The neighbourhood of High Beach (or High Beech) is located in the county of Essex, with Chigwell to its South East and Buckhurst Hill to its South West. Compared to bordering East London, this area has many open green spaces. Loughton’s abundance of natural spaces has accommodated outdoor sports to flourish illustrated by Loughton Bowls Club, Loughton Athletic Club and Loughton Cricket Club all playing within close proximity of this neighbour area. The locality is a perfect mould of classic suburban England and a contemporary urban locale.

It should be no surprise that the area is engulfed in history as the first settlements date back 2,500 years ago. In more recent history the area was recorded in William the Conqueror’s 1086 Doomsday book under three of its current villages – Lukintune (Loughton), Tippendene (Debden) and Alrewarton (Alderton). Epping Forest which is located around 2 miles from this area, its preservation restricted Loughton from expanding Westward, yet 1914 Loughton had changed from a village to a residential town, though still a very small one. Loughton was predominantly an upper-middle class residential area, and unlike neighbouring East London, there was no large scale industry to attract poorer workers from London.

Noble Prize winning author Rudyard Kipling lived in Loughton.

In 2010, the area got its prime time break, when Loughton appeared on our screens in ITV’s The Only Way is Essex.

Although less than 30 minutes from central London on the tube, the cheaper alternative to the Underground are buses, which locally are irregular.

Essex County Council is investing £315 million into expanding school places, some of which have gone towards creating 150 spaces for Roding Valley High School in neighbouring Loughton. There are limited opportunities for large-scale developments in High Beach though, given that much of the area is rural, and a large portion of it is taken up by a section of the vast Epping Forest.