The Essex town where you might bump into celebrities and Premier League footballers

Chigwell town centre in Essex
-Credit: (Image: EssexLive)


In Essex we are lucky to have many famous faces call our county home. And that includes many of the footballers who play for major Premier League teams.

Chigwell is a town in the Epping Forest district of Essex, on the outskirts of London. Chigwell over time has also become a destination for many professional footballers.

Tottenham Hotspur, one of London’s leading football clubs who currently play in the Premier League. had their training ground in Chigwell until 2012 where they moved to their current site in Enfield, Northeast London. However the Lilywhites still run training sessions for children at their old site from time to time and many former Spurs players and staff have lived there.

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League One side Leyton Orient currently have their training ground in Chigwell, in some fields next to the historic Chigwell School which also used to be attended by William Penn who founded the US state of Pennsylvania. West Ham also has a ground nearby in Dagenham - the Chigwell construction stadium where the women's team play their home games.

West Ham's training ground isn't far away either, with the players training in Rush Green. Other Premier League footballers who have lived in Chigwell include Bobby Morre, Geoff Hurst and more recently West Ham United players Kurt Zouma and Andy Carroll.

The reason why Chigwell is such a popular spot for footballers, as well as being close to work for some, it grants you easy access to central London via the Central Line, there are also multiple roads so you can drive to the UK’s capital in a short amount of time, but Chigwell is also far enough out that it’s quiet compared to the usual business of London and also quite picturesque.

The famous English writer Charles Dickens who used to visit Chigwell often once wrote “such as beautiful forest scenery, such an out of the way rural place”. With the way Dickens describes it I think it gives you a clear idea of why so many footballers and celebrities alike choose to live in Chigwell.