Loughton
Template:Infobox England place with map Loughton is a residential town and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex. It is located 12.2 miles (19.7 km) north east of Charing Cross in London.
Loughton covers about 3,500 acres (14 km²) of which over 1,300 acres (5 km²) are open forest land and has a population of 30,340. The town is principally residential but is also home to the Bank of England printing works where all English banknotes are printed. Loughton is also the home to the world famous East 15 Acting School
It is part of the London commuter belt and within the north easterly bounds of the M25 motorway. Loughton station lies on the London Underground Central Line. It was opened in 1940, but the railway line dates back to 1856, when the branch from Stratford was opened by the Eastern Counties Railway. The town has a London (020 8) telephone area code as it is close to the Greater London boundary. From 1839 to 2000, Loughton was in the Metropolitan Police District, but on 1 April 2000, it was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Essex Police.
Much of the housing in Loughton was built in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, with significant expansion in the 1930s. The Railway Company would not offer workmen's fares to and from Loughton, so development was of a middle-class character. Loughton was a fashionable place for artistic and scientific residents in Victorian and Edwardian times. Debden (also known as North Loughton) is a post-war development intended to ease the chronic housing shortage in London in the 1940s. There are 56 listed buildings and 3 conservation areas in Loughton, and a large and thriving Historical Society, which has published about 20 books on the history of the town.
From 1900 to 1933, Loughton was governed by the Loughton Urban District Council. From 1933 to 1974 together with Buckhurst Hill and Chigwell it formed the Chigwell Urban District. Since 1996, Loughton has had its own town council.
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