Southend-on-Sea

Southend-on-Sea, commonly referred to as Southend , is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, 40 mi east of central London. It is bordered to the north by Rochford and to the west by Castle Point. The city is one of the most densely populated places in the country outside of London. It is home to the longest pleasure pier in the world, Southend Pier, while London Southend Airport is located to the north of the city centre.

Southend-on-Sea originally consisted of a few poor fishermen's huts and farm 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 as a seaside resort grew after a visit from the Princess of Wales, Caroline of Brunswick, and the construction of both the pier and railway, allowing easier access from London. From the 1960s onwards, the city declined as a holiday destination. After the 1960s, much of the city centre was developed for commerce and retail, and many original structures were lost to redevelopment. As part of its reinvention, Southend became the home of the Access credit card, due to its having one of the UK's first electronic telephone exchanges. An annual seafront airshow, which started in 1986 and featured a flypast by Concorde, used to take place each May until 2012.

On 18 October 2021, it was announced that Southend would be granted city status, in memorial to the Conservative Member of Parliament for Southend West, Sir David Amess, a long-time supporter of city status for the borough, who was murdered on 15 October 2021. Southend was granted city status by letters patent dated 26 January 2022. On 1 March 2022, the letters patent were presented to Southend Borough Council by Charles, Prince of Wales.

Early history
Southend was first recorded in 1309 as Stratende, a small piece of land in the Manor of Milton (now known as Westcliff-on-Sea), within the Parish of Prittlewell. Its next recorded mention was in a will from 1408, where the area south of Prittlewell was called Sowthende. In March 1665, the British naval ship, The London, blew up while moored just of South-end on its was to fight in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The hamlet of South-end, a few fishermen's huts and Thames Farm farmhouse stayed this way until the mid 18th century, when in 1758 a large house was built, which by 1764 had become the Ship Inn. The area was further developed by the building of oystermen cottages called Pleasant Row in 1767, and a year later the settlement was recorded in the parishes records for taxation purposes for the first time. The records also recorded a salt works and a lime kiln. A visitor to the settlement in 1780 said "not anything in the worth place notice", but a year later the first bathing machine was brought to the hamlet. By 1785, the Chelmsford Chronicle were reporting that plans were being contemplated to build a hotel with the plan to make South-end, "equal, if not rival any of the watering places to which the genteelest company usually resort; there being nothing wanted but a place of accommodation, where the agreeable distance from the metropolis, and the excellence of the roads, added to the incomparable fineness of the water, have induced so much polite company down these last two summers" Nothing came of the subscription but the Chronicle reported in 1787, "Southend is likely to become a place of fashionable resort, and that there are a greater number of genteel families there this season than was ever known before". By the end of the decade, the number of bathing machines had increased, the hamlet was recorded as containing the Ship Inn and 25 houses and cottages, and reported visitors such as Lord Cholmondley.

The start and fail of New South-End
In 1790, the local lord of the Manor of both Prittlewell and Milton (now Westcliff-on-Sea) and landowner Daniel Scratton set aside 35-acres of land at the top of the cliffs to the west of South-end called Grove Field and the Grove. The site was split into three leasehold sites with 99 year leases, with the development called New South-End, and the original settlement being renamed Old South-end. A new road was created that cut through the development, which would later become the High Street. The Chelmsford Chronicle wrote at the time, "There seems but little doubt of its becoming a place of fashionable resort, and answering the expectations of the proprietors, being only 42 miles from London and two coaches, and the post passes through it three times a week; water carriage is also convenient, being only eight hours sail, with a fair wind, from London" Scratton leased the parcels of land to building firm Pratt, Watt & Louden and John Sanderson, an architect, both of Lambeth. Another site was leased from Scratton by Pratt, Watt & Louden for a brick works for the development. The first house in Grove Terrace was completed by January 1792 and it was reported that the hotel had been roofed and 60 dwellings had been started on. By the summer two public houses, the Duke of York and the Duke of Clarence had opened. However, by September that year The Times was reporting that the resort was likely to attract the lower and middle classes, not the wealthy clientele that was being aimed at. At this time, Pratt, Watt & Louden transferred the lease to Thomas Holland, a builder and solicitor from Grays Inn, however his finances were not sound and he was soon selling off building materials. By December 1792, the operators of the Duke of York, brewers Sea and Woollet closed the public house, but by September 1793 it was still in their ownership. The Grand Hotel, now known as The Royal Hotel opened on the 1st July 1793, and most of Grove Terrace was available to let. Later that year New South-End was listed for the first time by the parish for the annual rate, and by the summer of 1794 the Terrace, Grove Terrace, the Mews and Library had finally been completed. However, by February 1795, Thomas Holland had been declared bankrupt, and the property he owned was not sold by auction until 1797, with the Heygate family purchasing the buildings. John Sanderson, the other developer was also declared bankrupt, with only Grove House built, and his estate was not sold until 1802, with much of the site still open land. In contrast, Old South-end doubled in size during the same period including two public houses, the Ship Inn and the Anchor and Hope Inn, five shops and the Caroline baths. A large house was built by Abraham Vandervord in 1792 in Old South-end which would later become the Minerva public house.

Growth of the town
Due to the bad transportation links between Southend and London, there was not rapid development during the Georgian Era as there was in Brighton. Margate, although further away from London than Southend, offered cheaper boat and stagecoach fares and had more to offer the visitor. Development was piecemeal in the early 19th century, with a Theatre being built in Old South-end by Thomas Trotter in 1804. Southend was however mentioned in Jane Austen's novel Emma of 1815. The resort first received Royal patronage in 1801 when Princess Charlotte of Wales visited to sea bathe on the order of her physician. Her mother, Princess Caroline of Brunswick stayed at 7-9 The Terrace during 1803, and in 1805 Lady Hamilton held a ball in the hotel assembly room in honour of Lord Nelson. The visit of Princess Caroline boosted Southend's popularity with tourists. Travellers would often arrive by sailing boat or later by Thames steamer, which presented problems as boats could only dock during high tide. The Southend coast consists of mudflats that extend far from the shore, with a high tide depth that seldom exceeds 5.5 m. Large boats were unable to port near to the beach and no boats could approach at low tide. Many potential visitors would travel beyond Southend on to Margate or other resorts with better docking facilities. Due to this, local dignitaries lead by the former Lord Mayor of the City of London Sir William Heygate, campaigned in the early 1820s to gain permission from parliament to build a pier. On the 7 May 1829, the House of Lords passed the Bill and it received Royal Assent on the 14 May. By July, Lord Mayor of London, Sir William Thompson laid the foundation stone, and the first section of the pier opened a year later. However, Southend was still a quiet health resort, as the pier did not extend far enough out and visitors had issues disembarking.

In June 1852, after several attempts at building a railway to Southend, Royal Assent was given to build the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway with the line finally opening at Southend in 1856. The line had been planned to terminate opposite the pier, however residents in The Royal Terrace opposed this, and the station was built further back. In 1859, the Grove Field area was leased to Sir Morton Peto, and with a consortium which included Thomas Brassey, the contractors for the railway construction, hired architects Banks & Barry to design Clifftown. The first houses were made available for sale in 1871, with even the smaller properties offering a glimpse of the sea, and eventually the development would include the Clifftown Congregational Church, the Nelson Road shopping parade and Prittlewell Square, Southend's first park. The arrival of the railway did not at first greatly increase visitor numbers, with Southend still being seen as quiet resort and not a noisy fashionable seaside town, with Benjamin Disraeli visiting regularly between 1833 and 1884, Prince Arthur visiting in 1868, while the Empress of France, Eugénie and her son, Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial also came to the town. However the growth of Southend saw a Local Board of Health be created in 1866, and the large steam powered Middleton brewery was opened by Henry Luker & Co in 1869 to serve a growing population. Southend's development as a resort however seem to stall, until the Bank Holidays Act of 1871 with holidays becoming available to more of the population. The growth in visitor numbers due to the new bill saw the Local Board purchase the pier in 1873, construct Marine Parade in 1878, while the cliffs west of the pier were purchased and transformed into tree lined walkways during 1886. In 1889, the Great Eastern Railway opened its station at Southend Victoria, and a new iron built replacement for the pier opened. The town was officially incorporated in 1892, with the Local Board of Health being replaced by a municipal corporation, and a year later added the on-sea to the town's name. During 1892, the famous Southend department store Keddies opened its doors for the first time. Between 1871 and 1901 the towns population grew 100 fold from 2,800 to 29,000. Marine Park & Gardens opened during 1894, which in 1901 was redeveloped into The Kursaal amusement park. In the same year, the Metropole Hotel opened on Pier Hill, which would later be renamed the Palace Hotel, while the town first received both electric street lighting and trams, and had fitted an electric staircase fitted by Jesse W. Reno on the site of where the current Cliff lift is. A foundation stone was laid by Lord Avebury in 1901 for the new Day Technical School, School of Art and Evening Class Institute with the completed building being opened by the Countess of Warwick a year later. The site had previously been planned to be home to a new joint town hall, library and school but spiraling costs had seen the town hall and library being dropped. In 1903, it was reported that around 1 million people had paid admission to use the pier, while 250,000 passengers had alighted from pleasure steamboats. Further facilities were built for the growing visitor numbers, including extending the esplanade to Chalkwell in 1903, and in 1909 adding the "wedding cake" bandstand at the top of the cliffs, opposite Prittlewell Square, which was one of six bandstands that stood in Southend. In 1909, an indoor roller-skating rink was opened in Warrior Square. The new facilities were not only serving the growing visitor numbers, but also the residents, with the inhabitants having grown by 1911 to 62,723, the fastest growing population in England, and was being regarded an Eastern suburb of London. During 1913, the Day Technical School split, with the girls moving to the new Southend High School for Girls at Boston Avenue, while the day technical school was renamed Southend High School for Boys. In 1914, the town gained county borough status, and the corporation formed the first police force.

Southend during World War I
Shortly after the declaration of war, the British government began the internment of German citizens and several thousand were held on three ships, the Royal Edward, Saxonia and the Ivernia which were moored off the pier until May 1915. The War Office selected a piece of land north of the town in 1914 for a new aerodrome, with Squadron no. 37 of the Royal Flying Corps moving in a year later. Many soldiers passed through Southend en route to the Western Front. The pier was frequently used to reach troop ships, with the Admiralty stationing a war signal station at the pierhead, and Southchurch Park was taken over as an army training ground. During the war, the public could still walk the length of the pier. As the war drew on, Southend also became an evacuation point for casualties and several hotels were converted to hospitals, including the Metropole into the Queen Mary Naval Hospital. Arthur Maitland Keddie, from the Keddies department store organised day trips for wounded soldiers from the Queen Mary Naval Hospital to Thundersley and Runwell. The town was first bombed by German Zeppelins on 10 May 1915 with the death of one women, while a second attack happened on the 26 May again with one death. Another bombing raid by Gothas took place in 1917 with a further 33 deaths. When peace was confirmed in 1919, official celebrations were organised by the town. A large Naval review off the Southend shore took place, with a twenty-one gun salute being fired on Peace Day on the 23 July. The town organised a carnival, fetes and a firework display.

Between the wars
After the war Southend continued to grow in both residents and visitors, with many moving out of London to live in better conditions. Its population in 1921 was recorded as 106,050, but as the census was postponed to the summer months due to a planned general strike, it was greatly inflated by holidaymakers. The Corporation purchased three former German U-boat engines to generate power for the tram network, siting them at Leigh, London Road and Thorpe Bay. The pier head was enlarged in 1929 with the Prince George extension, at a cost of £58,000, to manage the increasing number of visitors arriving by paddle steamer. EKCO opened their large factory at Priory Crescent on the site of a former cabbage patch in 1930. To cope with the increase demand for housing, estates like Earls Hall was built during 1930, with the Manners Way estate joining it just north along with a new road towards in Rochford in 1937. The London Taxi Drivers Charity for Children completed their first taxi drive to Southend in 1931, with 40 Hackney Carriages bringing children to the town, who were given 6d to spend on the seafront. At the 1931 Census the population of Southend was recorded at 110,790, however the town would grow further by absorbing South Shoebury district and parts of Rochford district in 1933. Southend tried their first autumn illuminations during 1935, following on from thr example set in 1913 by Blackpool.

The town's reinvention
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 1.34 mi. 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, as it had one of the UK's first electronic telephone exchanges (it is still home to RBS Card Services – one of the former members of Access), with offices based in the former EKCO factory, Maitland House (Keddies), Victoria Circus and Southchurch Road. Since then, much of the city centre has been developed for commerce and retail, and during the 1960s many original structures were lost to redevelopment – such as the Talza Arcade and Victoria Market (replaced by what is now known as The Victoria Shopping Centre) and Southend Technical College (on the site of the ODEON Cinema). However, about 6.4 million tourists still visit Southend per year, generating estimated revenues of £200 million a year. H.M. Revenue & Customs (HMRC), (formerly H.M. Customs and Excise), were major employers in the city, and the central offices for the collection of VAT were located at Alexander House on Victoria Avenue. Staff were finally relocated to Stratford in December 2022.

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. In 2003, during excavations for a road widening scheme at Priory Crescent, an Anglo-Saxon royal burial was found dating from the 6th century, with a display of the finds displayed at Southend Central Museum since 2019.

The formation of the city
On 15 October 2021, the Member of Parliament for Southend West, Sir David Amess, was fatally stabbed during a constituency meeting in Leigh-on-Sea. On 18 October 2021, the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced that the Queen had agreed to grant Southend-on-Sea with city status as a memorial to Amess, who had long campaigned for this status to be granted. Preparations, led by Amess, for Southend to enter a competition for city status in 2022 as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee were underway at the time of his death. A "City Week" was held throughout the town between 13 and 20 February 2022, beginning with the inaugural "He Built This City" concert named in honour of Amess. The concert was held at the Cliffs Pavilion and included performers such as Digby Fairweather, Lee Mead, and Leanne Jarvis. Other events such as a city ceremony and the Southend LuminoCity Festival of Light were held during the week. Sam Duckworth, who knew Amess personally, performed at some of the events. On 1 March, Southend Borough Council was presented letters patent from the Queen, by Charles, Prince of Wales, officially granting the borough city status. Southend became the second city in the ceremonial county of Essex, after Chelmsford, which was granted city status in 2012.

Geology
The seven kilometres of cliffs from Hadleigh Castle to Southend Pier consist of London Clay overlaid in the Ice age by sand, gravel and river alluvium. The cliffs have been affected by slip planes affected by groundwater, with major slips having occurred in 1956, 1962, 1964 and 1969. In 2001, a small slippage occurred, which was followed by a major slippage in November 2002, which irreparably damaged the cliffs bandstand and restaurant. At a later date, a report came to light from a month before the slip which showed there was already signs of a slippage. A £2.8 million cliffs stabilisation programme was completed in 2013. In May 2023, work started to investigate further slippage at Belton Hills in Leigh-on-Sea, with remedy work said to cost £500,000.

Current administration
Southend is governed by Southend-on-Sea City Council, which is a unitary authority, performing the functions of both a county and district council. There is one civil parish within the city at Leigh-on-Sea, which has a Town Council that was established in 1996. The rest of the city is an unparished area. The city is split into seventeen wards, with each ward returning three councillors. The 51 councillors serve four years and one third of the council is elected each year, followed by one year without election. As of the 2024 local elections a coalition lead by Labour run the council.

Administrative history
Southend's first elected council was a local board, which held its first meeting on 29 August 1866. Prior to that the town was administered by the vestry for the wider parish of Prittlewell. The local board district was enlarged in 1877 to cover the whole parish of Prittlewell.

The town was made a municipal borough in 1892. In 1897 the borough was enlarged to also include the neighbouring parish of Southchurch, with further enlargement in 1913 by taking over the area formerly controlled by Leigh-on-Sea Urban District Council. In 1914 the enlarged Southend became a county borough making it independent from Essex County Council 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.

Southend Civic Centre was designed by borough architect, Patrick Burridge, and officially opened by the Queen Mother on 31 October 1967.



On 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Southend became a district of Essex, with the county council once more providing county-level services to the town. In 1990, Southend was the first local authority to outsource its municipal waste collection to a commercial provider. However, in 1998 it again became the single tier of local government when it became a unitary authority.

Upon receiving city status on 1 March 2022, the council voted to rename itself 'Southend-on-Sea City Council'.

Coat of Arms and Twinning
The Latin motto, 'Per Mare Per Ecclesiam', emblazoned on the municipal coat of arms, translates as 'By [the] Sea, By [the] Church', reflecting Southend's position between the church at Prittlewell and the sea as in the Thames estuary. The city has been twinned with the resort of Sopot in Poland since 1999 and has been developing three-way associations with Lake Worth Beach, Florida.

Current MPs
Due to boundary changes, the seats in Southend changed at the 2024 election to Southend East and Rochford and Southend West and Leigh.

In the 2024 United Kingdom general election, Bayo Alaba of Labour won 38.8% of the vote to win the seat of Southend East and Rochford, with a 57% turnout. The new MP for Southend West and Leigh is David Burton-Sampson of Labour, who won 35.6% of the vote on a turnover of 63%. This was the first time since the initial seat in parliament was created in 1918, that Labour have been elected, as the city had previously been held by the Conservatives.

Former MPs
From the creation of the first Member of Parliament seat for Southend in 1918, there has been a history of long serving MPs. Rupert Guinness of the Guinness family was Southend's first MP, and only stepped down when he was given a peerage. His wife, Gwendolen Guinness replaced him in 1927, until she retired and her son-in-law Henry Channon replaced her in 1935, serving until his death in 1958. Because of the Guinness connection, the seat became known in the media as "Guinness-on-Sea".

In 1950, the one seat was split into two, Southend East and Southend West due to the growth in the town.

Sir Stephen McAdden served as the MP for Southend East from 1950 until his death in 1979. His replacement Sir Teddy Taylor served Southend East, then its replacement seat Rochford and Southend East from 1980 until he retired in 2005. James Duddridge served as Sir Teddy's replacement from 2005 until stepping down at the 2024 election.

Paul Channon, son of Henry replaced his father as the MP for Southend West from 1959 until he stepped down in 1997. He was replaced by Sir David Amess, who served from 1997 until his murder in 2021. Anna Firth of the Conservatives had replaced Amess at the by-election in January 2022 with 86% of the vote but lost her seat at the 2024 election.

Population density
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.

Greater Urban Area
The greater urban area of Southend spills outside of the borough boundaries into the neighbouring Castle Point and Rochford districts, including the towns of Hadleigh, Benfleet, Rayleigh and Rochford, as well as the villages of Hockley and Hullbridge. According to the 2011 census, it had a population of 295,310.

Deprivation
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.

The Department for Communities and Local Government's 2010 Indices of Multiple Deprivation Deprivation Indices 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 (with the most deprived area having a rank of 1 and the least deprived a rank of 32,482). 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 benefits (19%) and the third highest percentage of residents receiving council tax benefits in Essex.

Employment and unemployment
As of May 2024, The Office of National Statistics have recorded the following employment, unemployment and economic inactivity in Southend-on-Sea.

In the 2021 census, it was reported that 69.1% of the working population work in full-time employment, with 10.9% working more than 48 hours a week.

Population statistics
As of the 2021 census, the population was recorded as 180,686, with 51.3% of the population being female, and 48.7% recorded as male.

The following table shows the breakdown of the population by age:

In the census it was reported that 87.5% of the population were born in the UK, while for those who were born outside of the country, most were born in Europe, and most had lived in the UK for more than 10 years. The census reported that nearly 33,000 of the population were retired.

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 pressure on the housing market. It is the 11th most expensive place to live in Britain.

Current industry
Tourism is still a key industry in Southend, with over 7,500 employed people in the sector, which counts as 15.9% of jobs in the city. In 2019, it was reported that 253,900 people had stayed, generating £53.4 million while over 7.3 million day visitors had contributed over £308 million to the economy. Rossi's Ice-cream is a famous Southend institution, having existed since 1932.

Aerospace is another key industry. Southend is one of EasyJet's 10 bases in the UK. In addition to flights, Southend has several aircraft maintenance firms including Inflite MRO Services, and in Ipeco, have a former London Stock Exchange listed international aircraft seat and airframe manufacturer headquartered in the city since 1960.

Other manufacturing companies based in Southend include MK Electric, who relocated there in 1961 and in 2014 had seen the 100 millionth socket made at the factory, and Olympus UK & Ireland (formerly Keymed), who specialise in medical equipment and have been in Southend since 1969.

Another major employment area in Southend is Financial Services, with NatWest's credit card operations located in Thanet Grange. 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 company however as of 2021 is still located in Southend. The building is now also home to Ventrica, a customer service outsourcing company.

Southend has industrial parks located at Progress Road, Comet and Aviation Way in Eastwood and Stock Road in Sutton. Firms located in Southend include Hi-Tec Sports.

As of 2023, large employers (those employing more than 250 people) made up only 0.4% of companies within the city, while micro employers (9 or less employees) make up 90.8%, which is 1.2% greater than the East of England average.

Former notable industry
EKCO was an electronics manufacturer formed by local, Eric Kirkham Cole in 1926. The business started at factory in Leigh-on-Sea, before opening a larger site at Priory Crescent in 1930. The company expanded from radio production into televisions, radar and plastics, and employed over 8,000 people in Southend at its height. In 1960, EKCO merged with Pye to form British Electronic Industries Ltd, but due to several financial issues, the television and radio manufacturing on the site was closed in 1966 with the loss of 800 jobs. British Electronic Industries was purchased by Philips in 1967. The offices and radio factory was sold to the Joint Credit Card Company in 1972, however EKCO Plastics continued to operate from the site. EKCO Plastics had been a separate subsidiary, and had won awards from the Design Council and the Duke of Edinburgh for their products. EKCO Plastics was sold by Philips to Linpac during the 1980s, before becoming Ecomold. After the Ecomold factory closed, the whole site was converted into Ekco Park, a 231 home estate. A statue of Eric Cole was placed in his honour on the estate during 2020.

The Joint Credit Card Company was created by Lloyds Bank, Midland Bank and National Westminster Bank, and operated as the Access credit card. It was the second credit card company launched in the UK, becoming available during 1972. The company purchased the former EKCO television and radio factory on Priory Crescent from owners Philips to operate from. The company would expand by opening further offices across the city. In 1989, the company was renamed as Signet Ltd in 1989, along with a change to allow member banks to process their own customers as part of a Competition and Monopolies Commission review into credit cards. In the same year, processing was transferred to a new site in Basildon, while offices across Southend were transferred to the member banks. This included Esplanade House to NatWest, Chartwell House to Midland Bank/HSBC and Essex House to Lloyds Bank. In 1991, the business was sold to First Data Resources, and the Priory Crescent site was sold to Royal Bank of Scotland. The credit card industry in Southend declined with HSBC closing their operations in 2011, while Lloyds Bank joined them by closing Essex House in 2013. Royal Bank of Scotland/NatWest however stayed, and moved to a new purpose built building at Thanet Grange in 2003.

C. E. Heath moved to Southend during 1966 into the purpose built Heath House on Victoria Avenue. C. E. Heath was one of the largest insurance brokers in the world. The company also operated offices in Sutton Road and had a social club in Wellstead Gardens. In 1996, redundancies saw the number of staff drop from 600 to 300. However six years later, C. E. Heath merged with Lambert Fenchurch Group and announced closure of the Southend office. The property remained empty until 2016 when it was converted into flats.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) previously employed over 4,000 people in Southend in Alexandra House and Portcullis House, which sat side by side on Victoria Avenue, and Tylers House/Dencora Court, Tylers Avenue. A training centre was located in Carby House, also in Victoria Avenue. In 2008, it was announced that both Tylers House and Portcullis House would be surplus to requirements. Tylers House would close, with the space rented out by HMRC to other government departments. HMRC announced in 2015 that they would be closing its Southend office and transferring the operations to Stratford. Portcullis House closed first in 2008, and in 2019 the site was purchased by Weston Homes to develop into 217 flats. Alexandra House has since closed and in late 2023 planning permission was being sought to convert the building into 557 flats by Comer Group.

Flightline was an airline, maintenance and aircraft sales company that operated out of London Southend Airport, which went into administration in 2008.

ATC Lasham was an aircraft maintenance company based out of both Southend and Southampton airports. It collapsed in 2015 with the loss of 144 jobs.

British Air Ferries was an airline that from 1967 was headquartered at Southend Airport. The company went into administration, and after several changes of ownership became British World Airlines in 1993, however the business entered administration for a final time in 2001.

Jota Aviation was a specialist air haulage company working in the motorsport industry and based at London Southend Airport since 2009. The company ceased operations in 2022.

Energy
Southend-on-Sea County Borough Corporation provided the borough with electricity from the early twentieth century up to 1966 from the Southend power station in London Road. 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 (MW) power station redundant. Electricity was generated by diesel engines and by steam obtained from the exhaust gases. The power station closed in 1966 and in its final year of operation it delivered 2,720 MWh of electricity to the borough.

In 1853, a new company, Southend Gas Company, was set up to build a coal gas works to supply Southend. The works opened on Eastern Esplanade in 1855, and helped with the development of the then fledgling town. The company was purchased by Southend Corporation after the First World War, with its own landing pier locally known as Southend Pier Junior. The company was nationalised in 1949 and was transferred to the North Thames Gas Board, who in 1960 added the brutalist Esplanade House to the site as offices. The site stopped producing coal gas in 1968, and the works was demolished. Esplanade House, was taken over by Access credit card operations in the 1980s, but by the 1990s they had moved out and the gas works site remained empty until it was demolished to make way for a Premier Inn in 2014.

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 (built during the 1960s and a replacement for the old Talza Arcade, Victoria Arcade and Broadway Market) is located at the north end of the High Street. The Royals Shopping Centre is located at the south end of the High Street, was designed by the Building Design Partnership, with construction starting in 1985. The centre was officially opened in March 1988 by singer-actor Jason Donovan. The centre replaced the south end of High Street and Grove Road, and saw the demolition of the Ritz Cinema and Grand Pier Hotel. Prior to the opening, Morrissey filmed the video for his top ten charting track Everyday Is Like Sunday in the centre. Southend High Street mainly consists of chain stores, with Boots located in the Royals, while Next anchor the Victoria. However, since the covid pandemic the amount of empty shops in the city centre has increased greatly, with the High Street being called a ghost town.

A business that started in Southend during 1937 and is still active in 2024 is Dixons Retail, now renamed Currys plc.

The city of Southend has shopping in other areas. The Broadway in Leigh-on-Sea is known for its independent boutiques and coffee shops. Leigh Road in Leigh-on-Sea, Southchurch Road and London Road are where many of Southend's independent businesses now reside. Hamlet Court Road, Westcliff-on-Sea was once known as the Bond Street of Essex, and is full of historical buildings, having been made into a conservation area in 2021. The road hosts the In Harmony festival each year.

There are regular vintage fairs and markets in Southend, held at a variety of locations including the Leigh Community Centre and Garon Park. A record fair is frequently held at West Leigh Schools in Leigh on Sea.

York Road Market
Demolition of the historic Victorian covered York Road market began on 23 April 2010, with the site becoming a car park. A temporary market had been 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 started to be held in the High Street every Thursday with over 30 stalls, with a further Saturday market being started in 2023.

Former retail businesses
Southend was not always full of chain stores, with many historical independent stores closing during the 70s, 80s and 90s.
 * Keddies was a nationally recognised department store opened in 1892. The store, located in the High Street, went into administration in 1996.
 * J F Dixons opened as a drapers in 1913 on the corner of London Road and what is now the High Street. Expansion before World War II saw it become a department store. The business closed in 1973.
 * Brightwells was a department store that opened in 19th century. The store closed in the 1970s.
 * Havens was a department store that opened in 1901, in Hamlet Court Road, Westcliff-on-Sea. In May 2017, Havens announced that they would be closing their store to concentrate as an online retailer.
 * Garons opened as a grocers at 64 High Street in 1885. The grocers in 1910 opened a cinema and cafe, which had a ballroom added in 1920. The company further expanded the grocery side of the business, opening a large bakery in Sutton Road, and by 1946 branches were operating as grocers, butchers and greengrocers across the town. The company also grew their catering facilities with the construction of Center House at 66-68 High Street. In 1962, the 45 grocery stores across Essex and the bakery was sold to Moores Stores. The cinema was closed a year later, and the remaining business, including the new Garons 1 Banqueting suite at Victoria Circus was sold to G and W Walker in 1972.  Garon Park was built on land donated by the family.
 * R. A. Jones was a jewellers that was opened by Robert Arthur Jones in 1890. Jones would go on and become a benefactor for the town. The store closed in 1979.
 * Owen Wallis purchased an existing ironmongers store located in the High Street in around 1882. The store expanded into selling toys, before closing in the 1980s.
 * Bermans was a sports and toy retailer who operated from Southchurch Road. The store closed in the 1980s.
 * J Patience was a photographic retailers located in Queens Road.
 * Schofield and Martin was a grocery firm with stores across Southend, that 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.
 * Ravens was the longest surviving independent retail business in Southend. The outfitters operated from 1897 to 2017.

Gross value added
As of 2014, the Office for National Statistics reported that Southend's gross value added to the economy was as follows:

Airport


London Southend Airport was developed from the military airfield at Rochford; it was opened as a civil airport in 1935. The airport was the UK's third-busiest airport during the 1960s, behind Heathrow and Manchester, before passenger numbers dropped off in the 1970s. In 2008, Stobart Group for £21 million, becoming part of the Stobart Air division of the Stobart Group, who completed a rebuilding of the airport during 2010. It now offers scheduled flights to destinations across Europe, corporate and recreational flights, aircraft maintenance and training for pilots and engineers. It is served by Southend Airport railway station, on the Shenfield–Southend line, part of the Great Eastern Main Line.

Buses


Local bus services are provided by two main companies. Arriva Southend was formerly the council-owned Southend Corporation Transport and First Essex Buses was formerly Eastern National/Thamesway. Smaller providers include Stephensons of Essex.

Southend has a bus station on Chichester Road, which was developed from a temporary facility added in the 1970s; the previous bus station was located on 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 located in Short Street; it was previously sited on the corner of London Road and Queensway and also a small facility in Tickfield Road. First Essex's buses in the Southend area are based out of the depot in Hadleigh but, prior to the 1980s, Eastern National had depots on London Road (at the bus station) and Fairfax Drive.

Railway
Southend is served by two lines on the National Rail network:


 * Running from Southend Victoria north out of the city is the Shenfield–Southend line, a branch of the Great Eastern Main Line, operated by Abellio Greater Anglia. Services operate to London Liverpool Street, via Shenfield.
 * Running from Shoeburyness, in the east of the borough, is the London, Tilbury and Southend line operated by c2c. It runs west through Thorpe Bay, Southend East, Southend Central to London Fenchurch Street, either via Benfleet and Basildon or Tilbury Town and Barking. Additionally, one service from Southend Central each weekday evening terminates at Liverpool Street.

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.

Roads


Two A-roads connect Southend with London and the rest of the country: the A127 (Southend Arterial Road), via Basildon and Romford, and the A13, via Thurrock and London Docklands. Both are major routes; however, within the borough, the A13 is now a single carriageway local single-carriageway route, whereas the A127 is an entirely dual-carriageway. Both connect to the M25 and eventually London.

Climate
Southend-on-Sea is one of the driest places in the UK. It has a marine climate with summer highs of around 22 C and winters highs being around 7.8 C. Summer temperatures are generally slightly cooler than those in London. Frosts are occasional. During the 1991–2020 period there was an average of 29.6 days of air frost. Rainfall averaged 527 mm. Weather station data is available from Shoeburyness, which is adjacent to Southend in the eastern part of the urban area.

Secondary schools
Southend has a mixture of secondary school offerings. The 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 (girls) and St Thomas More High School (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 which has a campus in Elmer Approach on the site of the former Odeon cinema. It also operates the East 15 Acting School Southend campus at the Clifftown Theatre.

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, (and previously Southend Municipal College) the college changed name in January 2010 following a merger with Thurrock and Basildon College.

Additionally there is PROCAT, (an arm of South Essex College) that is based at Progress Road, while learners can travel to USP College (formerly 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.

Primary education
The first school in the city opened in Prittlewell in 1727, after the Reverend Case campaigned for one to be setup. Land was provided by the Lord of the Manor Daniel Scratton in North Street for establishment of a school, and by 1739, Scratton had donated a further 21 acres of land. The school was by subscription of 1d a week, with 16 free places provided, and the remainder of the funding provided by a partial subscription of the parish and collections at St Mary's. The Parliamentary commission into charities of 1819-37 described the school as "The premises consists of a house of lath and plaster, situate in the village near the bridge; it comprises a schoolroom of about 30ft. in length and 20ft. in breadth, and several other rooms which are appropriated to the use of the schoolmaster".

After Southend became a separate ecclesiastical district in 1842, the church of St. John's the Baptist founded the subscription National School in 1855 in Lower Southend. By 1876, the Board of Education called for a local board of education be setup and extra places be created. At the time of their report Southend had the following schools providing education for under 12s: It was reported that the National School had closed and that Southend required a further 220 places. Many parishioners were against a local school board being setup, but Daniel Scratton was for the development, and by 1877 the Prittlewell School Board was formed.
 * Prittlewell Church of England - 175 pupils
 * British School - 233 pupils
 * Miss Felton's Infant School - 7 pupils
 * Grovesnor School - 54 pupils

By 1879, a new school was created called the London Road Schools which had places for over 500 pupils, and Prittlewell Church of England school had moved to East Street. However, by 1892, with further expansion of Southend, the Brewery Road School (now called Porters Grange) opened, followed by Leigh Road in 1897, Southchurch Hall in 1904, Bournemouth Park in 1907 and Chalkwell Park in 1909. The local board was dissolved by the Education Act of 1902 and replaced by the education committee of the council.

Secondary and further education
The Science and Art Department formation in 1853 had seen the government push for education in art, science, technology, and design in Britain and Ireland. The movement did not arrive in Southend until 1882 when two evening classes were set up at the London Road Schools for Art and Physiology. By 1883 the classes were moved to Clarence Street in a building shared with the council.

The Technical Instruction Act of 1889 and 1891 allowed councils to provide evening classes for technical subjects. The local board set up the Technical Instruction Committee, and soon classes were started at the council offices in Clarence Road. They were extremely popular, and the following year the newly created Southend Corporation purchased further land in Clarence Road to build a Technical Institute. In 1895 the foundation stone was laid, but prior to it opening it was decided to also open a day technical school for about 20 pupils, influenced by the Bryce commission of 1894. The first headmaster was J Hitchcock from Woolwich and was supported by one assistant teacher. A one-day a week Art school was opened, which by 1899 was a fully organised art college.

The Day Technical School soon outgrew the Clarence Road site, and in 1902 a new building opened at Victoria Circus to host them, the Evening Technical Institute and the School of Art.

Sport
Southend has two football teams. Southend United is a professional outfit which was formed in 1906. They currently compete in the Vanarama National League, after dropping out of the Football League at the end of the 2020–21 season, after 101 years of participation. The other, Southend Manor, plays in the Essex Senior League, the 9th tier in the English football pyramid.

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 previously played in Southend one week a season until the club withdrew in 2011 after 105 years. The Southend Cricket Festival was held at Chalkwell Park and Southchurch Park, before moving 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.

Southend has hosted a half marathon since 1996.

Southend Pleasure Pier
Southend-on-Sea is home to the world's longest pleasure pier, originally built in 1830 from wood before being replaced in iron. The pier stretches some 1.34 mi from shore into the Thames Estuary and is a Grade II listed building. Sir John Betjeman, English poet and broadcaster, once said that "the Pier is Southend, Southend is the Pier".

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, was redeveloped to house a bowling alley operated by Megabowl and casino in 1998. However the bowling alley closed in 2019 and the casino closed in 2020. The building currently stands unused, and in May 2024, The Victorian Society listed the Kursaal amongst their 10 at risk sites that need rescuing.

Southend Carnival
Southend Carnival has been an annual event since 1906, where it was part of the annual regatta, and was set up to raise funds for the Southend Victoria Cottage Hospital. In 1926, a carnival association was formed, and by 1930, they were raising funds 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. The carnival has not run since 2020, although attempts have been made to restart the parade, however the accompanying fair returned in 2023.

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. As of May 2024, Southend has four Keep Britain Tidy Blue Flag awarded beaches at East Beach, Shoebury Common, Three Shells and Westcliff Bay.

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.

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. Southend is also home to Horror-on-Sea festival, again run by the White Bus Company, which was founded in 2013. The festival for independent horror films takes place over two weekends in January.

Since 2021, the city has hosted a Halloween parade in October, while the Leigh Art Trail runs during July. Two events that started in 2022 was Southend City Jam, a street art festival, and LuminoCity, a light festival, however LuminoCity was announced to be cancelled for 2024 due to budget cuts at Southend City Council. The Old Leigh Regatta takes place every September, while Leigh Folk Festival has run since 1992, though will be taking a break in 2024. The Southend Jazz Festival has been run since 2020.

Between 2008 and 2019, Chalkwell Park became home to the Village Green Art & Music Festival for a weekend every July, but has not run since 2019 due to covid.

The London to Southend Classic Car Run takes place each summer. It is run by the South Eastern Vintage and Classic Vehicle Club.

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.

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, Victory Sports Grounds and Jones Corner Recreation Ground were donated by the town benefactor R A Jones. Other formal parks that have opened since are Chalkwell Park and Southchurch Hall along with Southchurch Park, Garon Park and Gunners Park.

Conservation areas and architecture
Southend has various Conservation areas across the city, with the first being designated in 1968. Nationally Historic England have 124 recorded listed buildings within the city. The Royal Terrace (originally called the Terrace), built between 1791 and 1793, is one of the few examples of 18th century urban housing in Essex, and was called "Exceptional" in the 2007 architectural guide The Buildings of England. The Terrace has been Grade II listed since 1951.

St Mary's Church, Prittlewell is a Grade I listed church that has existed since Saxon times and is the oldest building in the city. Professor Stephen Rippon of the University of Exeter noted in a study "stone buildings in this period were extremely rare, suggesting Prittlewell was a "minister" church of some importance", and the church was mentioned in the Domesday book.

Southend-on-Sea War Memorial is a Grade II* listed obelisk situated in Clifftown, Southend. The structure was completed in 1921 to designs by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner praised the "remarkably subtly proportioned" base and pedestal of the memorial.

The White Hall is a Grade II listed former tennis club house in Clatterfield Gardens in the suburb of Westcliff-on-Sea. The building, along with its neighbouring house were designed by the Head of the School of Architecture at Southend Municipal College, Douglas Niel Martin-Kaye for the Thurston family. The building from 1934, is designed in the International Style and was to be part of a modernist development that failed to materialise beyond the two buildings. The building is now home to the Sunshine Nursery.

Art, galleries, museums and libraries
Focal Point Gallery, based in The Forum, 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 City Council and Arts Council England.

Southend Museums Service, part of Southend on Sea City Council, operates two historic houses, an art gallery and a museum in the city. These include: Beecroft Art Gallery, Southchurch Hall, Prittlewell Priory and Southend Central Museum and Planetarium. The museums service looks after around 50,000 objects including collections of archaeology, natural history, social history, fashion and textile, fine art and photography. Southend Central Museum is the home of the world-renowned Prittlewell Princely Burial artefacts.

Independent museums and archives include the Jazz Centre UK, a jazz cultural centre, that has operated out of the Beecroft Art Gallery since 2016 and Southend Pier Museum, located on Southend Pier.

The Old Waterworks Arts Center operates on 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. The park is also home to NetPark, which claims to be the world's first digital art park.

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 (built 1974) has become home to the Beecroft Gallery and the Jazz Centre UK. This building had replaced the former Carnegie funded free library, that opened in 1906, and is now home to the Southend Central Museum.

Theatres
There are a number of theatres in the city proving a variety of entertainment.

The Edwardian Palace Theatre is a Grade II listed building that opened 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. The theatre was given to the town by its then owner Gertrude Mouillot in 1942 on condition that local amateur groups could continue to use the theatre. A smaller venue called The Dixon Studio was added in the early 1980s after a fundraising campaign by the Palace Theatre Trust led by John F Dixon.

The Cliffs Pavilion is the largest purpose built arts venue in Essex. Plans for a theatre on the site started in 1935 when the borough council purchased the site to build a 500-seat theatre and concert venue, with work starting four years later on construction but was suspended by the outbreak of World War II. After the war, the site was known as Southend's white elephant until 1963, when work was started on building that could host shows, concerts and private functions. The building was opened by the actor, writer and director Sir Bernard Miles in July 1964, with the first show opening the next day starring Norman Vaughan and his troupe of dancers, the Swinging Lovelies. In 1991–92, the council extended the site, with a new Foyer Bar added and a balcony added to the auditorium, increasing the capacity to 1,600. The venue hosts a variety of concerts, shows and performances on ice, as well as pantomimes at Christmas. Artists that have performed at the Cliffs include Paul McCartney and Oasis, whose live DVD Live by the Sea was recorded at the Cliffs.

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.

Southend once hosted many more theatres. The New Empire Theatre closed in 2009. Unlike the Cliffs Pavilion or the Palace Theatre, the theatre was privately run, and hosted more amateur groups. The theatre was converted from the old ABC Cinema, which had previously been the Empire Theatre built in 1896. The theatre closed after a dispute between the trust that ran the theatre and its owners. The building was badly damaged by fire on Saturday 1 August 2015 and was demolished in 2017. Other former venues included the Floral Hall on Western Esplanade, which hosted G. H. Chirgwin, that burnt down in 1937, while the Sundeck Theatre was at the pier head and hosted acts like Arthur English, until it closed and was converted to the Diamond Horseshoe Showbar before it was destroyed in the fire in 1976. The largest lost theatre was the Hippodrome in Southchurch Road, designed by Bertie Crewe, which opened in 1909. The theatre could hold 1,750 on three tiers, but was purchased by Gaumont Theatres and was converted to a cinema in 1933.

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 (formerly the Astoria Theatre), 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.

Southend has appeared in films over the years, with the New York New York arcade on Marine Parade being used in the British gangster flick Essex Boys, the premiere of which took place at the Southend Odeon. Southend Airport was used for the filming of the James Bond film Goldfinger. Part of the 1989 black comedy film Killing Dad was set and filmed in Southend.

Southend and the surrounding areas were heavily used and featured in the Viral Marketing for the Universal Pictures 2022 American science fiction action film sequel Jurassic World Dominion, with a number of the featured videos on the DinoTracker website filmed in the Southend area doubling for locations around the world. This is due to the fact that local resident and Jurassic World Franchise marketer Samuel Phillips utilised the area for both videos and imagery.

Venues
Southend's primary music venues are Chinnerys, formerly Ivy House, and the Cliffs Pavilion. Chinnerys is a 400-person capacity club which has hosted the likes of the Arctic Monkeys, The Charlatans and The Libertines. The Plaza, a Christian community centre and concert hall based on Southchurch Road that had previously been a cinema, regularly hosts concert performances.

Former venues
The city has previously had some well-known venues:

"It was felt for a long time that Southend had paid too much attention to the younger generation and not nearly enough to the over-thirties and so it was, with this fact in mind, that the designers worked their overtime in an attempt to create decor suitable to marry different generations of people together quite compatibly. In the four months that Talk of the South has been operational, its results have proved so tremendously successful that managing director Manzi now feels sure that the cabaret that has been previously missing from the area has not only been required, but indeed needed, for some considerable time." The club hosted big names including The New Seekers, Frankie Howerd, Buddy Greco, Des O'Connor and Roy Orbison. The club morphed first into TOTS, then into TOTS 2000 in 1993 before becoming Talk nightclub in 2001. The club closed for the last time on New Year's Eve 2019.
 * The Kursaal Ballroom during the 1970s became a renowned music venue, hosting acts such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Queen and AC/DC.
 * Talk of the Town South in Lucy Road, opened in 1972 as a cabaret club and discotheque, with The Stage reporting at the time
 * The Esplanade pub was once a regular music venue. Situated on Western Esplanade, the building was opened in 1900. In the 70s it ran as a Pub Rock venue, called the Grand Canyon Club with the likes of Dr. Feelgood performing there, while in 90s it hosted bands such as Pearl Jam, Sneaker Pimps, Reef and Catatonia.
 * For twenty years, the Sunrooms in Market Place, Southend hosted a variety of big name DJs including Scroobius Pip and Nina Kraviz before closing in 2013.

Southend scene
Southend has had a nationally renowned rock music scene since the 1960s. The Paramounts had chart success in the early 1960s, before morphing into Procol Harum. During the 70s, Southend was a big part for the Pub rock scene, with Paul Shuttleworth and Will Birch running a pub rock venue at The Esplanade, other venues like The Top Alex, and influential acts like The Kursaal Flyers and Mickey Jupp. In 1989, an album The Southend Connection was released to celebrate the roots of the genre in the town. Later in the decade, Southend had a big punk rock scene producing notable bands The Machines, The Sinyx and Kronstadt Uprising. Media theorist Dick Hebdige stated that punk originated from "a whole range of heterogeneous youth styles: glitter rock, American proto-punk, London pub-rock, Southend R & B bands, Northern soul and reggae".

In the early 1990s, rock bands such as Understand and Above All had Kerrang! compare the Southend music scene to punk rock meccas New York, LA, Seattle and Washington DC. Between 2001 and 2006, the Southend scene was centered on the Junk Club, which was held in the basement of the Royal Hotel. It was run by Oliver "Blitz" Abbott & Rhys Webb of The Horrors, and the underground club night played an eclectic mix from Post Punk to Acid House, 1960s Psychedelia to Electro. The club was influential and featured nationally in the NME; Dazed & Confused; i-D; Rolling Stone; The Guardian and Vogue. Acts associated with the scene included:
 * The Horrors
 * These New Puritans
 * The Violets
 * Ipso Facto
 * Neils Children
 * No Bra
 * Ulterior

Videos and songs
Southend has been used as the location for several music videos, by artists such as Oasis, Morrissey and George Michael. The city is mentioned in a number of songs including Elton John's track Bitter Fingers, Picture Book by The Kinks, and in Billy Bragg's hymn to Essex, A13, Trunk Road to the sea, a British version of Route 66, where the final line of the chorus is "Southend's the end".

Artists and bands
Southend has had numerous bands and musicians that have originated from the town, including:
 * Busted
 * Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly
 * Danielle Dax
 * Eddie and the Hot Rods
 * Eight Rounds Rapid
 * The Horrors
 * The Kursaal Flyers
 * Mickey Jupp
 * Nothing But Thieves
 * The Paramounts
 * Procol Harum
 * These New Puritans
 * Tonight.
 * Wilko Johnson

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.

The BBC Local Radio station that broadcast to Southend is BBC Essex on 95.3 FM from the South Benfleet transmitter.

On 28 March 2008, Southend got its own radio station for the first time which is also shared with Chelmsford Radio (formerly known as Dream 107.7 FM and Chelmer FM before that), 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 is served by London and East Anglia regional variations of the BBC and ITV. Television signals are received from either Crystal Palace or Sudbury TV transmitters. The area can also pick up BBC South East and ITV Meridian from the Bluebell Hill TV transmitter.

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 2022. 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, the 2015 Vauxhall Corsa adverts featuring Electric Avenue, a seafront arcade the 2018 Guide Dogs for the Blind campaign and for the promo for David Hasselhoff's 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 by Douglas Adams, after being saved from death in the vacuum of space, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect find themselves in a distorted version of Southend (a consequence of the starship Heart of Gold's Infinite Improbability Drive). 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.

Dance on My Grave, a book by Aidan Chambers, is set in Southend. Chambers had worked as a teacher in the city's Westcliff High School for Boys for three years.

In the novel Starter for Ten by David Nicholls, the main character Brian Jackson comes from Southend-on-Sea. The book was adapted into a 2006 film directed by Tom Vaughan.

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. There are two Hindu Temples, BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir and Southend Meenatshe Suntharasar Temple, while there is one Buddhist temple, Amita Buddha Centre.

The Salvation Army has been based in Southend since 1887.

Twin town
Southend-on-Sea is twinned with:
 * 🇵🇱 Sopot, Poland, since October 1999

Notable people

 * Shenda Amery, sculpturer
 * David Amess (1952–2021), British politician and local MP who was murdered in 2021; Southend was named a city in his honour.
 * Jasmine Armfield, actress
 * Sir Edwin Arnold (1832–1904), poet and journalist, writer of The Light of Asia
 * David Atkinson, politician
 * Trevor Bailey (1923–2011), cricketer
 * John Barber (1919–2004), former Finance Director of Ford of Europe & Managing Director of British Leyland.
 * Fred Barnes (1885–1938), singer
 * Mathew Baynton, musician, writer, actor
 * Bishop James Bellord (1846–1905), Vicar Apostolic of Gibraltar and Titular Bishop of Milevum
 * David Bellos, professor/translator
 * Angie Best, model and ex-wife of George Best
 * Brinn Bevan, artistic gymnast
 * James Booth (1927–2005), actor
 * James Bourne, musician, singer Busted
 * Tim Bowler, children's author
 * Kevin Bowyer, concert organist
 * Rosina Brandram (1845–1907), opera singer and actress
 * Gary Brooker (1945–2022), lead singer of The Paramounts and Procol Harum
 * Dave Brown, comedian and actor
 * Robert Williams Buchanan(1841–1901), Scottish poet, buried in St John's Church, Southend.
 * Cameron Carter-Vickers, American international football player
 * Dean Chalkley, photographer
 * Aidan Chambers, author
 * Jeannie Clark, former professional wrestling manager
 * Brian Cleeve (1921–2003), author and broadcaster
 * Dick Clement, screenwriter
 * Dorothy Coke (1897–1979), artist
 * Eric Kirkham Cole (1901–1966), founder of EKCO
 * Peter Cook, architect
 * Phil Cornwell, actor and impressionist
 * Tina Cousins, singer
 * Gemma Craven, actress
 * Rosalie Cunningham, singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist
 * Matthew Cutler, ballroom dancer
 * Danielle Dax, musician, actress and performance artist
 * Warwick Deeping (1877–1950), author
 * Richard de Southchurch, knight and landowner.
 * Andy Ducat (1886–1942), cricketer, footballer.
 * Sam Duckworth, musician
 * Mike Edmonds, actor
 * Warren Ellis, novelist and comic writer
 * Nathalie Emmanuel, actress
 * Digby Fairweather, jazz musician, author, founder of the National Jazz Archive.
 * Mark Foster, swimmer
 * John Fowles (1926–2005), author
 * Becky Frater, first female helicopter commander in the Royal Navy and female member of the Black Cats display team
 * John Georgiadis(1939–2021), violinist, conductor for Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
 * Edward Greenfield (1928–2015) chief music writer in The Guardian from 1977 to 1993 and biographer of Andre Previn
 * Benjamin Grosvenor, pianist
 * Daniel Hardcastle, author
 * Roy Hay, musician with Culture Club
 * Joshua Hayward, guitarist for The Horrors
 * John Hodge (1929–2021), aerospace engineer
 * John Horsley (1920–2014), actor
 * John Hutton, politician
 * Dominic Iorfa, football player
 * Colin Ireland (1954–2012), serial killer
 * Wilko Johnson (1947–2022), singer, guitarist and songwriter; Game of Thrones actor
 * Daniel Jones, musician, producer
 * R. A. Jones (1849–1925), jeweller and town benefactor
 * Phill Jupitus, comedian
 * Mickey Jupp, musician
 * Russell Kane, comedian
 * Laura Keeble, artist
 * Murray David Maitland Keddie (1929–2018), owner of Keddies, founder of Essex Radio and former High Sheriff of Essex.
 * Dominic Littlewood, TV presenter
 * David Lloyd, tennis player
 * John Lloyd, tennis player
 * Robert Lloyd, opera singer
 * Ron Martin, Southend United chairman, 1998–present
 * Frank Matcham (1854–1920), English theatre designer, retired and died in Southend
 * Lee Mead, musical theatre actor
 * Jon Miller (1921–2008), TV presenter
 * Helen Mirren, actress
 * Jack Monroe, blogger, campaigner
 * Peggy Mount (1915–2001), actress
 * Tris Vonna Michell, artist
 * Maajid Nawaz, former Islamist activist who now campaigns against extremism
 * Julian Okai, English footballer
 * Michael Osborne, first-class cricketer
 * Annabel Port, broadcaster
 * Stephen Port, serial killer
 * Spencer Prior, footballer
 * Lara Pulver, actress
 * Rachel Riley, Countdown co-presenter
 * Simon Schama, historian / TV presenter
 * Clement Scott (1841–1904), theatre critic
 * Anne Stallybrass (1938–2021), actress
 * Vivian Stanshall (1943–1995), musician
 * Sam Strike, actor
 * Ruby Tandoh, baker
 * Keith Taylor (1953–2022), politician
 * Peter Taylor, footballer and football manager
 * Theoretical Girl, singer-songwriter
 * Steve Tilson, footballer and football manager, voted Southend United's greatest ever player
 * Kara Tointon, actress
 * Hannah Tointon, actress
 * Robin Trower, rock-blues guitarist
 * L. C. Tyler, author
 * Clive Uptton (1911–2006), illustrator attended Southend Art College
 * Gary Vandermolen, footballer
 * Benjamin Waugh (1839–1908), campaigner and founder of NSPCC, buried at Sutton Road cemetery
 * David Webb, football manager
 * Paul Webb, musician, bassist for Talk Talk
 * Rhys "Spider" Webb, bassist of The Horrors
 * Michael Wilding (1912–1979), actor
 * David Witts, actor
 * C. R. Alder Wright (1844–1894), scientist - founder of the Royal Institute of Chemistry and inventor of Heroin
 * Ian Yearsley, local historian and author
 * Nothing But Thieves, musicians

Freedom of the City
The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the City of Southend-on-Sea.

Individuals

 * David Stanley : 24 July 2023.
 * Kevin Maher: March 2024.

Military Units

 * 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment: 17 June 2010.