Editing Gidea Park (section)

===Exhibition houses===
[[File:Gidea Park - Parkway.jpg|thumb|right|Exhibition houses on Parkway, overlooking Raphael park]]
[[File:312Risebridge.jpg|thumb|right|Each property had a drawing and description published in ''The Book of the Exhibition of Houses and Cottages'', 1911]]

In 1909 [[Herbert Raphael]], [[Tudor Walters|John Tudor Walters]] and [[Charles McCurdy]], three [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Members of Parliament]] (MPs) who had links with the [[Hampstead Garden Suburb]] development, formed a company with the objective of building a new garden suburb on the Gidea Hall estate. Raphael also reached agreement with the [[Great Eastern Railway]] for [[Gidea Park railway station|a new station]] on the main line from [[Liverpool Street station|London Liverpool Street]] to serve the new suburb.<ref>{{cite book|title=A History of the County of Essex: Volume 7|year=1978|pages=58–66|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42815|editor=W.R.Powell|access-date=24 March 2012|chapter=Romford: Introduction}}</ref>

[[Romford Garden Suburb]] was constructed between July 1910 and June 1911 on the Gidea Hall and Balgores estates (respectively north and south of Hare Street, now called Main Road) as an exhibition of [[town planning]]. A total of 159 cottages and houses were designed by more than 100 architects, many of them of considerable reputation. Most of the cottages were built in Risebridge Road and Meadway; most of the houses were built in Parkway and Reed Pond Walk. A smaller number of Exhibition houses were also constructed on the Balgores estate, such as in Squirrels Heath Avenue and Balgores Lane.

Competitions were held to select the best town planning scheme for the suburb, and the best designs for houses resulted in those being sold at a well-above average £500 and cottages at £375. Of the 159 properties, 132 were entered into the competitions. The winner of the best designed house was No. 54 Parkway by [[Thomas Geoffry Lucas|Geoffry Lucas]] and the best cottage was No. 36 Meadway, designed by C. M. Crickmer. A competition for the builders for best workmanship was won by Falkner & Son who built No. 35 Meadway and No. 43 Heath Drive.

Known today as the "Exhibition houses", and set in their garden suburb known as the "Exhibition estate", the properties are fine examples of the domestic architecture of their time and are a significant feature of the Gidea Park area. Six of them are now [[listed building]]s: Nos. 41 and 43 Heath Drive, Nos. 16 and 27 Meadway and Nos. 36 and 38 Reed Pond Walk.

A further 35 houses, mostly of contemporary flat-roofed design, were built in 1934–35 in Heath Drive, Brook Road, and Eastern Avenue for a Modern Homes Exhibition. One such house, No. 64 Heath Drive, by Berthold Lubetkin's Tecton Group architectural group, was the special responsibility of Francis Skinner and is now also a listed structure.<ref name="English Heritage">{{NHLE|desc=64 Heath Drive|num=1257402|access-date=25 October 2013}}</ref> The area was provided with a parish church in the form of [[St Michael's Church, Gidea Park]] in 1931.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://stmichaelsgideapark.org.uk/our-history/ |title=Our History – St Michael and All Angels |publisher=Stmichaelsgideapark.org.uk |access-date=2018-10-08}}</ref>

The area was designated a [[Conservation area (United Kingdom)|conservation area]] in 1970.