Drama Loughton is home to the
East 15 Acting School. East 15 grew from the work of
Joan Littlewood's famed
Theatre Workshop. Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop was based in
Stratford, London, whose postal district is E15. The School, which became part of the
University of Essex in 2000, includes the Corbett Theatre in its campus. Regular productions are staged at the theatre, which was named after
Harry H. Corbett (1925–1982), himself a Theatre Workshop member and benefactor of East 15. The theatre building is actually a converted medieval flint barn from
Ditchling,
Sussex which was dismantled and rebuilt in Loughton. The character actor
Jack Watling (1923–2001) lived in Alderton Hall, Loughton. His son,
Giles (born 1953), also an actor, was born there. Actor and playwright
Ken Campbell (1941–2008), nicknamed 'The Elf of Epping Forest', lived in Baldwins Hill, Loughton, where a
blue plaque to him was erected in 2013. Comedy-drama actor
Alan Davies (born 1966) grew up in Loughton, and attended Staples Road school. Actress
Jane Carr (born 1950), best known for her role as "Louise Mercer" in the American version of the
sitcom Dear John from 1988 to 1992, was born in Loughton. Amateur drama is performed mainly at Lopping Hall. Performances are from Loughton Amateur Dramatic Society, founded in 1924, which until 2006 alternated with those from the now-defunct West Essex Repertory Company, founded in 1945. Lopping Hall opened in 1884 and was paid for by the Corporation of London to compensate villagers for the loss of traditional rights to lop wood in Epping Forest, rights which were bought out when the management of the forest was taken over by the corporation in 1878. Lopping Hall served as Loughton's town hall and was the venue for most of the parish's social – and especially musical - activities during the early 20th century. There are ambitious plans by the Trustees for the building's restoration.
Music Loughton's classical music scene dates back to the late 19th century, when there were regular concerts by the Loughton Choral Society in Lopping Hall under the conductorship of Henry Riding. Today, performances are mainly at two venues: Loughton Methodist Church hosts the annual Loughton Youth Music Festival, which showcases talented pupils from local schools and colleges. St. John's Church festival choir undertakes extensive overseas tours, and in turn hosts well-known soloists, chamber and operatic groups. The music hall artiste
José Collins (1887–1958) lived at 107 High Road. The hymn writer
Sarah Flower Adams (1805–1848) lived with her husband
William Bridges Adams (1797–1872) at a house called 'Sunnybank', demolished in 1888 and replaced by No. 9 Woodbury Hill. Loughton boasts a few rock and pop music connections;
Mark Knopfler of
Dire Straits was a lecturer at Loughton College (now
Epping Forest College). The
Wake Arms public house (now demolished), which was about north of the Loughton boundary in
Waltham Abbey on a roundabout, was a rock music venue from 1968 to 1973, hosting bands such as
Black Sabbath,
Deep Purple, Genesis,
The Pretty Things,
Status Quo,
Uriah Heep, and
Van der Graaf Generator.
Ray Dorset, the lead singer of
Mungo Jerry, had his first taste of fame when his band 'The Tramps' won the Loughton Beat Contest in 1964. Roding Players is an amateur orchestra which rehearses at Roding Valley High School and gives three concerts a year in the Epping Forest area; composer Miles Harwood is Musical Director. Epping Forest Brass Band, founded in 1935, also has regular concerts in the Epping Forest area, and competes in national competitions and exhibitions. Loughton Cinema had a resident ladies' band during the 1930s. Loughton also has its own music academy the 'Loughton Music Academy' founded in 2001. Performances are with full orchestral participation. Loughton Folk Club was founded on 28 October 2010 and held its first Loughton Folk Day on 9 April 2011. The Club meets weekly at 8pm at Loughton Club, Station Road, Loughton.
Opera and dance In the 1930s, Loughton was home to the Pollards Operas, outdoor operatic performances in the garden of a large house. These were directed by Iris Lemare (1902–1997) and produced by Geoffrey Dunn (1903–1981), a prominent impresario, actor and cinematographer, and included several first British performances of operas. Loughton Operatic Society, founded in 1894, is one of the oldest arts organisations in Essex, and still stages regular musicals and operas at Lopping Hall. Epping Forest District Council's Arts Unit, Epping Forest Arts, stages occasional dance-based performance works in Loughton, with community and schools participation. Harlow Ballet, which stages full-scale amateur ballet productions at Harlow Playhouse, also recruits in the area.
Visual arts The sculptor and painter
Sir Jacob Epstein (1880–1959) lived at 'Deerhurst' between 1933 and 1950, after having rented no. 49 Baldwins Hill; he produced some of works there. Sculptor
Elsa Fraenkel lived at Elm Lodge, Church Lane, after World War II. Artist
John Strevens (1902–1990) lived at 8 Lower Park Road from 1963 until his death. Walter Spradbury (1889–1969), best known for his iconic interwar London Transport posters, lived nearby in
Buckhurst Hill.
William Lakin Turner lived and painted at Clovelly, York Hill, Loughton, in the 1890s. From 1908 to 1936,
William Brown Macdougall, artist, and his wife, the author and translator,
Margaret Armour, lived in Loughton. Juggler Mark Robertson (1963–1992) lived at 'The Avenue' and appeared at the London Palladium and on television.
Cinema Early cinematic shows took place in the Lopping Hall. A purpose-built Loughton Cinema was opened by actress
Evelyn Laye on 9 October 1928; designed by local architect Theodore Legg, it could seat 847. This was later reduced to 700. In July 2010 Loughton Town Council organised a screening of
An Education, the first film screening in Loughton since the closure of the cinema, and its success prompted the formation of the Loughton Film Society in September 2010 to redress the lack of a local cinema.
George Pearson (1875–1973), a director and film-writer in the early years of British cinematography, was headmaster of Staples Road Junior School, Loughton 1908–1913. Charles Ashton (1884 – ), film actor from the silent movie era, lived at 20 Carroll Hill, Loughton, from 1917–34. Several films have been set in the Loughton area, including the 2001 TV movie
Hot Money, based on real events at Loughton's
Bank of England printing works.
Literature Shakespeare's ''
Midsummer Night's Dream'' was perhaps written for the marriage of
Sir Thomas Heneage, Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household to the Countess of Southampton, who lived near Loughton at
Copped Hall.
Lady Mary Wroth (1586–1652), niece of poet
Sir Philip Sidney, lived at Loughton Hall with her husband Sir Robert Wroth, and they turned the mansion into a centre of
Jacobean literary life.
Ben Jonson was a frequent visitor, and dedicated his play
The Alchemist to Mary and poetry collection
The Forest to Sir Robert. Lady Mary was an author in her own right, and her book
Urania is generally regarded as the first full-length English novel by a woman.
Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) who lived for some time at nearby
Waltham Cross, set part of his novel
Phineas Finn (1869), which parodies corrupt electoral procedures, in a fictitious Loughton.
Robert Hunter, lexicographer and encyclopaedist (1823–1897) built a house in Loughton, and there compiled his massive
Encyclopaedic dictionary.
William Wymark Jacobs (1863–1943) lived at The Outlook, Upper Park Road before moving to Feltham House, Goldings Road. Best known as the author of the short story ''
The Monkey's Paw''. Jacobs also wrote sardonic short stories based in 'Claybury', a thinly veiled fictionalisation of Loughton.
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) stayed as a child at Goldings Hill Farm.
Arthur Morrison (1863–1945), best known for his grim novels about London's East End, lived in Salcombe House, Loughton High Road. Constance E. H. Inskip (1905–1945) an Evening News journalist who also wrote three novels amongst other translation work, lived in the town until her death at the birth of her daughter. Both were buried at nearby High Beach.
Hesba Stretton (1832–1911) was a children's author who lived in Loughton. Hesba Stretton was the pen name of Sarah Smith; her novels about the street children of Victorian London raised awareness of their plight.
Horace Newte lived at Alderton Hall and the Chestnuts: he was a prolific novelist. Another children's writer, Winifred Darch (1884–1960), taught at Loughton County High School for Girls 1906–1935 (now Roding Valley High School), as did the hymnodist and poet, Emily Chisholm (1910–1991), who lived in Loughton at 3 Lower Park Rd.
Ruth Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh (1930–2015), who lived in Shelley Grove, Loughton, was educated at Loughton County High School for Girls and subsequently worked as a journalist in Loughton at the West Essex Gazette. Some of her fiction is set in Epping Forest, and 'Little Cornwall', the hilly area of north-west Loughton close to Epping Forest, takes its name from her description in the novel
The Face of Trespass. Much of her 2014 novel
The Girl Next Door is set in the Loughton of 1944 and 2013. There is a blue plaque on one of her former homes, 45 Millsmead Way. Poets associated with Loughton include
Sarah Flower Adams (1805–1848), and
Sarah Catherine Martin (c. 1766–1826), author of the nursery rhyme "Old Mother Hubbard", who is buried in the churchyard of St. Nicholas Church, Loughton.
William Sotheby (1757–1833), poet and classicist, lived at Fairmead, Loughton.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) lived at Beech Hill House,
High Beach 1837–1840 where he wrote parts of his magnum opus "
In Memoriam".
John Clare (1793–1864) lived at a private asylum at High Beach 1837–1841. The
First World War poet
Edward Thomas (1878–1917) also lived at High Beach 1915–1917. The poet
George Barker (1913–1991) was born at 116 Forest Road, Loughton. Geoffrey Ainger (1925–2013), who wrote the
Christmas carols "Born in the Night", "Mary's Child", "Do Shepherds Stand" and several other hymns, was
Methodist minister of Loughton 1958–63.
Ralph Russell, foremost Western scholar of
Urdu language and literature, lived in Queens Road as a child and attended Staples Road School.
T. E. Lawrence bought land at
Pole Hill in Chingford after the
First World War and constructed a hut and swimming pool there. After the
Chingford Urban District council bought the land in 1930 and demolished his structures, he re-erected the hut in the grounds of The Warren in Loughton in 1931. The hut remains there, but in a state of disrepair.
Museum and archives Loughton is home to two national archives: • The British Postal Museum Store, in Lenthall Road, houses objects ranging from the desk of
Rowland Hill (founder of the
Penny Post), to
mobile post office vehicles and an astounding range of
post boxes. • The
National Jazz Archive is housed in Loughton Library and Town Hall; it is the national repository and research centre for printed material, photographs and memorabilia relating to jazz, with an emphasis on
British jazz. Founded by jazz trumpeter
Digby Fairweather in 1988, it includes a collection of British jazz recordings, photographs, posters and memorabilia. The archive holds regular celebrity and live jazz events. Funding was pledged in 2006 to help establish a Street Museum in Loughton. There is also an Epping Forest District Museum store in the town, but this is not open to the public. A number of Loughton buildings, including the Masonic Hall, Lopping Hall, Mortuary Chapel and several churches, were opened for
Heritage Open Days in September 2007, the first time this had been done. ==Sport and leisure==