Romford Garden Suburb, 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".
An engraving of the Gidea Hall estate, by Humphrey Repton, 1797
Sir Herbert Raphael, vice-president of the Romford Garden Suburb House and Cottage Exhibition Committee, and upon whose land the garden suburb was built
John Burns, president of the House and Cottage Exhibition Committee
The finishing touches being made to 36 and 38, Reed Pond Walk. The houses were designed by the Arts and Crafts architect, Baillie Scott.
Gidea Park is a neighbourhood in the east of Romford in the London Borough of Havering, south-east England. Predominantly an affluent and residential area, it was historically located in the county of Essex. It saw significant expansion in the early 20th century, with exhibitions of housing and town planning and the construction of a railway station on the main line out from London Liverpool Street station.
The lake at Raphael Park in Gidea Park
The former Balgores House, dating from the 1850s, is today a preparatory school
Exhibition houses on Parkway, overlooking Raphael park
Each property had a drawing and description published in The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages, 1911
