations to Gidea Hall were not finished until 1568 at which time the main house and two adjacent wings formed three sides of a courtyard with an open colonnade on the fourth side and various outbuildings. Maria de Medici, the mother-in-law of King Charles I stayed at Gidea Hall in 1638 on her way from Harwich to London, although by then the hall was falling into decay. By the time of the Commonwealth the buildings were ruinous, but were not finally demolished until 1720 when Sir John Eyles had a new mansion built on the site. In 1783 a book entitled An enquiry by experiment into the properties and effects of the medicinal waters in the County of Essex includes an entry for "Gidea Hall water", describing the source as rising on the "bank of the canal in the park of Richard Benyon, Esq". The canal referred to is now the lake in Raphael Park, which was recorded on the 1888 Ordnance Survey map as Black's Canal after the Black family; a map prepared for Alexander Black in 1807 clearly shows the spring. An investigation into the spring in 1910 recorded that it had "been drained, filled up and turfed about 4 years ago". The later Gidea Hall was of brick. The Gidea Hall estate was purchased in 1897 by Herbert Raphael, and in 1902 he gave 20 acres (81,000 m2), including a lake, for use as a public park; a further 55 acres (220,000 m2) was subsequently purchased and Raphael Park opened in 1904. In 1910 Raphael and two fellow Liberal MPs formed Gidea Park Ltd with the aim of building a garden suburb, including what became Romford Garden Suburb, on the Gidea Hall and Balgores estates, and during the First World War they offered both properties to the Artists Rifles for use as an Officers' School. The house was demolished in 1930.The wall, railings and gate from the early 18th century remain and are listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England.

The Mercury Mall is an enclosed shopping centre in Romford town centre, in the London Borough of Havering, Greater London. It opened in June 1990 as Liberty 2. From 2006 to August 2010 it was owned by The Mall Fund and was known as The Mall Romford. It is—along with The Liberty and The Brewery—one of the three main shopping centres in Romford.

Raphael Park (pronounced "Ra-fai-el”) is a public park in Gidea Park, Romford, in the London Borough of Havering, United Kingdom. It is one of a series of parks stretching northwards from the railway line between Romford and Gidea Park. The southern entrance to Raphael Park is on Main Road, formerly called Hare Street, and the northern entrance is just south of the A12 Eastern Avenue. The western boundary of the park follows the line of Black's Brook, a small stream that was dammed where the park meets Main Road to form a lake 12–20 ft deep and called Black's Canal, this being done before the park was created. The dam itself is just inside the park next to the 18th century bridge which carries Main Road and known as Black's Bridge.The park itself is part of the parkland that once surrounded Gidea Hall. Raphael Park contains two ancient Pedunculate Oaks recorded by the Woodland Trust. The park is named after Sir Herbert Raphael MP, who gave it to Romford Urban District in 1904.In addition to the lake, which is used for angling, there are several amenities provided within the park. In the southern part of the park is a bandstand, and then near the end of the lake is a rockery which is used by the Romford Summer Theatre. Beyond this point the park widens to the east, and there are sports pitches (football in winter and cricket in summer) and sunken tennis courts, the sunken nature of which is reputed to be the result of sand having been dug there for use in construction of the surrounding houses. To the north of the tennis courts is a children's play area which was remodelled in 2009, the circular play area plus tennis courts having previously been filled with water and known as the "Spoon Pond". Apart from these the park consists of parkland, mature woodland and grassland.

Romford is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2001 by Andrew Rosindell, a Conservative. It was created in 1885.

Romford Garden Suburb (otherwise known as the Gidea Park Exhibition Estate), is a late-Edwardian housing development in Gidea Park, in the London Borough of Havering. The object of the new suburb, which was built on land belonging to Gidea Hall, then occupied by the Liberal politician Herbert Raphael, was, according to his parliamentary colleague John Burns, to "provide families with a well-built, modern home regardless of class or status" and "to bring the towns into the country and the country into the towns". The garden suburb was conceived to be an example of early 20th-century domestic architecture and town planning. They were popular in Edwardian England; Hampstead Garden Suburb, established by Henrietta Barnett in 1906, was one example. The garden suburb at Romford comprised 159 fully-furnished houses and cottages each funded by the architects who designed them, in either the Arts and Crafts or Art Nouveau styles. Upon completion an exhibition was organised to showcase the dwellings for prospective buyers and a competition was held to find the best building, with a first prize of £250 and a gold medal being awarded to the winning architect. The best detached houses were awarded Class I status, which would allow the property to be sold for £500, while Class II buildings were marketed for £375. The buildings were judged on their utility and economy of management and maintenance. One hundred architects and urban planners took part in the Gidea Park development, including William Curtis Green, Philip Tilden, Raymond Unwin, Richard Barry Parker, George Val Myer, Geoffry Lucas and Baillie Scott. The exhibition opened in the spring of 1911 and with it came the establishment of several roads, including Balgores Lane, Squirrels Heath Avenue and Crossways to the south of Hare Street (now Main Road) and Heath Drive, Meadway, Reed Pond Walk, Heaton Grange Road, Risebridge Road and Parkway to the north. In 1934, using land left over from the first competition, a second exhibition was held, this time hosted by Raphael's nephew, Major Ralph Raphael MC. These houses were designed in the Art Deco style, a taste that was dominant at the time. Six of the 1911 exhibition houses were later designated as Grade II listed buildings by Historic England. The suburb was designated as a conservation area in 1970. The winner of the 1934 competition, 64 Heath Drive, by Francis Skinner, a founding member of Berthold Lubetkin's Tecton Group, was also listed at Grade II in 1997.

Romford was a local government district in southwest Essex from 1851 to 1965. It was significantly expanded in 1934 and gained the status of municipal borough in 1937. The population density of the district consistently increased during its existence and its former area now corresponds to the northern part of the London Borough of Havering in Greater London.

Havering Town Hall is a municipal building in Main Road, Romford, London. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Havering London Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building.

The Dolphin Centre was a swimming and leisure facility in Romford, in the London Borough of Havering, England.

The Brookside Theatre is a 194-seat studio theatre situated in the centre of Romford in the London Borough of Havering, Greater London. The theatre was established in 2012 and plays host to many full scale theatre productions; musicals and plays, tribute bands, live music, comedy and celebrity guests and has been heralded as "Romford's best kept secret".

St Edward the Confessor Church is a Catholic Parish church in Romford, Borough of Havering, London. It was built in 1856 in the Gothic Revival style. It was paid for by the William Petre, 12th Baron Petre and designed by Daniel Cubitt Nichols. It is located in the town centre on St Edward's Way, next to Romford Town Hall and Romford Central Library. It is a Grade II listed building and according to Historic England its design and architecture is reminiscent of Augustus Pugin.

Time 107.5 is an Independent Local Radio station, based in Romford and broadcasting to East London and parts of Essex. The station strapline is "All Time Favourites" and the station is available on FM on 107.5 MHz in the broadcast area and online via its website. As of March 2023, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 17,000, according to RAJAR.

The Liberty Shopping Centre is a covered shopping centre in Romford, the largest such centre in the town. It was originally built in 1968 and underwent a four-year redevelopment completed in 2003. The centre takes its name from the former Liberty of Havering and is owned by the Cosgrave Property Group. It is also the largest indoor shopping centre in the borough of Havering overall and covers 432,000 square feet (40,100 m2) of retail space, around 100 shops. The Liberty has an annual footfall of 23 million, equating to 425,000 people per week. It is linked to Mercury Shopping Centre (formerly Liberty 2) by an underpass.