Gidea Park Platform

Gidea Park Platform

Gidea Park Entrance

Gidea Park Entrance

Gidea Park Platform

Gidea Park Platform

 

The station was opened as Squirrels Heath & Gidea Park on 1 December 1910 by the Great Eastern Railway on the company's main line from London Liverpool Street. The name was switched to Gidea Park & Squirrels Heath in late 1913, but the "Squirrels Heath" suffix was dropped completely some time later. On the evening of 2 January 1947, an express Liverpool Street-Peterborough train overran a red signal in dense fog and collided with a Liverpool Street-Southend Victoria train as it started to depart from Gidea Park.[4] Seven people were killed in the crash and 45 were hospitalised. The first record of Gidea Hall is in 1250, and in 1466 Sir Thomas Cooke (c.1410-1478), a Lord Mayor of London, was granted a licence to crenellate, which is a licence for the manor house to be fortified.

 

The new Romford Garden Suburb was constructed in 1910–11 on the Gidea Hall and Balgores estates as an exhibition of town planning. Small cottages and houses were designed by more than 100 architects, many of them of considerable reputation. A competition was held to select the best town planning scheme for the suburb; the best designs for houses resulted in those sold at a well-above average £500 and cottages at £375. The station is currently managed by TfL Rail. The vast majority of services call at Gidea Park as part of the Shenfield-Liverpool Street stopping "metro" service but some Abellio Greater Anglia services for Southend Victoria also call on Sundays. It is in Travelcard Zone 6. The station has payphones, wi-fi, cash machines, toilets, help points, a car park and waiting room.

 

Connections: National Rail. London Buses routes 294, 347, 496 and night route N86 serve the station.