It was formerly known as Squirrels Heath & Gidea Park Station and served as a link between Romford and Brentwood on the Great Eastern Railway’s main line.

According to a May 1911 article in the Great Eastern Railway Magazine, the station represented a “decided departure from that usually adopted on this railway,” with the construction of the station buildings also regarded as “novel.”

The station was built in 12 months, and the traditional three-platform configuration between Romford and Ilford was abandoned to save money on bridge reconstruction and land purchase.

The platforms were 600 feet long and 32 feet broad in the middle, and were connected by waiting rooms, a booking office, and a cargo shed and coal area.

By 1913, the station’s name was changed to Gidea Park & Squirrels Heath to reflect the increasing identity of the Gidea Park area, and by 1969, British Rail had eliminated the “Squirrels Heath” suffix entirely.

The station mirrored the burgeoning neighbourhood once more in 1930, when the line between Romford and Shenfield was quadrupled to boost capacity and new carriage sidings were erected on the north side of the line.

On January 2, 1947, as an express train from London to Peterborough began to depart from Gidea Park, it collided with another train bound for Southend due to excessive fog.

The back three carriages of the Southend train were wrecked, killing seven people and sending 45 more to the hospital.

Fast forward to the twenty-first century, and Gidea Park is now only an Elizabeth line station, having undergone extensive refurbishment prior to the services’ initial launch in May 2022.

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