Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Romford

London – Havering (Borough of) – Romford – Romford Market

There has been a market in this area since 1247, when it was used as a location to buy and sell sheep. King Henry III gave Romford the right to hold this market and banned any other settlement from having a similar one if they were within one sheep-driving day away in distance. It later became used as a more general market, but the sale of cattle continued until 1958.

As can be seen from this map from the early twentieth century, the road used to be more defined on one side, with the cattle market having a permanent area. The general market currently takes place on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and on other days it’s used as a car park and an opportunity to nearly run over unsuspecting pedestrians who think it’s pedestrianised (not referring to me, but to two other people who had to dodge cars).

Not wanting to sound like a town planner, but it’s a shame that more isn’t done with this area of Romford, it clearly used to be its beating heart and it’s now a bit of a sideshow.

October 19, 2020
London – Havering (Borough of) – Romford – Church House

This property was originally used by priests from the Church of St Edward the Confessor which is located next door. It’s much older than the church, as this was built in the fifteenth century (it’s thought about 1480) and the church is a mid-nineteenth century replacement for the earlier building.

Although closed at the moment due to the health crisis, it’s normally open as a cafe which is open to the public. This usage is appropriate, as the property was turned into an inn towards the end of the sixteenth century. It remained in use as a licensed premises until 1908 when the building was sold and taken over by New College, Oxford University. They named it Church House and since then it has been used by officials from the Church of England, as well as being a cafe.

October 19, 2020
Romford to West Brompton – TFL Rail and London Overground

My route early this afternoon was to get from Romford in east London to West Brompton in west London. Checking the TFL fare finder there are four possible prices for this journey.

(i) Peak: £5.10 Monday to Friday from 0630 to 0930 and from 1600 to 1900.
(ii) Off Peak: £3.10 At all other times including public holidays.

(iii) Peak: £2.80 Monday to Friday from 0630 to 0930 and from 1600 to 1900.
(iv) Off Peak: £2.60 At all other times including public holidays.

The first two fares involve going through central London, the second two fares involve going via the London Overground. I was before the peak time, but always ready to save 50p, I decided to go for that. But, during peak time, it would save £2 going the alternate route.

The Romford roundel, with the colours of the Elizabeth Line, or, as most people will probably keep calling it, Crossrail.

Until Crossrail is fully operational, so in about 71 years, TFL rail are running services between Romford (starting from Shenfield) and London Liverpool Street. This is the service which used to be run by Abellio, until it was switched in 2015.

Inside the train, which has frankly seen better days. I’m not very good at train recognition, but I think it’s a Class 315, which were built by British Rail (when they weren’t busy closing stations) in 1980. The train was six minutes late in arriving, but there are trains every ten minutes, so it doesn’t make much difference. The train got busier as we got nearer to London.

To get the cheaper fare, I couldn’t go into London Liverpool Street, I had to change at Stratford. This is easy enough, but it’s necessary to tap the pink oyster reader so that the system knows that you’ve switched to the Overground. You couldn’t really cheat this, as the TFL Rail train would arrive into the mainline platforms at London Liverpool Street and customers would have to switch to the underground, which would then be noted by the oyster readers.

Here’s the Overground train at Stratford, I think a Class 378. My knowledge about this is very limited…..

It wasn’t very busy to begin with, but it got a little busier over the route. I saw Grenfell Tower for the first time and then went to read the Guardian online who had just that moment put up a story about it. Very sobering and sad.

And here we (well, me, no-one else would want to faff around like this) are in West Brompton, arriving 11 minutes late. It is possible to claim delay repay for these services if they are up to 30 minutes late, but I couldn’t get any money back on this occasion. Hopefully, and I shall find out tomorrow, I have been charged £2.60 for this journey. That is a decent fare for a distance of around 19 miles (measured in a straight line).

October 19, 2020
London – Havering (Borough of) – Romford – Church of St Edward the Confessor

This church is located in the market-place of Romford and there has been a religious building here for centuries as the main parish church. The current building dates only to 1849 and was designed by John Johnson, with the previous structure from the early fifteenth century being demolished.

Edward the Confessor (1003-1066) was a King of England and he was made a saint, perhaps one of the more controversial appointments if I’m being honest. But, to be fair, it was several centuries ago and it’s hard to reverse these things now.

Interesting entrance way.

The design is a little different to many other churches, quite an imposing frontage and the spire is 162 feet in height.

The side of the church and it appears impossible to get to the rear of the building now, but the area behind is still a green. There was a load of scaffolding being taken in and out of the church when I was meandering around, so I felt best not to try and get in. There are though apparently some older monuments inside which are from the previous building.

Some of the older gravestones remain in the churchyard, although few of them are now readable.

October 19, 2020
London – Havering (Borough of) – Romford – Golden Lion

I didn’t go inside this Greene King pub, but it’s worthy of some note as it’s claimed that it’s the pub which has been in the longest continuous use as an inn in the country. It’s known to have been trading since the early fifteenth century, which is one hell of a heritage to have. It’s located on the High Street in Romford, which was once the main road which went from Colchester to London. This meant it was an ideal location for a coaching inn and the building of the turnpike gave them a suitable boost in trade. It has generally kept the same name throughout its history, although was known as the Red Lion for a period during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The side of the pub. Staggeringly, as recently as the 1960s there was discussion about knocking the pub down to help build the new road system around Romford, but this was fortunately avoided.

It’s a sizeable location, which I assume once had space for tens of horses. As an aside, this property was once owned by Francis Bacon (as in the philosopher and not the painter) and it might have been where Will Kemp stayed when he was morris dancing from London to Norwich.

October 19, 2020
London – Havering (Borough of) – Romford – Travelodge Romford Quadrant

At just over £20 for a night’s stay, I wasn’t entirely hopeful about what this Travelodge might offer. The exterior doesn’t look the most exciting for a hotel either.

My first impressions weren’t great with the state of this carpet.

But, appearances can be deceptive. The staff member at reception was warm and personable, with plenty of information being provided. The room, which was a little smaller than some other Travelodges, was clean and comfortable. There were also no noise issues either internally or externally.

And, some significant credit should go to Travelodge for their Samsung air conditioning unit. Sometimes hotels have the same heating/cooling throughout, they pump warm air through in winter and cold air through in summer. It’s usually insufficient and gives the individual no ability to choose how warm they want their room. In other hotels the air conditioning is either limited or just doesn’t work. However, here, it worked very effectively and allowed me to get the room to my preferred temperature of cold.

Some work was probably needed on the state of the old windows.

All told, this stay represented excellent value for money, I was very impressed. It’s also in the centre of Romford for anyone who wants to treat themselves to a day there (I’m sure that there are some) and it’s easy to get to central London using TFL trains.

October 19, 2020
London – Havering (Borough of) – Romford – High Street Old Bridge

This plaque is on the external wall of the former Star Brewery building, which is now Havering Museum. I didn’t understand the relevance of why it was here, but a map helps to make sense of this. They knocked down the bridge in 1906 and it’s been partly covered over now. It’s the River Rom and the brewery had incorporated it into their brewing process, clearly deciding that the High Street no longer needed a bridge.

The former location of the bridge is more obvious in this map. The Latin inscription on the stone notes that the bridge was rebuilt during the reign of King George II, and although the date of the rebuild wasn’t listed on the stone, it was likely in 1737.

October 19, 2020
London – Havering (Borough of) – Romford – Romford Brewery Company

The Brewery in Romford today is a shopping centre and entertainment complex, but this was once a brewery that operated over a large site.

To be fair, the brewery seems to have taken up most of central Romford. It was founded at the beginning of the eighteenth century and was initially part of the Star Inn pub. Makes sense to run a brewery if you have your own pub to sell it in. It was also handily located next to a river, the River Rom which the town was named after, as well as having good transportation links.

The brewery traded until 1993, but the site was redeveloped and re-opened as a shopping centre and entertainment complex in 2001.

Housing has also now been constructed on the site.

The frontage of the brewery on the High Street, which was historically the main road that went through Romford.

The former entranceway to what was known as the Star Brewery for much of its life (due to the pub it was once attached to), with some interesting photos at http://breweryhistory.com/wiki/index.php?title=Ind_Coope_Ltd.

The old brewery gates have been cleaned up and kept, a permanent reminder of what was once here.

October 19, 2020
London – Havering (Borough of) – Romford – Cosmo World Buffet

It’s a few years since I’ve been to the Cosmo at Romford Brewery, but I thought I’d have a decadent treat as they’ve re-opened this weekend. Being a self-service buffet, these have been challenging times for them, but they seem to have put a fair bit of work into making things operate safely and efficiently.

The table-mats now operate as instructions for how to move around the buffet. A staff member also gave me a comprehensive introduction to the service arrangements and how to move around.

The interior of the restaurant, which was moderately busy, but by no means packed. The service was efficient and payment is now taken during the middle of the meal, which is an interesting time to take it. The unlimited soft drink offer remains, but the staff now get drinks for customers. Cosmo have also temporarily surrendered their alcohol licence for the time being, although their drinks selection in this regard has never surprised and delighted me. So I stuck to Vimto.

The buffet arrangement, with the usual high levels of choice. The roasts section was a bit depleted, but otherwise everything seemed well stocked. The one minor difficulty that I had was the gloves that they ask customers to use, as I found them challenging to open, but they’re a good idea. I had wondered whether Cosmo would revert to a system of staff serving customers, but that would have required a change of equipment and design, so wasn’t really viable.

I think it’s fair to say that I could enter Masterchef with presentational skills such as this.

And a selection of desserts, which weren’t particularly exciting, although this has never been a strong area for Cosmo in my view. Anyway, it’s perhaps not the most upmarket of restaurants, but it was all organised and well-managed, with the Norwich outlet of their chain also re-opening this weekend. I assume that they’ll be taking out a lot of their tables in Norwich, as otherwise customers end up being just too close to each other.

October 19, 2020