The royal hunting lodge at Havering possessed a wooded estate that encompassed all the land and buildings between present-day Havering-atte-Bower and Collier Row. The park was divided into farms in the 1650s, after monarchs had ceased to use the house.
Late in the 18th century Havering Park Farm became one of the progressive farms for which the area was noted, pioneering advanced agricultural methods. The park was also the site of Hampden House, a mansion occupied by a succession of London businessmen and merchants during the 19th century.
Following the creation of the Eastern Avenue in the mid-1920s, a variety of property developers piled into the area. The largest of these was TF Nash, who bought a large chunk of land north of Collier Row Road for a planned estate of 9,000 homes. Nash himself lived for a while at Hampden House and his firm laid on its own bus service for the estate's residents.
