The Knowhere Guide

Local Heroes in Romford, Greater London*

Romford, Greater London Famous Residents

Cringing Cult of Celebrity (Famous residents and ex-residents.)

• all i know is that a member of INME is from romford apart from that i dont know
• Sly Stallone used to drink in Trax
• Mark gower, played for spurs didnt quite make it, should of played for England. lived in harold park, think his dad owned a sweet shop. Last seen playing quite well for Southend.
• most of Bucks Fizz the excellent 80s band Gidea Park! Richard Digence
• every character in footballers wives is based on someone from romford. fact.
• Steve Davis lived in Romford and Johnny Herbert is reputed to have honed his racing skills burning his Mini along the Eastern Avenue.
• Members of The Purple Hearts,Serious Drinking,Department S and the Wolf Hounds all hail from Romfords bohemian past of the 1970's and early 80's.
• Jade goodey in nearby hornchurch. sorry its the best we can do. Jo from s club 7 woz bought up in collier row, but still not much better.
• The Boxer Frank Bruno used to live in nearby Hornchurch! get well soon Frank! Loads of footballers and their page 3 girlfriends (phwooaaar!!) have lived near by to Romford.
• suzie quatro usa born used the launderette at collier row after her band days ( Can The Can ) but before joining the Fonz in happy days, had to live close to it.
• Ian Dury came from Upminster!
• I dont see why I can't tell you that Kris Gray ex bass player with the Edgar Broughton band, 70's festival fav's and fellow label mates of Pink Floyd went to Chase Cross Boys in the 60's. He is now head of Delicious Records and manages such bands as Chris Farlowe and The Sweet, Surely this warrents a mention?
• Steve Guttenburg, Ted Danson, Tom Jones (who found a dead tramp in Olivers), Dana International, the black geezer who Tony Prosser tried to hit in the Lion, Rusty Goffa the Dwarf, the Jalani Runners Football Team
• Ray Parlour used to live in Laurel Crescent, Rush Green. I saw him washing his car in his boxer shorts once. mmmm...
• Joe Cole is not a Romford boy at all. He was born in Islington in November 1981
• Andrew Rosindell, the new hard-right Tory MP for Romford, is now quite famous and might go far... In 2001 he campaigned with a Staffordshire Bull Terrier in a Union Jack Waistcoat, and brought Margaret Thatcher to a keen reception in the market. He recently voted against the legalization of cannabis. One of his highest profile election campaigns was the 'stop bogus asylum seekers flooding our country' style of campainging (Romford is in the second whitest borough in London). He was told to resign his membership from the Monday Club because even they are too right wing for Iain Duncan Smith's party (they support the 'voluntary repatriation' of people from ethnic minorities.) Romford was one of a handful of seats to swing to the Tories in the last general election. There are some reasons why I am very glad I don't live there any more.
• 5 star
• Rumour has it that Jo from S Club 7 lives/lived in Collier Row/Romford area and Nikki De Marco from Eastenders lives in the Romford area. (I bet they don't now though!)
• S-Clubs Jo, Mark King, Ray Parlour, Tony Adams, Stuart Taylor,
• Jimmy Greaves lived in Upminster as did Bobby Moore. What about good old Kenny Ball - He lived in Emerson Park !!!
• Well Katy Hill went to St Edwards school. Tony Adams, Ray Parlour and Joe Cole, All Romford Boys. Steve Davis and the great Barry Hearn. Jo from SClub7 Chris Heath from Grange Hill
• Suburban Bass records. Romford was a crucial part of Rave/Jungle in its early days (Remember long lank hair and record bags, pirate stations from the top of that tower block in Collier Row?)
• Katy Hill, Tony Adams, Ray Parlour, Joe Cole, Frank Bruno, The S Club 7 bird, and Billy the Tramp. O i heard the Well 'ard the dog was born there too
• Carly, (Nicky di marco, Eastenders) livesin Romford and is often seen in clubs, even though she is only 17
• Joe Cole and Michael Carrick live in the new ex Marshalls Park Estate. Lampard in Reed Pond Walk (Gidea park)& S club 17 Jo from Collier Row
• Jo from s club 7 still very much live in the Romford area
• My mum told me Millicent Martin went to her school,St Edwards. Captain Blood lived in Romford,someone told me Sylvester Stallone use to visit to see his mate Arnold Swassenger who use to live over the fish and chip shop near the railway station and they use to have a few drinks up the Pompadours on the Hill but the locals kicked em out.
• Tony Hodge.A Romford boy from Petits Lane school who is now a big movie star in Canada.
• Loads, a member of five, Martine Mcutchen?
• Tony Hodge an ex Petits Lane school boy emigrated to Canada in the 60's and became a famous TEEVEE personalty.He now hangs around different bars making out he is Sean Connery,Burt Reynolds or Robinson Crusoe for free drinks.
• The lead singer of Mud has been spotted in orange robes prancing about with the with the Hari Krishnas on more than one occasion around Romford. I don't know if he resides here, but he's worth looking out for. I'm waiting for the day I have enough bottle to ask him if he's been Tango'd!
• I cannot BELIEVE this guy does not yet appear on this site... TONY CONNOR, ace drummer with 70s Chart Band HOT CHOCOLATE, hails from Romford... anyone have any further info or recent sightings?
• Arnold Swarzenegger lived in Romford for a while, Channel 4 once claimed. Dire Katy Hill went to St Edward's. The man who writes 'Where's Wally?' lives in Gidea Park. Karl Hyde of Underworld still lives in Romford, despite his huge royalties from his not very interesting music and much more interesting advertising agency. I know this because I have seen him legging it out of the station towards the taxi rank and also behind me in the queue in Barclays. Lovely Steve John Shepherd, Joe in This Life, somehow managed to be born and bred in Havering, despite the apparent widespread pig-ugliness of the male half of the gene pool. There are yet more, but they escape me. And Romford too, no doubt.
• How about Jonny "Mad Dog" Adair and Ian Paisley> The Orange Tree?
• Dirty Dick from Bell House Rd, and its easy to find famous ex Romford people,in the old days they use to name pubs after them.Henry Cooper>Coopers Arms Lenny the Lion>Golden Lion, John Bull>The Bull, Lenny Hart>Bricklayers Arms, Kerry Packer>The Wool Pack, Old Man Tiger Woods>The Rising Sun.See loads and Im sure we could go on.(The Orange Tree stumped me!!)
• Tony Adams, Martine Mccutcheon, Steve Davis, Trevor Brooking and it is rumoured that Denise Van Outen has now brough Hollywoods and turned it into Vivid and Elite
• Mike Oldfield, he of 'Tubular Bells' fame, spent a few years of his childhood living near Redden Court School. One of the girls from S Club 7 is from Collier Row, I'm afraid. Noel Edmonds was born in the Romford area, and went to Gidea Park College before going to an even posher school in Brentwood. He was once a DJ at Harold Wood Hospital. Another super TV celebrity with local roots is Richard 'This Morning' Madeley.
• Jimmy Greaves use to have a business up by Gallows Corner but I bet he lived in Hornchurch or one of those other posh places. I never saw him walking round Hilldene shops.Also Ted Ditchburn,Ian Dury( the Blockhead) and Julius the Roman which is of course how Romford got its name The Ford where the Romans cross.
• Tiffany out of Eastenders I think.
• Not cringing but Underworld are from there.
• Frank Lampard, Ray Parlour, Tony Adams (Rainham), Frank Bruno, Steve Davis. King Harold (Battle of Hastings guy) - where else do you think Harold Hill got it's name (he lived there!!)
• Frank Bruno, Steve Davies, the small one from East 17 (allegedly), Peter Sutcliffe.
• Steve Davis - Snooker Player Johny Herbert - F1 Racing driver
• FIVE STAR!!!!!! Which I think says all there is to say really, except KAJAGOOGOO (or at least their lead man LIMAHL) have Romford Roots! FOr the obscure acid-house early nineties reference SL2 and SONZ OF A LOOP DA LOOP ERA also were locals, and probably still are.....this all may explain why the music scene in the town is so dire.
• Underworld ( the people who brought us " lager lager lager, mega mega white thing" from trainspotting) hail from Romford. Also, as i found out yesterday, Richard whitley from "richard and judy" is a romford boy.
• Alisha's Attic (I think)
• Franky Lampard used to live over the back of Rahaels Park and frank Warren used to live about half a mile from St Edwards Junior School (can't remember the name of the road). Don't know if they still do.? Any help here? Does anyone know of an ex-St Edwards pupil who went on to become a 'celeb'? e-mail me: geezer@hedonists.demon.co.uk
• John Stygal lives on the outskirts of town, and can occasionally be seen strolling around the market place in his 'heavy metal' jacket. Another local celebrity is Paul Taylor, who with his then singing partner Patrick Cox recorded the original 'Crocodile Shoes', which was later used as the theme tune to the hit TV series of the same name featuring Jimmy Nail.
• Five Star the marvellous '80's band hail from Romford, Steve Davis, the 'Interesting' Ginger snooker player and 'Scary' Frank 'Know-wot-I-mean-'Arry' Bruno
• Very near to Romford we have snooker player Steve Davis, Frank Bruno and Arsenal 'star' Ray Parlour.

Buskers, Street Entertainers

• Bill the Tramp and his Yo-Yo motion. What a guy. Also Romford very own superstar Guilldo Sparks and his one man band. This guy has been there since i can remember. There was a Busker who played Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix tunes, who must of been on some sort of Drugs, i think he must of snuffed it, or moved on.
• Point Break, famous for a bit, live near Midland Bank on Main Road.
• quite a few down the subways.
• Bill the Tramp is the legend of Romford and Hornchurch.
• The dodgy tramp shows up every so often in romford, although they usually wear nike trainers!!!
• yeah who remembers the one opposite Boots. Poor dog!
• A few, but the local authority are good organisers though.
• Years ago there was an old boy that use to stand outside Woolworths and the Golden Lion with an accordion and (wait for it)a bloody monkey!Well I thought it was a monkey until it went off and done the shopping.Turned out to be his wife so I would like to nominate the accordion players wife for doing such a good job of pretending to be a monkey.
• The best entertainer Romford has produced is without dought Peter the Tramp.
• under subways etc you get the usual, playing old beatles songs on a guitar and trying to sing as well as trying to look desperately poor and lonely.
• Lots but all poor quality and mainly around easter/xmas for the kids
• We Kill and Rob Them all....it is in our nature
• Richard feaver and gareth thomas used to play the blues man! but they have gone now
• Always a busker/homeless drunk with an instrument opposit boots on a saturday.
• Go to the Square
• There's the guy with the devil puppet and the fiddle, the guy with the orgay thing and every now and again PAN PIPES!!!
• Major street entertainment as part of 1997 750th anniversary celebrations of Romford Market.

The Knowhere Guide started out as a list of places to skateboard in the UK. It is a compilation of (unedited) information and views supplied by users like yourself. It is not a conventional tourist guide!

In most cases, the information in each section has been submitted by more than one contributor (the credits at the bottom of the page list some, but not all, of the contributors) and some of it dates back to the 1970s.

We make no claims as to the accuracy of the information in the Guide - our only purpose is to provide a forum for users to share their knowledge and opinions. So please keep a large bag of salt handy and be prepared to read between the lines!

If you disagree with a comment, or information is out of date, please submit an update! The contributors come from all walks of life, and their opinions are bound to be subjective, so if your view isn't represented, please speak up and contribute to the balance of the Guide. See below in the 'Have Your Say' section for how to add your voice.

If we have helped you out or made you laugh you can buy us a pint.

Have Your Say...

You can tell us more about Romford. This is also the method to use if you want to correct some of the information already here. (But please remember you're not mailing the person who actually wrote whatever-it-is.)

You can use the add an event form to tell us about events happening in Romford.

Or, if you'd just like to leave a message for other users of this site, take a look at The Knowhere Board (handy if you're just trying to get in touch with someone).

Credits

Last updated: 2008-07-03