The Recorder is looking back at the history of Romford station – now Havering’s busiest station – as the modern railway marks 200 years in 2025.
Just less than 15 years after the first passenger journey was made on a steam-powered train, Romford railway station opened in June 1839.
Postcard view of the old wooden Romford Station in 1844 (Image: Havering Libraries-Local Studies)
According to Havering Libraries, trains originally stopped at a temporary station in Dog Leg Lane – what is now Waterloo Road.
READ MORE: Havering train stations captured in vintage photos
The station was moved to its current location in 1844, with the main entrance in Station Approach (now called The Battis) on the north side of the railway line.
Carriages and cabs pulled by horses would wait to collect passengers in Station Approach, opposite The Star Hotel, which can be seen in photos advertising “good stabling”.
At the start, the station was a simple wooden building with a single platform, but by the late 1800s upgrades had been added.
This included a second platform with covered walkway, taking passengers to an additional entrance and exit in South Street.
In June 1893, a second railway station opened on the opposite site of the road to the South Street exit, according to Havering libraries.
This was part of the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway, which connected Fenchurch Street station with east London and Essex until the company was sold to Midland Railway in 1912.
A footbridge was also built to connect the two stations, but they were not combined until 1934 when the street entrance to the second station was closed.
Romford is now Havering’s busiest station, with an average of 40,604 passengers passing through the station every day in 2024.
