Trains to Chingford

Chingford station is at the end of London Overground's Chingford Branch Line. The station opened on the edge of town in 1878, replacing a smaller and more central wooden station known as Chingford Green, which had opened a few years earlier. Chingford's second station was built overlooking Epping Forest, in the hope that it would drive tourist traffic to the area. Indeed when Queen Victoria came by train to Chingford in 1882 and declared the forest officially open to the public, the forest did quickly become a regular haunt for Londoners and it remains so in the 21st century. Today, Chingford is a popular commuter town, although the station no longer looks over the forest, but sits quaintly on Station Road. The station has a mascot - a plastic owl underneath the canopy on platform 2, there to ward off pigeons. Besides the forest, Bannatyne's Health Club and Chingford Golf Club offer other forms of relaxation.