Epping Forest Country Club was a group of three night clubs on the Essex/London border, just outside of Chigwell, Essex. The various night clubs were well known throughout South East of England and attracted many big name acts as well as many celebrities visitors. The venues closed in early 2002 after a number of high-profile violent incidents as well as many complaints from the local residents about noise. An example of this was in August 2001 when a door man was shot after trying to break up a fight, earlier in the year another person was stabbed on the dance floor.
Overview
The three venues were called 'Atlantis', 'The Casino Club', and 'The Country Club'. All but one of the buildings have now been demolished and a Holmes Place (now Virgin Active) health club built on the site. The only remaining building is the one previously used for 'The Country Club' as this was a listed building and is known as 'Woolston Hall' and was prior to its use as a night club used as a house.
It has been rumoured in the spring of 2007 that a group of ex-night club operators from London was attempting to re-open 'The Country Club' again. No public evidence of this is know to exist however many people have opposing views on these plans, with many people wanting it to re-open, while many of the local residents are understandably concerned about this as they would not want the previous problems returning to their area. Either way many people were awaiting to see what the outcome of this would be.
In the Beginning
In the late 1970s the original 'Wolston Manor House' was converted from a private house into a high class private members club by two movie stars(SEAN CONNERY). One night in the early 80s a group of local businessmen from east London attempted to get into a local club in Walthamstow, unfortunately for the owner of this club his doormen decided not to let them in. One of these men was a local builder called Peter Pomfret, and after being refused entry decided to purchase the Wolston Manor House club, which by now was suffering from a lack of customers. The club was swiftly closed down and turned into a night club, with much less strict membership criteria, and soon attracted huge numbers of local customers, but was still restricted to over-25s. It soon became overwhelmed with its own success, and Pomfret decided to build the Cassion Club Extension, and then in the mid-90s added 'The Jungle', which after a few years was refurbished into 'Atlantis'. he had created a complex of super clubs with a capacity of over 3,000 people, which was regularly met. The Walthamstow club soon closed down due to lack of customers in the early 1980s.
Atlantis
This was the biggest of the three clubs with a capacity of over 1000, and on many nights this was easily reached. The venue underwent a refurbishment towards the end of the 1990s converting it from a jungle theme to a more upmarket night club; however, this refurbishment also included a new sound system which was much more powerful than the original one, which was unfortunately part of the venues downfall as the roof was thin and most of the sound generated escaped into the surrounding area, much to the annoyance of the local residents, some living over a mile away. The landscape of the Roding Valley in which the club was situated funnelled the sound towards the village of Abridge, and across the valley towards Debden and Loughton.
The original 'Jungle' room not only was themed on a jungle, but also played OldSchool Jungle. May said that this night was one of the birth places of Old School Jungle (or Jungle) as it was know at the time. It was one of the biggest nights playing this style of music, but unfortunately as Jungle went out of fashion towards the end of the 1990s and the Drum And Bass, and House Music scenes became more fashionable its days were numbered, and the sound system had to be replaced as even greater demands were being called for by the new era of bass heavy music, which needed a sound system with the ability to project clear and undistorted mids and highs over this much more weighty bass.
The sound system post refurbishment consisted of eight sub cabinets per side each with 2 Fane Acoustics Limited Crescendo 15' drivers in each. The high and mids were handled by 16 (8 per side) cabinets containing a Fane Crescendo 12' mid driver and a Fane 1' Compression driver. The high mid cabs were suspended form the ceiling in rows. The crossovers were handled by a passive crossover in each mid high cabinet, and a BSS Audio mini drive (The 2 in 6 out version) was used to control the sub/high-mid crossover points as well as delay the system. There were also 4 12' Fane Crescendo drivers suspended from the ceiling in reflex ported cabinets which were used as bass cabinets when a shows or other events were being run which did not need the large floor cabinets. There were also a number of Electro Voice SX-300 cabinets that were used in the entrance way and bar areas.
The lighting rig was made or a number of different manufactures, and was controlled by a Pulsar Masterpiece 108. Snow machines were hired in from time to time (especially in the winter months) and were manufactured by Antari.
The venue was open to over-18s and as well as having its regular events it also had many externally promoted events and under-18s nights.
The swimming pool behind the venue was also used for outdoor 'Splash!' parties which was usually for members only as it was so popular. The pool still remains and is now part of the health and fitness centre.
There were also two large airport style metal detector arches on the front entrance through which all visitors had to pass, as no metal objects (except clothing) was allowed in the venue. There was also a complete ban on glass inside the venue.
Atlantis hosted may big name DJs as well as its residents. Some of the residents still do many gigs a year, and part of the rumoured plans to re-open the venue involved some of these residents returning to the Country Club venue once again.
Casino Club
This was a the over-21s venue and was considered to be a much more up-market venue, and was much smaller than Atlantis. Part of it still remains and is now being used as a chrech for the health club.
The Country Club
This was advertised as an over-25s venue; however many reports suggest people younger than this were regularly allowed in. The venue is a listed building and remains however in a poor state of repair, but many of its internal fixtures still remain.
This was the first of the venues to open many years ago, and was considered by many to be the best as well. - obviously depending on your music tastes.
This is the building that has been rumoured to be the target for the re-opening plans. There is no official word on any of these plans, and many people await to see if they become true or not, however a website reporting to be from an organisation with detailed plans to re-open the club has appeared. See below.
The Years After Closure
After the trio of clubs closed, things moved quite rapidly. The Atlantis building was first demolished, along with part of the Casino Club, and the redevelopment work began on the site. The driving range was built along with the new health club building on the other side of the car park. The car park was renovated and the entire site tidied up. The remaining parts of the casino club was turned into a drinks bar for the members of the health club.
As time passed Virgin Group purchased Holmes Place who originally operated the gym, and the Co-Operative group who originally owned the site sold it off to another South African holdings company. Through all of this the original Woolston Hall remained, although it suffered from advance neglect.
In the period from closure in 2002 until 2007 at least 3 groups have tried to use the building. Two of these plans attempted to turn it into a restaurant, however these fell though due to the large cost involved in stripping out the multi-level night club layout and developing a high class restaurant. Holmes Place also tried to turn it into a conferencing/banqueting facility, but the planning permission for this plan was rejected.
The building remains on the listed building register, and as such any alteration or major works will be very difficult to get passed.
In mid-2008 the owner of Wolston Hall golf Club finally purchased the building from the South African property company that owner the site at that time for an estimated £1 million pounds, a significant discount from the £2.5M asking price, after seven years of failing to find a tenant or purchaser for the building this may have seemed a good deal.
Fire
The golf club owners then rapidly spent an estimated £750,000 on renovating the building into a high-class restaurant, however in the early hours of Wednesday 17 September 2008 , a serious fire broke out within Woolston Hall, in the older part of the building, that was undergoing renovation work. The fire total gutted the stately manor house. Essex fire brigade reported significant problems fighting the fire, not only because of the scafholding surrounding the building, but also due to a lack of high flow water supply. This was soon resolved by draining the swimming pool, which was once used for 'Splash' nights in Atlantis, to fight the fire.
It has been reported that the golf club had only insured the original £1M purchase price and had not covered the costs of the renovation work.
This finally put an end to the re-opening
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