Romford Garden Suburb  The Romford Garden Suburb is a late-Edwardian housing development in Gidea Park, Romford, 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 Member of parliament, Herbert Raphael, was, according to his liberal 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 twentieth-century domestic architecture and town planning. They were popular in Edwardian England; Hampstead Garden Suburb, established by Henrietta Barnett in 1906, was one example, and there were others in Tottenham, Tooting, Ealing. The garden suburb at Romford comprised 140, fully-furnished houses and cottages, each designed and 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 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 a 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 Romford development, including William Curtis Green, Philip Tilden, Raymond Unwin, Richard Barry Parker, and Baillie Scott. The exhibition opened in the spring of 1911, and with it came the establishment of several roads, including Balgores Lane, Crossways, Heath Drive, Heaton Grange Road, Meadway, Parkway, Reed Pond Walk, Risebridge Road, and Squirrels Heath Avenue. In 1934, using land left over from the first competition, a second exhibition was held in the Romford Garden Suburb, this time hosted by Raphael's nephew. Each of these houses were designed in the Art Deco style, a taste that was dominant in the 1930s. Of the 140 houses built in 1911, six were designated as Grade II listed buildings by Historic England. The suburb was designated as a conservation area by the local government in June 1970. The winner of the 1934 competition, 64 Heath Drive, by Francis Skinner, a founding member of Berthold Lubetkin's Tecton Group, was listed at Grade II in 1997.