At the looping top right of the Central Line sits an urban east London sprawl, neighbouring Stratford and Leytonstone, where dwellers put on blingy finery, get their acrylics done and admire duck pouts in the mirror. People can be so snooty about Chigwell, the nouveau riche apex of the Essex 'Golden Triangle', which also comprises Buckhurst Hill and Loughton, but to me, there's no finer place to roar through in a Lamborghini, terrifying the ponies who still graze opposite the eponymous private school.I may have stomped away to university as fast as my Dr. Martens could carry me, but in my fifties, I've realised that Chigwell is, well, the Only Way. I now live a 40-minute drive away in north London, yet it's not so long since I weathered a glorious pandemic summer in fine IG7 style and I'm a weekly visitor to the cheerfully tasteless suburb where my father still lives.Now, Chigwell wasn't always the home of footballers' wives, top-end stockbrokers, and Joey Essex. In the late sixties, when my parents moved there from their East End beginnings, it was a pretty little village, home to lawyers, estate agents and newly qualified dentists like my dad.I remember my '70s upbringing as pleasant and semi-rural; not embarrassing at all. That came later. The Chigwell Parade had a police station that shut for lunch and a newsagent with a slush puppy machine. Pride of the village was the King's Head, a well-preserved Tudor pub built in 1547 that was mentioned in Dickens' Barnaby Rudge. Chigwell born and bred... but hailing from the Essex town hasn't always been something Miranda Levy (pictured) was keen to shout about Nouveau riche, moi? Joey Essex pictured in front of a Chigwell mansion in MTV CribsBut even then, Chigwell had a bit of star power. Rod Stewart and David Essex lived up the road as did, Alan Sugar, who wasn't yet Sir Alan of The Apprentice, but merely the founder of Amstrad - and of whom, more below.But then came the '80s. Along with much of the rest of Essex, Chigwell - with fast access to the City - became synonymous with 'loadsamoney', girls in white stilettos and Malibu and pineapple.The denizens of 'Old Chigwell' retreated behind their mock Tudor gables in despair.People who lived round our way really were called Sharon and Tracey - the names of the dubious heroines of the sitcom Birds Of A Feather, which starred Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson.And how could we forget their 'upmarket' neighbour, Dorien, played by Lesley Joseph? She was posher than anyone I ever met in Chigwell. 'What'll I do...' Sitcom Birds of a Feather, which launched on BBC in 1989, starred Pauline Quirke as Sharon Theodopolopodous, Linda Robson as Tracey Stubbs and Lesley Joseph as Dorien GreenDorien hit her prime at Peak Essex, around the time I was coming to the end of my university degree. In fact, so ashamed was I of my Chigwell roots by then, that I simply told people I came from London, and that was that.On my return home, I settled in the north of the capital: very few of my friends came back, settling in West Hampstead, Florida, Los Angeles.Despite its moneyed reputation, Chigwell has always been a bit rough around the edges (and still is). But mostly, the '90s onwards saw a further ascent into new money.Bobby Moore had lived on Stradbroke Drive in the 1970s: now more of the London club footballers moved in. At one point, my parents had a (short-lived) Spurs manager as their next-door neighbour. Make mine a pornstar martini: In 2010, Lord Alan Sugar bought the King's Head to ensure the town landmark was preserved - before leasing it to showy Turkish restaurant Sheesh (pictured) The Only Way is Essex stars Clelia Theodorou and Shelby Tribble pictured at Sheesh in 2019 Mansions pictured in the town. 'Mostly, the '90s onwards saw a further ascent into new money,' said MirandaAnd with the players came their wives: Juicy Couture'd beauties with names not that different to Chardonnay hanging out in the King William IV, Chigwell's second pub, opposite the shops.In 2010, Alan Sugar bought the King's Head to preserve it, but it wasn't long before the pub was leased to Sheesh, a wallet-protestingly expensive Turkish restaurant decorated Pure Chigwell, guarded with suits of armour, with brown mock-croc seating and massive fake floral displays. The cutlery is served from the boot of a red MGB, and the car park is full of Ferraris and Harley Davidson's (and those are just the ones that belong to Dylan, the owner).In Essex terms, Sheesh is as 'Facey' as it gets - local parlance for 'showy', but well worth a visit to watch the women with lip-fillers sucking pina coladas by the fire pit.I do mourn the loss of a pint in an Elizabethan pub on a Sunday night, but much of 'Old Chigwell' remains - my father and his friends are probably the last representatives of that generation. These days, the Parade has two showy dress shops, three hairdressers and a nail bar. In a cataclysm for the area, Debra, the dress shop favoured by TOWIE stars, has downsized and given up space appropriately, to an aesthetic botox place. Which is likely to be very popular, given the demographics of the place.I happen to love the tough and sunny women of Chigwell: people speak their mind here, and they do it with humour. As I drive past the Tube on the right, the Village Deli on the left, I always break into a smile. See you in the King Willy for a pornstar martini?