Collier Row

Collier Row is named after the charcoal burners who once worked here, and the 1930s builders who replaced them put up a whole suburb around one crossroads and assumed that would do. It has. The Tube never arrived, the trains stop in Romford, and the locals gave up waiting long ago and bought a second car. People move here for a semi with a drive and a primary school they could reach in slippers, then spend years telling friends in town that it's practically Essex, which is exactly why they came.