Southend-on-Sea


Southend-on-Sea, commonly referred to simply as Southend, is a town and wider unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered to the north by Rochford and to the west by Castle Point. It is home to the longest leisure pier in the world, Southend Pier. London Southend Airport is located north of the town centre.
Southend-on-Sea originally consisted of a few poor fishermen's huts and farms at the southern end of the village of Prittlewell. In the 1790s, the first buildings around what was to become the High Street of Southend were completed. In the 19th century, Southend's status of a seaside resort grew after a visit from Princess Caroline of Brunswick, and Southend Pier was constructed. From the 1960s onwards, the town declined as a holiday destination, Southend redeveloped itself as the home of the Access credit card, due to it having one of the UK's first electronic telephone exchanges. After the 1960s, much of the town centre was developed for commerce and retail, and many original structures were lost to redevelopment. An annual seafront airshow, started in 1986 when it featured a flypast by Concorde, used to take place each May until 2012.

History

Originally the "south end" of the village of Prittlewell, Southend was home to a few poor fisherman huts and farms that lay at the southern extremity of Prittlewell Priory land. In the 1790s landowner Daniel Scratton sold off land either side of what was to become the High Street, and the Grand Hotel and Grove Terrace were completed by 1794, and stagecoaches from London made it accessible. Due to the bad transportation links between Southend and London, there was not rapid development during the Georgian Era like Brighton. It was the coming of the railways in the 19th Century and the visit of Princess Caroline of Brunswick that Southend's status of a seaside resort grew. During the 19th century Southend's pier was first constructed and the Clifftown development built, attracting many tourists in the summer months to its seven miles of beaches and bathing in the sea. Good rail connections and proximity to London mean that much of the economy has been based on tourism, and that Southend has been a dormitory town for city workers ever since. Southend Pier is the world's longest pleasure pier at. It has suffered fires and ship collisions, most recently in October 2005, but the basic pier structure has been repaired each time.
As a holiday destination, Southend declined from the 1960s onwards, as holidaying abroad became more affordable. Southend became the home of the Access credit card, due to it having one of the UK's first electronic telephone exchanges, with offices based in the former EKCO factory, Maitland House, Victoria Circus and Southchurch Road. Since then, much of the town centre has been developed for commerce and retail, and during the 1960s many original structures were lost to redevelopment – such as the Talza Arcade & Victoria Market and Southend Technical College. However, about 6.4 million tourists still visit Southend per year, generating estimated revenues of £200 million a year. H.M. Revenue & Customs,, are major employers in the town, and the central offices for the collection of VAT are located at Alexander House on Victoria Avenue.
An annual seafront airshow, started in 1986 when it featured a flypast by Concorde whilst on a passenger charter flight, used to take place each May and became one of Europe's largest free airshows. The aircraft flew parallel to the seafront, offset over the sea. The RAF Falcons parachute display team and RAF Red Arrows aerobatics team were regular visitors to the show. The last show was held in 2012; an attempt to revive the show for September 2015, as the Southend Airshow and Military Festival, failed.

Governance

Local government district

Southend-on-Sea was formed as a municipal borough in 1892 with the functions of local government shared with Essex County Council. In 1913 the borough was enlarged by the former area of Leigh on Sea Urban District. In 1914 the enlarged Southend gained the status of county borough, exempt from county council control and a single-tier of local government. The county borough was enlarged in 1933 by the former area of Shoeburyness Urban District and part of Rochford Rural District.
In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Southend became a district of Essex with borough status. However, in 1998 it again became the single tier of local government when it became a unitary authority.

Council

Seventeen wards each return three councillors, a total of 51. Councillors serve four years and one third of the council is elected each year, followed by one year without election. Following the 2019 election results, the composition of the council is:
The Southend-on-Sea Borough Council was controlled by the Conservative Party after they gained control in the 2000 election. They maintained a minority administration after the 2012 local elections, however the council was run by a coalition of Lib Dems, Labour and Independents after June 2014, with the Conservatives gaining overall control again in 2018. Most day-to-day decisions are by an eight-member executive headed by the council leader.
The Latin motto, 'Per Mare Per Ecclesiam', emblazoned on the municipal coat of arms, translates as 'By Sea, By Church', reflecting Southend's position between the church at Prittlewell and the sea as in the Thames estuary. The town has been twinned with the resort of Sopot in Poland since 1999 and has been developing three-way associations with Lake Worth, Florida.
Southend Borough Council was criticised as one of the worst financially managed local authorities in England by the Audit Commission report for 2006–07 one of three to gain only one of four stars, the others being Liverpool and the Isles of Scilly. Areas of criticism were the use of consultants and the spending of £3.5 million on taxis during the 2006–07 financial year.
However, in March 2012, Southend Borough Council was awarded the title of 'Council of the Year 2012' by the Local Government Chronicle.
During the 2015 general and local election there was a turnout of 62.17%, equating to 80,899 votes cast.

Members of Parliament

Southend is represented by two MPs at Westminster.
The MP for Southend West since 1997 has been Sir David Amess who replaced Paul Channon.
Since 2005 the MP for Rochford and Southend East has been James Duddridge, who replaced Sir Teddy Taylor. Despite its name the majority of the constituency is in Southend; Rochford makes up only a small part and the majority of Rochford District Council is represented in the Rayleigh constituency.

Demography

Southend is the seventh most densely populated area in the United Kingdom outside of the London Boroughs, with 38.8 people per hectare compared to a national average of 3.77. By 2006, the majority, or 52% of the Southend population were between the ages of 16–54, 18% were below age 15, 18% were above age 65 and the middle age populace between 55–64 accounted for the remaining 12%.
The Department for Communities and Local Government's 2010 Indices of Multiple Deprivation data showed that Southend is one of Essex's most deprived areas. Out of 32,482 Lower Super Output Areas in England, area 014D in the Kursaal ward is 99th, area 015B in Milton ward is 108th, area 010A in Victoria ward is 542nd, and area 009D in Southchurch ward is 995th, as well as an additional 5 areas all within the top 10% most deprived areas in England. Victoria and Milton wards have the highest proportion of ethnic minority residents - at the 2011 Census these figures were 24.2% and 26.5% respectively. Southend has the highest percentage of residents receiving housing benefit and the third highest percentage of residents receiving council tax benefit in Essex.
Save the Children's research data shows that for 2008–09, Southend had 4,000 children living in poverty, a rate of 12%, the same as Thurrock, but above the 11% child poverty rate of Essex as a whole.

Economy

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Southend-on-Sea at current basic prices by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
YearRegional Gross Value AddedAgricultureIndustryServices
19951,37323051,066
20001,82113751,445
20032,083–4181,665

In 2006, travel insurance company InsureandGo relocated its offices from Braintree to Maitland House in Southend-on-Sea. The company brought 120 existing jobs from Braintree and announced the intention to create more in the future. However the business announced the plan to relocate to Bristol in 2016. The building is now home to Ventrica, a customer service outsourcing company.
Southend has industrial parks located at Progress Road, Comet and Aviation Ways in Eastwood and Stock Road in Sutton. Firms located in Southend include Olympus Keymed, Hi-Tec Sports and MK Electric. Southend has declined as a centre for credit card management with only Royal Bank of Scotland card services still operating in the town.
A fifth of the working population commutes to London daily. Wages for jobs based in Southend were the second lowest among UK cities in 2015. It also has the fourth highest proportion of people aged over 65. This creates considerable pressures on the housing market. It is the 11th most expensive place to live in Britain.
Southend-on-Sea County Borough Corporation had provided the borough with electricity since the early twentieth century from Southend power station. Upon nationalisation of the electricity industry in 1948 ownership passed to the British Electricity Authority and later to the Central Electricity Generating Board. Electricity connections to the national grid rendered the 5.75 megawatt power station redundant. Electricity was generated by diesel engines and by steam obtained from the exhaust gases. The power station closed in 1966; in its final year of operation it delivered 2,720 MWh of electricity to the borough.

Transport

Airport

London Southend Airport was developed from the military airfield at Rochford, opened as a civil airport in 1935, and now offers scheduled flights to destinations across Europe, corporate and recreational flights, aircraft maintenance and training for pilots and engineers.

Bus

Local public transport is provided by two main bus companies, Arriva Southend and First Essex Buses. Minor companies include Stephensons of Essex. Southend has a bus station in Chichester Road which was developed from a temporary facility added in the 1970s. Southend Bus station had sat on the London Road and was run by Eastern National, but it was demolished in the 1980s to make way for a Sainsbury's Supermarket. Arriva Southend is the only bus company based in Southend, with their depot being located in Short Street. First Essex buses are based out of the depot in Hadleigh, but prior to the 1980s Eastern National had depots on the London Road and Fairfax Drive.

Rail

Southend is served by two lines on the National Rail network:
From 1910 to 1939 the London Underground's District line's eastbound service ran as far as Southend and Shoeburyness.
Besides its main line railway connections, Southend is also the home of two smaller railways. The Southend Pier Railway provides transport along the length of Southend Pier, whilst the nearby Southend Cliff Railway provides a connection from the promenade to the cliff top above.

Road

Two A-roads connect Southend with London and the rest of the country, the A127, via Basildon and Romford, and the A13, via Tilbury and London Docklands. Both are major routes, however, within the borough, the A13 is now a single carriageway local route, whereas the A127 is entirely dual carriageway. Both connect to the M25 and eventually London.
No To Mob patrols warn motorists of the presence of active council parking enforcement CCTV vans.

Climate

Southend-on-Sea has a typical British marine climate with summer highs of around and winters highs being around. Summer temperatures are generally slightly cooler than those in London. Frosts are occasional. During the 1981–2010 period there was an average of 31.5 days of air frost. Rainfall was low by British standards and averaged. Weather station data is available from Shoeburyness, which is adjacent to Southend in the eastern part of the urban area.

Education

Secondary schools

All mainstream secondary schools are mixed-sex comprehensives, including Belfairs Academy; Cecil Jones Academy; Chase High School; Southchurch High School; Shoeburyness High School and The Eastwood Academy.
In 2004, Southend retained the grammar school system and has four such schools: Southend High School for Boys; Southend High School for Girls; Westcliff High School for Boys and Westcliff High School for Girls.
Additionally there are two single-sex schools assisted by the Roman Catholic Church: St Bernard's High School for Girls and St Thomas More High School for Boys. Both, while not grammar schools, contain a grammar stream; entrance is by the same exam as grammar schools.

Further and higher education

The main higher education provider in Southend is the University of Essex and has a campus in Elmer Approach on the site of the former Odeon cinema.
In addition to a number of secondary schools that offer further education, the largest provider is South Essex College in a purpose built building in the centre of town. Formerly known as South East Essex College, the college changed name in January 2010 following a merger with Thurrock and Basildon College. South Essex College offers 30 degree courses matriculated by the University of Essex, as well as a number of weekend and evening courses. These buildings form the first two phases of the Southend Campus.
Additionally there is PROCAT that is based at Progress Road, while learners can travel to SEEVIC College in Thundersley. The East 15 Acting School, a drama school has its second campus in Southend, while the Southend Adult Community College is in Ambleside Drive. Southend United Futsal & Football Education Scholarship located at Southend United's stadium Roots Hall provides education for sports scholarships.

Sport

Southend has two football teams, one of league stature, Southend United. The other, Southend Manor, play in the Essex Senior League. Southend United currently compete in EFL League One.
There are two rugby union clubs Southend RFC which play in London 1 North and Westcliff R.F.C. who play in London & South East Premier. Southend was formerly home to the Essex Eels rugby league team. Southend was home to the Essex Pirates basketball team that played in the British Basketball League between 2009 and 2011.
Essex County Cricket Club play in Southend one week a season. Previously the festival was held at Chalkwell Park and most recently Southchurch Park, but it has now moved to Garons Park next to the Southend Leisure & Tennis Centre. The only other cricket is local.
The Old Southendians Hockey Club is based at Warner's Bridge in Southend.
The eight-lane, floodlit, synthetic athletics track at Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre is home to Southend-on-Sea Athletic Club. The facilities cover all track and field events. The centre has a 25m swimming pool and a world championship level diving pool with 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10m boards, plus springboards with the only 1.3m in the UK.

Entertainment and culture

Southend Pleasure Pier

Southend-on-Sea is home to the world's longest pleasure pier, built in 1830 and stretching some from shore.

Kursaal

The Kursaal was one of the earliest theme parks, built at the start of the 20th century. It closed in the 1970s and much of the land was developed as housing. The entrance hall, a listed building, is a bowling alley arcade operated by Megabowl and casino.

Cliff Lift

A short funicular railway, constructed in 1912, links the seafront to the High Street level of the town. The lift re-opened to the public in 2010, following a period of refurbishment.

Other seafront attractions

An amusement park Adventure Island, formerly known as Peter Pan's Playground, straddles the pier entrance. The seafront houses the "Sea-Life Adventure" aquarium.
The cliff gardens, which included Never Never Land and a Victorian bandstand were an attraction until slippage in 2003 made parts of the cliffs unstable. The bandstand has been removed and re-erected in Priory Park.
Beaches include Three Shells and Jubilee Beach.
A modern vertical lift links the base of the High Street with the seafront and the new pier entrance. The older Southend Cliff Railway, a short funicular, is a few hundred metres away.
The London to Southend Classic Car run takes place each summer. It is run by the South Eastern Vintage and Classic Vehicle Club and features classic cars which line the seafront.
The Southend Shakedown, organised by Ace Cafe, is an annual event featuring motorbikes and scooters. There are other scooter runs throughout the year, including the Great London Rideout, which arrives at Southend seafront each year.

Southend Carnival

Southend Carnival has been an annual event since 1906, where it was part of the annual regatta, and was setup to raise funds for the Southend Victoria Cottage Hospital. In 1926 a carnival association was formed, and by 1930 they were raising fund for the building of the new General Hospital with a range of events including a fete in Chalkwell Park. The parades, which included a daylight and torchlight parades were cut down to just a torchlight parade during the 1990s.

Festival events

The Southend-on-Sea Film Festival is an annual event that began in 2009 and is run by the White Bus film and theatrical company based at The Old Waterworks Arts Center located inside a Victorian era Old Water Works plant. Ray Winstone attended the opening night gala in both 2010 and 2011, and has become the Festival Patron.
Since 2008 Chalkwell Park becomes home to the Village Green Art & Music Festival for a weekend every July.

Shopping

Southend High Street runs from the top of Pier Hill in the South, to Victoria Circus in the north. It currently has two shopping centres – the Victoria and The Royals. Southend High Street has many chain stores, with Debenhams, Primark and Boots in the Royals, and Next anchoring the Victoria.
This was not always the case with many independent stores closing in the 1970s and 1980s – Keddies, J L Dixons, Brightwells, Garons, Owen Wallis, Bermans, J Patience & R. A. Jones being the most notable. One of Southend's most notable business, Schofield and Martin, was purchased by Waitrose in 1944 with the name being used until the 1960s. The Alexandra Street branch was the first Waitrose store in 1951 to be made self-service. Southend is home to the largest store in the Waitrose portfolio.
A Southend family business started in 1937 that was still active in 2014 was Dixons Retail. The longest surviving independent retail business in Southend was Ravens which operated from 1897 to 2017.
The borough of Southend has shopping in other areas. Leigh Broadway and Leigh Road in Leigh-on-Sea, Hamlet Court Road in Westcliff-on-Sea, Southchurch Road and London Road are where many of Southend's independent business now reside. Hamlet Court Road was home to one of Southend's longest-standing business, Havens, which opened in 1901. In May 2017 the store announced they would be closing their store to concentrate as an online retailer.
There are regular vintage fairs and markets in Southend, held at a variety of locations including the Leigh Community Centre, the Kursaal and the Railway Hotel. A record fair is frequently held at West Leigh Schools, Ronald Hill Grove, Leigh on Sea.

Parks

Southend is home to many recreation grounds. Its first formal park to open was Prittlewell Square in the 19th century. Since then Priory Park and Victory Sports Grounds were donated by the town benefactor R A Jones, who also has the sports ground Jones Corner Recreation Ground named after his wife. Other formal parks that have opened since are Chalkwell Park and Southchurch Hall along with Southchurch Park, Garon Park and Gunners Park.

Conservation areas

Southend has various Conservation areas across the borough, with the first being designated in 1968.

Art, galleries, museums and libraries

Focal Point Gallery is South Essex's gallery for contemporary visual art, promoting and commissioning major solo exhibitions, group and thematic shows, a programme of events including performances, film screenings and talks, as well as offsite projects and temporary public artworks. The organisation is funded by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and Arts Council England.
Southend Museums Service, part of Southend on Sea Borough Council, operates a number of historic attractions, an art gallery and a museum in the town. These include: The Beecroft Art Gallery, Southchurch Hall, Prittlewell Priory, Southend Pier Museum and the Central Museum on Victoria Avenue.
The Old Waterworks Arts Center operates in North Road, Westcliff in the former Victorian water works building. It holds art exhibitions, talks and workshops.
Metal, the art organisation set up by Jude Kelly OBE has been based in Chalkwell Hall since 2006. The organisation offers residency space for artists and also organises the Village Green Art & Music Festival.
Southend has several small libraries located in Leigh, Westcliff, Kent Elms and Southchurch. The central library has moved from its traditional location on Victoria Avenue to the Forum in Elmer Approach, a new facility paid for by Southend Council, South Essex College and The University of Essex. It replaced the former Farringdon Multistorey Car Park. The old Central Library building has become home to the Beecroft Gallery. This building had replaced the former Carnegie funded free library which is now home to the Southend Central Museum.

Theatres

There are a number of theatres. The Cliffs Pavilion is a large building to host concerts and performances on ice, opening in 1964. The Edwardian Palace Theatre is a grade II building built in 1912. It shows plays by professional troupes and repertory groups, as well as comedy acts. The theatre has two circles and the steepest rake in Britain. Part of the theatre is a smaller venue called The Dixon Studio. They are both owned by Southend Council and run by Southend Theatres Ltd.
The most recent closed theatre was the New Empire Theatre. It was, unlike the other two, privately owned. It was used more by amateur groups. The theatre was converted from the old ABC Cinema, which had been the Empire Theatre built in 1896. The New Empire theatre closed in 2009 after a dispute between the trust that run the theatre and its owners. The building was badly damaged by fire on Saturday 1 August 2015 and was demolished in 2017.
The Clifftown Theatre is located in the former Clifftown United Reformed Church and as well as regular performances is part of the East 15 Acting School campus.

Cinema

Southend has one cinema – the Odeon Multiplex at Victoria Circus which has eight screens. The borough of Southend had at one time a total of 18 cinema theatres, with the most famous being the Odeon, which as well as showing films hosted live entertainers including the Beatles and Laurel and Hardy. This building no longer stands having been replaced by the Southend Campus of the University of Essex. There are plans to build a new 10 screen cinema and entertainment facility on the site of the Seaway Car Park as well as a rival plan to build a new multiscreen site at the planned Fossets Farm development, next to the new Southend United F.C. ground.
Southend has appeared in films over the years, with the New York New York arcade on Marine Parade being used in the British gangsta flick Essex Boys, and its airport being used for the filming of James Bond's Goldfinger.

Music

Southend has three major venues; Chinnerys, the Riga Club at The Dickens, and the Cliffs Pavilion. The Railway Hotel is a live music pub, which features a variety of acts, and curates the Southend Pier Festival.
Concerts are also shown at the Plaza, a Christian community centre and concert hall based on Southchurch Road, which was formerly a cinema.
Junk Club, at one time a centre of Southend's music scene, was predominantly held in the basement at the Royal Hotel during the period of 2001–06. Co-run by Oliver "Blitz" Abbott & Rhys Webb, of The Horrors, the underground club night played an eclectic mix from Post Punk to Acid House, 1960s Psychedelia to Electro. It was noted as spearheading what became known as the Southend Scene and was featured in the NME, Dazed & Confused, ID, Rolling Stone, Guardian and Vogue. Acts associated with the scene included: The Horrors; These New Puritans; The Violets; Ipso Facto; Neils Children and The Errorplains.
There have also been a number of popular music videos filmed in Southend, by such music artists as Oasis; Morrissey; George Michael.
Bands and musicians originating from Southend include Busted; Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly; Danielle Dax; Eddie and the Hot Rods; Eight Rounds Rapid; The Horrors; The Kursaal Flyers; Nothing But Thieves; Procol Harum; Scroobius Pip; These New Puritans and Tonight.

Radio

In 1981, Southend became the home of Essex Radio, which broadcast from studios below Clifftown Road. The station was formed by several local companies including Keddies, Garons & TOTS nightclub with David Keddie, owner of the Keddies department store in Southend becoming its chairman. In 2004, the renamed Essex FM, then Heart Essex moved to studios in Chelmsford. It is now part of Heart East.
On 28 March 2008, Southend got its own radio station for the first time which is also shared with Chelmsford Radio, Southend Radio started broadcasting on 105.1FM from purpose built studios adjacent to the Adventure Island theme park. The station merged with Chelmsford Radio in 2015 and became Radio Essex.

Television

Southend has appeared in several television shows and advertisements. It has been used on numerous occasions by the soap EastEnders with its most recent visit in 2013. Southend Pier was used by ITV show Minder for its end credits in season 8, 9 and 10, and since 2014 has been home to Jamie & Jimmy's Friday Night Feast. Advertisements have included Abbey National, CGU Pensions, National Lottery and most recently the 2015 Vauxhall Corsa adverts featuring Electric Avenue, a seafront arcade and for the promo for David Hasselhoff's new Dave programme Hoff the Record.

In fiction

Southend is the seaside vacation place chosen by the John Knightley family in Emma by Jane Austen, published 1816. The family arrived by stage coach, and strongly preferred it to the choice of the Perry family, Cromer, which was 100 miles from London, compared to the easier distance of 40 miles from the London home of the John and Isabella Knightley, as discussed at length with Mr Woodhouse in the novel in Chapter XII of volume one.
In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, after being saved from death in the vacuum of space, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect find themselves in a distorted version of Southend. Dent briefly feared that both he and Prefect did in fact die, based on a childhood nightmare where his friends went to either Heaven or Hell but he went to Southend.

Places of worship

There are churches in the borough catering to different Christian denominations, such as Our Lady Help of Christians and St Helen's Church for the Roman Catholic community. There are two synagogues; one for orthodox Jews, in Westcliff, and a reform synagogue in Chalkwell. Three mosques provide for the Muslim population; one run by the Bangladeshi community, and the others run by the Pakistani community.

York Road Market

Demolition of the historic covered market began on 23 April 2010. The site became a car park. A temporary market was held there every Friday until 2012 after the closure of the former Southend market at the rear of the Odeon. As of 2013, a market is now held in the High Street every Thursday with over 30 stalls.

Twin towns

Southend-on-Sea is twinned with: