The Rom

The Rom opened in August 1978 on Upper Rainham Road in Hornchurch, on the eastern edge of London, and takes its name from the River Rom next to it. It was designed by Adrian Rolt of G-Force and built by Skate Park Construction, the team behind several of the best British parks of that first boom, Harrow among them.

The layout borrowed straight from California: a snake run, moguls, a slalom run, a cloverleaf bowl, a halfpipe with vert extensions, a deep performance bowl and a white pool with blue tiles and coping, all in sprayed shotcrete. The performance bowl was so demanding that its above-ground extension was taken off soon after opening.

It opened as a private business but never made the money its backers hoped for, and the Greenwood family took it on soon afterwards. They kept it going through the lean years after the boom ended, helped by the BMX craze of the 1980s. The Bones Brigade came in 1988, drawing such crowds that police asked people to move on, and the Rom has hosted plenty of touring pros since, from Lance Mountain and Mark Gonzales to BMX names like Bob Haro and Mat Hoffman.

In 2014 English Heritage gave it Grade II listing after sports historian Simon Inglis suggested one of London's early parks deserved protection. The Rom was chosen because it was larger and more original than its rivals. It became the first protected skatepark in Europe and only the second in the world after Tampa's Bro Bowl, and, since the Bro Bowl was later removed, the only listed full-size park anywhere.

Listing could not stop hard times. A fire in July 2018 destroyed all the indoor buildings, and with insurance costs rising and attendance falling the park closed on 1 September 2019, after 41 years. A crew of long-time locals known as the Rom Boys rallied round, a story told in Matt Harris's 2020 documentary Rom Boys: 40 Years of Rad. A huge electricity bill brought another fundraising push in 2023.

The Rom is now on Historic England's Heritage at Risk register, with drainage problems and wearing concrete. In 2026 plans went in for housing on the neighbouring land that include restoring all seven listed features and building a new clubhouse with an indoor area, shop and café, and a 'Skatepark Revived' day that July brought a new film and mural. Check before you travel, as opening has been on and off in recent years.