Every person living in Loughton for a long time probably at least once visited one or two main town supermarkets: Morrisons and Sainsburys. I know a lot of people do their weekly shopping there and it is indeed very handy - the supermarkets are now our way of life.

I used to go to Morrisons much more than to Sainsburys because firstly, they very rarely or even never have empty shelves - there are always people in store that add the products to the shelves and check them out. Secondly, I hate paying for parking even though after the shopping it will be reimbursed - I like to drive in, do my shopping (in the shortest time possible) and then leave. Thirdly, I like the Morrisons’ atmosphere of neatness and order, which is sort of absent in Sainsburys, where everything is kind of everywhere. Fourthly, one very outspoken and relaxed manager in Morrisons used to reduce prices of the fresh products at the end of the day - I used to go there after 9pm on Fridays and would usually pick up some bargains. And lastly, Morrisons is still opened until 5 o’clock in the evening on Sundays, which is very handy for lasy shoppers and those, who get home after 4pm on Sundays.

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All Loughton bus routes are shown in the PDF map below.
If the map does not load, please download and install Acrobat reader from here.

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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Recently I’ve been doing my research for the Loughton local election results and as a result firstly found a detailed map of Loughton with all the houses and gardens - I intend to share it on this site later - but then found another map, which has totally fascinated me. It’s a map of Epping Forest and surrounded towns and villages from the beginning of the last century. This map has amazed me because I’ve never known what Loughton, Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell and Epping used to be at that time.

I’ve cut a bit from it where Loughton is. Below is the old Loughton map from circa 1910.

As you see, there are plenty of self-explanatory road names like

• Alderton Hall Road - where Alderton Hall used to be; now Alderton Hill;
• Rectory Lane - where the Rectory used to be;
• Church Hill - where St John’s Church is;
• Borders Lane - from Border’s farm that used to be located nearby.

Pink coloured spaces on the map show where the houses stood at that time and - no surprise here - currently the oldest houses in Loughton are still there. Despite the fact that railway station has been opened in 1856, there hasn’t been much of a development around it. I assume that the majority of houses alongside High Road, Forest Road and York Hill have been built before the railway came to Loughton.

Loughton has even had its own hotel at the time and a couple of chapels in addition to St.John the Baptist’s, St.Mary’s and St.Nicholas’s churches. The last one is used to be where Epping Forest College is now.

The map is so peaceful and gratefully old that I can just imagine myself being in that beginning of century Loughton with fields all around the town, farms and churches with unobscured views. No newly built commuter belt houses yet, no Debden Estate, the old railway terminus is in place of current Sainsbury’s parking lot, roads are not congested and railway trains are fast and reliable.

The whole 1910 Epping Forest map can be found on the Hunt House website.