Havering – sandwiched between Essex and London – was one of the strongest pro-Brexit boroughs in the country, with 69.7% voting to leave the EU.

Its population has remained relatively constant between the two past censuses in 2001 and 2011, with a 6% increase in residents compared with a 14% London average, but the population of the main town, Romford, has shot up by 21%, reflecting a glut of new apartment blocks attracting families squeezed out of the London market.

Two other things stand out from the censuses: it has an older population than average for the capital and is one of the two least diverse boroughs in London (the other being Bromley). But in the 10 years between both censuses the make-up of the population has changed, with the minority ethnic population having more than doubled.

Is that one of the reasons why the borough opted so emphatically to exit the EU?

We go to Romford to find out.

Social club

Romford United Services and Social Club was set up in 1921 by the ex-servicemen of Romford, who were in the armed forces during the first world war. The present site was opened following the second world war.

Hillary and Paul Webster, line dance teacher and DJs - Voted: remain, leave

Married couple Paul and Hillary Webster had what she describes as “a massive fallout” over the referendum after he voted remain and she voted Brexit.

“I think I’ve made a terrible mistake. I’m deeply regretting my decision. I don’t think I was given the correct information. Given another chance in another referendum I’d vote in now,” says Hillary, 61, a line dance teacher at Romford United Services and Social Club.

“I thought we had good reasons for going out. We had a better chance for the future. We weren’t making much of being in Europe. My mother used to say, ‘A pot has to stand on its own base,’ and Britain wasn’t standing on its own base.”

I think I’ve made a terrible mistake. I’m deeply regretting my decision Hillary Webster

Paul, 59, is more sure-footed: “I didn’t believe the propaganda being put forward by the pro-Brexiters. I didn’t believe them on the amount of money we were sending to Europe. One of the most preposterous things they said was we’d be opening the floodgates to Turkey and there’d be 40 million more in the country. I also felt we’d be more united in our fight against terrorism if we stayed in Europe.”

Nine months down the line, she says she wishes she had listened to her husband. “I think I just went along with the idea of coming out. I thought it would mean new horizons in industry if we were to start all over again. I didn’t think we’d end up with the pound so weak. Nobody said, ‘Be careful, if you vote out, sterling will become instantly weak.’ I’m frightened I made a terrible mistake.”

Snooker club

The Romford Snooker Club is famous as the club where Steve Davis started his career. We met some friends playing there

Tom Binder, firefighter, 24 - Voted: leave

Binder was born into a Romford family with a history of public service. His brother is a paramedic and both his grandparents on one side were in the police.

I’m a bit nervous about article 50 now being implemented Tom Binder

He voted Conservative in the last election and in favour of leaving the EU. “My main reason was the point they made in their manifesto about the money we pay into Europe going to be put back into the health service, but straight away after the referendum they said they didn’t actually say that.

“I voted that way because I thought it was going into the public services. I’m a bit nervous about article 50 now being implemented. Does it mean more cuts to the public services? They said they were putting £350m into the NHS. Now we know they were lying. I think I should have voted remain instead, but at the moment I do have faith.”

Binder’s friend, Daniel Jobson, 25, a geologist, also from Romford – Voted: remain

I think a lot of people, especially the media, jumped the gun and said the country would suffer Daniel Jobson

“At the end of the day there was nothing wrong with the EU, the country wasn’t in tatters. I feel that everybody, especially in this area, voted leave because there weren’t compelling reasons put to stay.”

Does he still think he made the right decision? “I think a lot of people, especially the media, jumped the gun and said the country would suffer. But nine months down the line nothing has happened and it will take a long time before anyone knows what the impact will be. I may have regrets in two years’ time, or I may not have regrets in two years time. Right now, it’s way too early to say.”

Friday night

Romford has a night-time economy that is almost as significant as the daytime economy, which is larger than in any other metropolitan centre in Greater London, with more than 100,000 sq ft of bars and pubs.

Police making an arrest



Controlling the huge numbers of people out on the town who might be drunk and getting into fights is no small task for the local police force.

Police found this young man, who had been asked to leave the centre earlier in the evening, unconscious after getting into a fight and hitting his head on the pavement.

Back at the police station, there is a lot of paperwork to be done. Right, a busker on the streets



PC Pete Kirk has been with the police for 12 years and Michael Price for two years. They have been asked by a shopping centre security guard to move on two homeless men.

The allotments

We met members of the Hornchurch and District Allotments and Gardening Society. The society has been established for more than 60 years. The society now has 15 sites and almost 700 members.

Ken Foley, 76, retired - Voted: leave but wavering

Ken Foley (above with Pete Ward) has a plot as large as a mini-farm, tilled and rotovated for the season. He has put 400 runner bean seeds in, with sweetcorn, onions, beetroot, carrots, potatoes all ready to go.

Born and bred in Mile End, east London, Foley worked for Barclays Bank for 20 years as security in hostels it used to house staff hired from northern England.

“I voted to come out, but I’m wavering now, I don’t know if I did the right thing. I think we could come out worse. I thought it would be OK, we’d still have access to the free market, and now we might not. I think it’s going to be very hard.

Kawa Amin, doctor - Voted: remain

Kawa Amin, a consultant geriatrician at Queen’s hospital, Romford, came to Britain from Baghdad three years before Saddam Hussein was toppled. Three months ago he landed himself two plots in the local allotment off Fontayne Avenue. He had not gardened before, but luckily he inherited fig, apple and plum trees.

He voted to remain. “I think most of the doctors I work with prefer to stay in, but some of the nurses voted to stay out because of the competition from workers from Italy and Spain. They thought they were competing with them and taking their jobs.”

Having grown up in a dictatorship, Amin is sanguine about the future. “Britain is a very strong constitutional country. Democracy is very deep-rooted.”

I think Europe itself will need Britain. Even if Britain is out, they will find some way to keep Britain close Kawa Amin

Jim Hamilton, 72, retired software executive - Voted: leave



Hamilton intended to vote remain, largely to protect his pension. He changed his mind in the last week during a car journey across London that took four hours.



He has voted Labour for most of his life, but 12 years ago switched to the Conservatives. “I started to lean very much towards Ukip in the last few years,” he says. “We can’t let more and more people in here. It just doesn’t work. The infrastructure isn’t there,” he says.



I don’t think Hammond and May are the right quality of people to do this Jim Hamilton

“I’m glad I voted Brexit. I think it’s going to be very contentious. One of the things that our Westminster politicians are going to have to do now is make a decision because Brussels does that now. I don’t think they [Hammond and May] are the right quality of people to do this. It’s been easy for them because they’ve been able to say, ‘Oh, Brussels won’t let us do this, Brussels won’t let us do that.’”

He says life has not got better as the country has prospered and he blames politicians. “All the talk was about the future being paperless, how we’d all be able to retire at 50 because we’d be able to afford to and machines would be doing most of the work. Well, now we’re talking about people not being able to retire at 65, young people barely able to get by or scrape enough together to get a home.”

Dot Spendiff, 55, full-time carer - Voted: remain

Although her family is from Havering and she moved back two years ago, Spendiff considers herself a blow-in. She spent most of her life in Stratford, east London, and says she still sometimes feels as if Havering is stuck in the 1950s. In Stratford, she helped run the estate as it was a co-op.

“I lived with people from all over the world. I’m used to mixing with different types of people. It’s a bit of a shock coming back here,” she says, telling me she heard a council worker use the phrase “darkie”.

“Havering has a got a very high population of elderly people, but it’s changing because people are coming out here because of the housing situation and some people find that a bit of a threat to be honest, but to me it’s normal.”

“I lived in France when I was 19 and I think it’s really educational to go out of your own country and see it from outside. I like the idea of being part of Europe. I’m glad I voted remain.”

Bingo

The 1930s art deco bingo hall in Hornchurch was taken over by Lidl in 2015, and Mecca bingo nights are now held at The Mall shopping centre in Romford. For many, such as Brenda Bargh, the bingo nights are a chance to socialise.

It’s not generally a young crowd but bingo is fun for all

Brenda Bargh, 76, retired - Voted: leave

In her broderie anglaise top, Brenda Bargh, 76, is all dressed up for bingo night. She’s been going to the Romford Mecca hall for 18 years.

“I come on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Tuesday and Thursday I have to clean the house,” she jokes. “It’s not really about the money, it’s my social. The staff are lovely to me and you get to meet a lot of people, we have a laugh. On bingo days I jump out of bed and think, ‘Great, it’s bingo day.’ I don’t know what I’d do if it closed. I’d just sit and mope at home.”



She voted for Brexit because she sensed a decline in the town and its community cohesiveness.

Immigration? It is an issue for some people but not for me. What I don’t like is the people who do the muggings Brenda Bargh

There’s “zero” in the historic market square now, she says, and the old brewery has been turned into a retail park. “Immigration? It is an issue for some people but not for me, everyone has been kind to me all my life. What I don’t like is the people who do the muggings.”

Market town

Romford has a large street market run by Havering council. Dave Davies, 57, has run a ladieswear stall in the historic market for the past 12 years and Brexit couldn’t come quick enough for him.



Dave Davies, market stallholder - Voted: leave

Davies voted Ukip in the general election and voted to exit the EU. Why? “I was fed up with everything really – all the different rules and regulations, immigration – I feel like we’re not in control of our own country,” he says, explaining that his anti-EU feelings hardened after 2004 when Poland joined the EU.



“When they came in it was just loads of people, legal and illegal, it started to get out of hand. The country’s over-populated. It’s too much overflow. I think it’s too late, I think the ones that are here are going to stay.”

I don’t think it’s going to make much that much difference for my generation, but hopefully for the younger generation Dave Davies

Terry Simpson, 54, and John Norton, 57, tattooists - Voted: leave and leave

Simpson is confident Britain has made the right decision. He voted Ukip but says he is a “nationalist” and the party’s views are not strong enough for him. He voted to put a stop to the “open door” policy on immigration and blames Tony Blair for failing to put restrictions in place when the EU enlarged to include Poland in 2004.

“Immigrants have been coming to this country for thousands of years, it’s not about referring back to previous waves of immigration, to the Indians or the West Indians.

“This was just an open-door policy and the name of the people who wanted to come to the country and work and contribute is blackened by those who come and put nothing back, that’s not right, is it?”

His business partner, John, who voted Tory, says he voted out partly because of the European court of justice. “Take Abu Hamza,” he says, referring to theradical cleric who preached at Finsbury Park mosque, “it took us eight years to get him out because of the Human Rights Act.”.

He’s also angry at reports that Britain may have to pay an exit bill estimated up to €60bn (£52bn). “When you get divorced you split the assets 50/50. After 40 years of paying into the EU, Theresa May should be asking for a share of the assets back.”

For 2,000 years we didn’t need them. It’s only in the last 40 years we’ve had to be part of that stupid organisation. John Norton

Steve Wickenden, of Wickenden Meats, which has been trading in Romford for 30 years.



The mosque

Romford mosque has been run out of a four-bedroom bungalow by Kamal Siddiqui since 1996. He opened it to serve the Muslim community, which he puts at about 500, because there was no other place of prayer in the borough.

I feel completely unsafe, but where can I go, this is my home, I’m British Kamal Siddiqui

Kamal Siddiqui, 70, retired customs and excise officer - Voted: remain

Siddiqui says he and the mosque have been attacked, including vandalism, graffiti, an arson attempt and windows being smashed. “Two weeks ago I had eggs thrown at my car by schoolboys. They hate the mosque. They throw dog muck across the fence.



“Outside this window I have crime-shield windows put in especially, they cost me £6,000. I wanted to put metal grilles but the council wouldn’t let me. I’ve had £25,000 in legal battles trying to protect the mosque,” he said.



A retired civil servant and son of an Indian city engineer, he is from a family of high achievers and has two children. His daughter is a doctor and associate professor in medicine and his son works in a French investment bank in the City. His uncle was a doctor in the British army but died during the second world war.



He voted to stay in the EU. “99% to 100% of the Muslim community here voted to stay in,” he says. “I think the referendum was wrong, but the public did not know what the effect of Brexit would be. This area gave the highest vote to leave. It surprised me. They are anti-Muslim. They hate me.”

Imtiaz and Christina Shaikh - Vote: abstain and leave

Imtiaz Shaikh, 63, met his wife Christina, 61, in a youth club in Stepney where they both grew up. He remembers the endemic racial violence of the “skinhead days” in the late 1970s, but as he had arrived from Gujarat in 1954, he considered himself an Eastender and knew how to defend himself. “They picked on the Asians, but they never picked on me because I was hanging round with the right people. They went for Asians who kept themselves to themselves.”

He has never voted but would have voted remain and doesn’t trust the Tories. “Theresa May? To be honest with you, I don’t trust her. She’s a bit strict on foreign people whether from Europe or further afield. Labour were more helpful to foreign people, helpful to the Caribbeans. Europeans are being picked on in the same way as the Jews were, then black people and Asians. The government always has to have someone to blame.”

His wife, a care worker, is a strong Labour supporter, but switched to the Tories in the last election. She voted leave.

She has worked since she was 15 and took early retirement in 2003 after her husband was ill with bladder cancer. They applied for benefits but were turned down and her husband was told he could go back to work. “You do all the hours, the two of you, so it makes you sick when you see [people] on the telly that get £26,000 a year off the state and they’re coming from another country. Even in America you have to wait. People think we’re a soft touch,” she says.

Community

Andrew Rosindell MP for Romford holds a celebration for triggering article 50 tomorrow with local conservative party workers.

Sean was invited to the local MP’s open surgery, where he meets constituents to discuss their problems. Rosindell’s political views are firmly rightwing: he is a Eurosceptic and supports the reintroduction of the death penalty and the detention of asylum seekers. He is the international director of the European Foundation, a thinktank supported by Margaret Thatcher.

Pastor Glenn Podd came in to discuss development options for his Romford Elim Church.

Claire Routh is a community nurse with the North-East London foundation trust and on her rounds visits patients in the community.

• This article was amended on 30 March 2017 to correct the name of Pastor Glenn Podd’s church