Romford's name was first recorded in the mid-12th century and probably referred to a broad 'Ford' across the River Rom.
The settlement initially evolved around a chapel dedicated to St Andrew that was in existence by 1177. This was located to the south-west of the modern centre, in the vicinity of what later became 'Oldchurch' Park.
Henry III granted Romford the right to hold a market in 1247 and added permission for a Whitsun fair three years later. The focus of the village therefore shifted to the new marketplace
By the 15th century the market was well-known for the sale of leather goods made in nearby Hornchurch. The proverbial Essex advice that one should 'go to Romford to be new-bottomed' referred to the market's reputation for well-made leather breeches. From the 17th century it became a very large agricultural market, selling farm tools, livestock, fruit and vegetables.
As a coaching stop on the London to Colchester road, Romford's inns and hotels flourished. Edward Ind started a small brewery at the Star Inn in 1799 and later joined forces with Octavius and George Coope to form a partnership that became Ind Coope, one of the largest brewers in the country.
The town was still small and almost entirely agricultural when the Eastern Counties Railway arrived in 1839, boosting both the market and the brewing industry.
Landowners began to sell off their estates for suburban development in a protracted process that began with the now-vanished New Romford and Laurie Town and continued well into the 20th century with schemes such as Marshalls Park to the north.
From the 1920s onwards the town centre profited from the arrival of new branches of national retailers alongside long-established local firms centred on the so-called ‘Golden Mile' of South Street and North Street. Here and in the High Street, cottages and slum terraced houses were demolished to make way for wider thoroughfares and modern commercial premises.
At the same time, light industrial units appeared on the outskirts, especially along the Eastern Avenue, north of which a new township mushroomed around Collier Row.
While the residential district expanded in every direction, enlightened developers and councillors ensured that a string of green spaces garlanded the growing borough, a status it attained in 1937.
The town centre was redeveloped after the construction of the ring road in the late 1960s, and parts have since been redeveloped all over again.
The Ind Coope brewery closed in 1993 and much of the site lay idle for almost a decade. Some of the peripheral brewery buildings were preserved, while a large area was razed and replaced by blocks of flats and a shopping and leisure complex called The Brewery (and its 1774 car parking spaces).
Nearby there are the independent traders of Romford shopping hall and two other malls: the Liberty and the Mercury. Romford market is open on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The town centre is also one of the most popular ‘pubbing and clubbing' destinations in outer London.
Queen's hospital was built in 2003–6, consuming most of Oldchurch Park. Havering museum opened in 2010 at a corner of the old brewery site. To the west,
Romford greyhound stadium has races on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings, and Thursday and Saturday daytimes.
