A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



their gardens. This was the wealthiest part of the 

 town. Farther north Upper Park Road and Lower 

 Park Road were laid out although not yet built up by 

 1 87 1. Forest Road had also been made, and it was 

 there and in Smarts Lane that much of the new build- 

 ing had taken place. The houses in these two roads 

 were of cottage type, in short terraces. Another new 

 road was Staples Road, which had a few small houses. 

 Old Station Road had been made, but was not built 

 up, and the present Station Road was marked out. 

 Many smaller houses had been built at Baldwins Hill. 

 Some of the new building on the west of the town took 

 place on land inclosed from the forest, but expansion 

 in this direction was stopped by the Epping Forest 

 Acts of 1 87 1—80.33 There was also some new building 

 in High Road, including St. Mary's Church and the 

 present Union church. 



Loughton grew very slowly between 1 87 1 and 1 8 8 1 , 

 but between 1881 and 191 1 the population rose from 

 2,85 1 to 5,433. The progress of building was watched 

 with a critical eye by William Chapman Waller (1850- 

 19 1 7) who lived at Ash Green at the top of York 

 Hill. His articles in the parish magazine of St. Mary's 

 and the entries in his manuscript notebooks provide 

 valuable information about this period.^'' 



The new building after 1 881 took place mainly on 

 several small estates along or near the main road. The 

 'Queen's Park' estate, consisting of 14 acres bounded 

 by York Hill, Pump Hill, and Church Hill, was 

 broken up for building in 1886 after the death of the 

 last owner, George Burney.^s Building was much 

 slower than had been expected.3* By 1895 there were 

 some 25 houses along the Church Hill front of the 

 estate, but in Queen's Road, which had been built 

 parallel with Church Hill to the west, only about six 

 had so far been built.3' There was further building in 

 Queen's Road up to 1914 but parts of the road 

 remained empty until the 1930's. 



The Uplands estate, which lay opposite the Queen's 

 Park estate to the east of Church Hill, consisted of 1 8 

 acres,3 8 centred on a large house which had been a 

 private residence and later a children's convalescent 

 home. 39 The estate was sold in 1902 for ^^5,250 and 

 the house was demolished.'"' By 1914 a number of 

 small houses had been built along the Church Hill side 

 of the estate. Uplands Park Avenue (now The Uplands) 

 had been made and there were several houses there.*' 

 But there, also, building was not completed until after 

 the First World War. 



Farther south the development of the area between 

 Smarts Lane and Upper Park Road had begun. By 

 1895 High Beech Road, Forest View Road, Con- 

 naught Avenue, Junction Road (now Connaught Hill), 

 OUards Grove, and Park Hill had been laid out, 

 though as yet there were very few houses there.''^ As 

 elsewhere in Loughton this area was built up gradually. 

 In 1914 there were a number of houses in Ollards 



Grove, Connaught Avenue, High Beech Road, and 

 Park Hill but none had been built in Forest View 

 Road or Connaught Hill.+s 



On the east side of High Road near the railway 

 station Meadow Road and Algers Road had been laid 

 out by 1895. Meadow Road was half built up but 

 development had been slower in Algers Road and in 

 Lower Park Road, which lay between the two new 

 roads.'M South of Algers Road was then the Beech 

 House estate, consisting of Beech House, Newnham 

 House, and 117 acres land. In 1899 this estate was 

 put up for sale with the suggestion that it might be 

 built upon.45 By 19 14 The Avenue, The Crescent, and 

 Spring Grove had been laid out on the north side of 

 the estate and there were houses at the north end of The 

 Avenue.''* 



The areas mentioned above were those in which 

 most of the town's development took place between 

 1880 and 1 9 14. A few houses were also built between 

 1895 and 1914 on the north side of Alderton Hill, and 

 there was some new building in the older streets of the 

 town, where there were still many vacant sites. There 

 were also some new public buildings. Religious needs 

 had been met by the formation of a new Anglican 

 parish in south Loughton and by the building of a 

 Wesleyan church and three mission halls. The Lopping 

 Hall and the Loughton Club, both in Station Road, 

 provided centres for secular activities. A new elemen- 

 tary school had been built in Staples Road and the High 

 School for Girls in Alderton Hill. Many of the new 

 buildings erected before 1899 were designed by 

 Edmund Egan, a local architect who died in that 

 year.'*7 



By 19 14 Loughton had changed from a village to a 

 residential town, though still a very small one. The 

 preservation of Epping Forest had prevented any 

 expansion westward.'*^ To the east of the town much 

 of the parish was owned by J. Whitaker Maitland 

 (d. 1909), rector and lord of the manor, who rebuilt 

 and Uved at Loughton Hall. It may be supposed that 

 he would hardly have welcomed any great expansion 

 of the town on this side, and since he was also rich he 

 had no need to sell any of his land for building. Social 

 and economic factors also checked the development of 

 the town. Loughton was mainly an upper-middle class 

 residential area, and its inhabitants (of whom W. C. 

 Waller was probably typical) were jealous of its 

 amenities. There was no large-scale industry to attract 

 workers and Loughton was not one of the suburbs to 

 which population was drawn from London by cheap 

 workmen's fares."*' A sale catalogue of 19 12 quotes 

 the rates for season tickets to Liverpool Street: ^^4 p. <^d. 

 a quarter first class and ^3 \i. 3fl'. second class.so These 

 were not rates to attract lower-paid workers. 



Before 1 9 14, therefore, building was confined to a 

 comparatively small part of the parish and even there 

 it proceeded slowly." The population of Loughton in 



35 For some details of new roads c. 1865 

 see Waller, Loughton^ i, 107. 



3* Offprints of the articles were later 

 collected to form a volume, Loughton in 

 Essex^ of which 1 2 copies only were bound. 

 The MS. notes are in the Essex Record 

 Office :T/P 13. 



35 For the earlier history of this estate 

 see Waller, Loughton, i, 137—8. 



3' E.R.O., 5a/eCa<. B. 490, 491. These 

 catalogues give details of a proposed 

 housing layout of some 100 houses. 



3' O.S. 25 in. Map (2nd edn.), sheet 



Ivii, 12. 



38 For its earlier history see Waller, 

 Loughton, i, 115— 16. 



3» Ibid.; Kelly's Dir. Essex (1895). 



•to E.R.O., T/P 13 ii. The house stood 

 almost opposite the 'King's Head'. Mr. 

 Wm. Addison has a photo, from which it 

 appears that it was built early in the 19th 

 cent. 



■♦' O.S. 6 in. Map (3rd edn.), sheet kix. 



■f^ O.S. 25 in. Map (2nd edn.), sheets 

 Ivii, 12, 16. 



♦3 O.S. 6 in. Map {3rd edn.), sheet Ixix. 



** O.S. 25 in. Map (2nd edn.), sheet 

 Ivii, 16. ■•s E.R.O., Sale Cat. A. 500. 



«* 0.5. 6 in. Map (3rd edn.). 



" E.R.O., T/P 13 ii. 



■♦8 For the Forest see below. 



*•> Cf. Retns. of fVorkmen's Trains, H.C. 

 [C. 7541], pp. lo-ii (1894), Ixxv. 



5» E.R.O., Sale Cat. B. 1 37. 



5' For an interesting account of Lough- 

 ton c. 1900—14 see articles by Will 

 Francies, fVest Essex Gazette, 24 Dec. 

 1952, 16 Jan., 20 Mch., 24 Apr., 21 & 28 

 Aug., 30 Oct., 6 Nov. 1953. 



112 



