All Loughton bus routes are shown in the PDF map below.
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The Summaries of Loughton Bus Routes

Bus 20 - Debden Broadway to Walthamstow via Central Loughton and Woodford Green.

A double-decker London bus; Oyster cards are accepted. Runs every 10 to 15 minutes during peak hours and every 30 minutes at late evenings and on Sundays. Bus 20 timetable

Bus 167 - Debden Broadway to Ilford via Central Loughton, Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell and Gants Hill.

London bus; Oyster cards are accepted. Runs every 10 to 15 minutes during peak hours and every 30 minutes at late evenings and on Sundays. Bus 167 timetable

Bus 397 - Debden Broadway to Chingford (Chingford Mount).

London bus; Oyster cards are accepted. Bus 397 timetable

Bus 250 (and 240) - Debden Broadway to Waltham Cross vis Waltham Abbey.

Essex bus; runs every half an hour 7 days a week. On Sundays, service 240 with amended route is introduced. Buses 240/250 timetables and map

Bus H1 - Loughton Underground Station to Harlow via Debden, Epping and North Weald.

Essex bus; runs until about 6pm; no service on Sundays. Bus H1 timetable and map

Useful resources

http://www.essexpublictransport.info - Essex County Council transport information website with PDF town bus maps and very useful whole of Essex bus map.

http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk - Bus timetables and maps for every bus route.

Not a long time ago I wrote in LoughtonEssex.co.uk about Loughton High Road makeover and what has happened as a result. Now, it’s Debden turn: the work has been started on Debden Broadway to put a new road surface and new pavements. At the moment, the work is far from over but I can already see that nothing good will come out out of it.

The number of parking spaces is to be reduced again

The first thing is that the number of available parking spaces available on the Broadway itself will be reduced dramatically and this is a bad news. In 2008, the car parks on the North and on the South of Debden Broadway (Burton Road and Vere Road) have become chargeable. That was done under a good pretense to improve the parking availability and allow people who live nearby to park more easily. In reality, nothing has changed except that everyone except local residents now has to pay for parking during the working days and even on Saturdays (on the North of the Broadway).

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Well, technically Debden is a part of Loughton town because officially there’s no town called Debden and all Debden addresses are Loughton addresses too. So on paper Debden is a suburb of Loughton, an estate that was built after the World War II to house people who lost their homes during the war. Why then there’s still a divide between the old part of Loughton and new Debden - the former council estate where these days almost all houses are privately owned?

I think this comes from the different types of people who live in different parts of Loughton as well as costs of houses and access to amenities and local transport. It’s like the divide between Old Harlow and Harlow but much less distinct.

Whereas houses in old Loughton are in totality respectfully old, distinctive and expensive; houses in Debden are new-ish, were cheap to build and with minor variations look the same.

Old Loughton houses rich people, white collar workers from London City; Debden on the other hand have simplier popuation - mostly London service sector workers like builders and taxi drivers.

Old Loughton has a lot of shops, cafes, eateries, two big supernarkets, leisure centre and several chirches; Debden has its own town centre with shops and two small supermarkets but simple local cafes and no well-known restaurant chains.

I think you get the trend. Debden is like a little sister of Loughton - it’s more disrespectful and less politically correct, younger and therefore prone to errors. But it doesn’t make her less of a sister - she is still loved and hated in the same time, just like in a real family. Old Loughton like an older sister would always look after Debden no matter what. And in my observations people don’t tend to say “I live in Debden” or “I live in old part of Loughton”, they just say “I live in Loughton” and this is how it should be.

So do you consider Debden to be a part of Loughton?

Here are couple of for and against points to consider:

For:

• Two towns are united under one name - Loughton. Debden is just a name of the locality now, which came from Debden Green - a hamlet north of Loughton. Debden is not recognised on road maps.
• Debden has generally lost its “estate” feel because the majority of houses are privately owned.
• People who live in Debden go shopping to Old Loughton and often visit Loughton Leisure Centre, restaurants and a night club because these have not been opened in Debden yet.
• Some areas considered to be Debden are closer to Loughton town centre than to Broadway (i.e. Debden town centre)
• Old Loughton and Debden have the same bus routes - almost all buses that go to Loughton also go to Debden.

Against:

• There’s a visible class divide between the people in old Loughton and Debden as well as different types of houses.
• Old Loughton and Debden have their own town centres, the undergound stations and designated end-of-route bus stands.
• Old Loughton and Debden are geographically divided - Old Loughton occupies the north-west of geographical Loughton and Debden occupies the south-east.
• Old Loughton residents mainly vote for Conservatives; Debden residents mainly vote for Labour and LRA.