Essex the top celeb magnet…

On the doorstep of our Loughton office is an area of Essex known to home-buyers as ‘The Golden Triangle’. The three points of this triangle of prime real estate are Loughton, Buckhurst Hill and Chigwell, all conveniently situated on the London Underground Central Line. Their lanes and streets aren’t paved with gold, but a lot of homes in them belong to people with the Midas touch.

Here, proximity to London is combined with substantial homes offering local access to forest and countryside, as well as motorway. The triangle draws many high earners, but not everyone living in its multi-million-pound properties is a celebrity; many wealthy residents are discreetly low-profile. As professional lawyers, we respect clients’ privacy wherever they live.

Loughton, Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell and other choice bits of Essex have attracted numerous celebs. Some are very open about their personal lives and wonderful homes, so we do feel at liberty to mention a few names that have seen exposure in the media, within this light-hearted Essex versus Herts contest to find the celeb magnet with superior pulling power.

Chigwell is a prime address and the village’s charm was discovered two centuries ago by Dickens, who renamed impressive hostelry Ye Olde King’s Head as The Maypole in his novel Barnaby Rudge. It more recently gained another name, Sheesh, when a local resident spotted it through the tinted windows of AMS1 and liked it so much he bought the place and moved a Turkish restaurant in there.

That resident is Lord Alan Sugar, whose guesstimated billion-plus worth is a big boost for Essex’s celebrity wealth tally. His links with Tottenham Hotspur are well known, but he wasn’t the first with soccer connections to make Chigwell his home. The late Bobby Moore of West Ham and England grew up in urban Barking, moved to suburban Gants Hill and later to charming Chigwell.

One Bobby Moore business venture was a local country club at Woolston Hall, owned jointly with James Bond actor Sean Connery; this suffered problems, but the Mooro’s Restaurant there today commemorates England’s 1966 World Cup winning captain’s Chigwell association. Other West Ham players to have chosen Chigwell as home include Paulo Di Canio, Jermain Defoe and Andy Carroll.

See our next blog to find out if Herts can trump that. With two top female celebs in its line-up, expect a strong showing.