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, Clough Williams-Ellis, 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 English vernacular style, the dominant architectural fashion for low density housing. 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.
History
Thomas Cooke, a Yorkshireman who became London Mayor in 1462, was granted a Royal Charter for Havering-atte-Bower. This enabled him to build a country house, which he named "Geddy Hall". The word "geddy" derived from the lake and its livestock; ged, meaning pike, and ea (water). The house remained unfinished for at least a century because of his numerous incarcerations within the Tower of London for High Treason. Upon his death in 1478, the estate was passed down through the Cooke family and eventually to his great-grandson, Anthony Cooke, tutor for Edward VI,The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages: Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park, p. 42. in October 1579.McIntosh, Marjorie K. The Fall of a Tudor Gentle Family: The Cookes of Gidea Hall, Essex, 1579–1629, Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 4, 1978, p. 279. Accessed 1 February 2020.
After a brief period abroad, Anthony returned to Havering-atte-Bower and completed the building of Geddy Hall, which became Gidea Hall.The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages: Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park, p. 43. In 1657, the hall and its grounds were sold to Richard Emes, a local businessman, for £9,000. Upon the Restoration in 1660, the estate was bought back by the Crown and passed through the ownerships of various nobilities; it was eventually sold through public auction, before the Coronation of Queen Victoria.The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages: Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park, p. 35. Gidea Hall sold to the Black family in 1802 under whose ownership it remained until 1883 when it was bought for redevelopment by a company that was associated with Jabez Balfour. The company was unsuccessful in its plans and in 1893, Gidea Hall was again put up for sale."Manors and other estates", British History Online (BHO), accessed 1 February 2020.
The English landscape designer Humphry Repton designed a small hamlet in Gidea Park and lived there in the early 1800sCherry, O'Brien, Pevsner, p. 202. in a small cottage, out of which he worked,"The Bicentenary of the Death of Humphry Repton (1752-1818)", Historic England, accessed 3 June 2020. adjacent to Balgores Lane at the junction of, what was then, Hare Street. The cottage survived until the 1960s when it was demolished to make way for a bank.
Planning
The Liberal Member of parliament, Herbert Raphael, purchased Gidea Hall, Romford, in 1897.Culture and leisure leaflet, London Borough of Havering, accessed 25 September 2019. It came set within and Raphael purchased a further , which he divided up, giving , which included a lake, for use as a public park; Raphael lent his name to it in 1904.Romford: Manors and other estates, A History of the County of Essex: Volume 7, ed. W R Powell (London, 1978), British History Online, accessed 4 October 2019. He formed the idea for a garden suburb after the construction of Hampstead Garden Suburb, which was established by Henrietta Barnett in 1906 on land purchased from Eton College. Barnett had set up the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust Ltd and appointed Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin as its chief architects.Pevsner, p. 202.
Raphael decided to capitalise on the success seen at Hampstead and other garden suburbs, such as at Ealing, Tottenham and Tooting, and set about organising an exhibition at Gidea Park."Romford Garden Suburb", The Illustrated London News, 6 August 1910, p. 200. In 1909 Raphael enlisted the help of John Tudor Walters, an architect and surveyor, and Charles McCurdy, who had been a director for the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust, to set up the Gidea Hall Development Company, the head office for which was based at 33 Henrietta Street, in Covent Garden, London."Housekeeping made easy at Gidea Park", Barking, East Ham & Ilford Advertiser, Upton Park and Dagenham Gazette, 5 August 1911, p. 3. Raphael designated to the building of the garden suburb, on the west side of the Gidea Hall estate; to the east, was used to establish a golf course.The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages, Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park, p. 48. Each acre within the suburb area was to contain no more than six dwellings."From private correspondence", The Scotsman, 6 May 1911, p. 9.
House and Cottage Exhibition Committee
For the suburb layout, the judges handled 323 plans from architects all over the country who wished to take part. First prize and £100 was awarded to W. Garnett Gibson and Reginald Dann.The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages: Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park, pp. 54–55. For the dwellings, they received 2000 applications from interested architects, with 100The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages: Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park, p. 7. being selected by the judges, Guy Dawber, H. V. Lanchester, and Mervyn Macartney. The object of the new suburb, according to the Liberal Member of parliament John Burns, who was then the president of the Local Government Board,"Mr John Burns at Romford", Chelmsford Chronicle, 29 July 1910, p. 8. was "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", Leigh Chronicle and Weekly District Advertiser, 5 August 1910, p. 2. Raphael's plan was to give the working classes a chance to enjoy a new home on land that had previously been occupied and enjoyed only by the "few in splendid isolation".
President Sir John Burns Honorary secretary Michael Bunney
Vice-presidents
Archbishop of Canterbury Archbishop of Westminster Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe Francis Greville, 5th Earl of Warwick (Lord Lieutenant of Essex) Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick The Bishop of London The Bishop of St Albans John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh Maurice Towneley-O'Hagan, 3rd Baron O'Hagan Lord Claude Hamilton Sir Edward Clarke Sir Alganon West Walter Long, 1st Viscount Long Amelius Lockwood, 1st Baron Lambourne Sir William Chance Sir James Fortescue Flannery Sir Hiram Maxim Sir Edward Poynter Sir Herbert H. Raphael Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell John Bethell, 1st Baron Bethell Sir David Bruce Sir George Gibb Sir Oliver Lodge John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon Sir Aston Webb Charles Wyndham, 3rd Baron Leconfield Henry Scott Holland Edward Lyttelton Alfred Austin Arnold Bennett A. C. Benson George Cadbury Hall Caine Walter Crane Theodore Andrea Cook Alfred Hoare Powell Henry Arthur Jones Arthur Keen Benjamin Kidd Alfred Marshall
Note: For a complete list, see the source for the House and Cottage Exhibition Committee The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages, Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park, pp. 8–9.
Design and construction
Building for the new suburb started in 1909 when Raphael commissioned the construction of a new railway station which he intended to assist with accessibility for prospective buyers at the Exhibition. The station was to be served by the Great Eastern Main Line."House keeping made easy", Tower Hamlets Independent and East End Local Advertiser, 26 August 1911, p. 7. The foundation stone was laid on the first dwelling on 28 July 1910.The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages, Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park, p. 53. by Burns, The stone, part of the front elevation of 16 Heath Drive, is now only visible from inside the garage at the address."G 1911 Exhibition", Gidea Park and District Civic Society, accessed 1 December 2022.
By the late spring of 1911 the project was complete, and featured 140, fully furnished houses and small cottages, in the Arts and Crafts style. The entire development cost £60,000 with a further £20,000 being put aside for the building of roads, pavements and street furniture.The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages, Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park, p. 14. The landscaping was carried out by William Barron & Son, Ltd."William Barron & Son, landscape gardeners", Leicester Daily Post, 1 February 1911, p. 35.
To visualise what each house would look like, Raphael took inspiration from Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder, which used the motto "Houses for people to live in"The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages: Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park, p. 17. and from Francis Bacon's The Essayes Or Covnsels, Civill and Morall, of Francis Lo. Vervlam, Viscovnt St. Alban, which carried the phrase "A house is to live in, not to look at".Bacon, Francis. The Essayes Or Covnsels, Civill and Morall, of Francis Lo. Vervlam, Viscovnt St. Alban p. 11. Bacon's link to Gidea Park – his grandfather, Sir Anthony Cooke, occupied Gidea Hall in the 16th century – was used to advertise the new suburb. The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages: Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park was written to accompany the Exhibition and to detail each building for the benefit of prospective buyers. A number of important people were asked for their opinion on what made the perfect house and how modern day living could be improved, including Thomas Hardy, Sir Edward Poynter,The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages: Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park, p. 18. Millicent FawcettThe Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages: Romford Garden Suburb, Gidea Park, p. 20. and Arnold Bennett.