town in the Epping Forest district, administrative and historic county of Essex, England, on the River Roding on the northeastern perimeter of the metropolitan area of London. It includes the communities of Buckhurst Hill and Loughton and parts of Epping and Hainault forests.

Chigwell was mentioned as Cingheuuella in Domesday Book (1086), the record of the land survey ordered by William I the Conqueror, and was described by Charles Dickens in his novel Barnaby Rudge (1841). The Bank of England printing works is in Loughton, but the area is primarily residential. Pop. (2001) 12,449.