The modern city of Southend-on-Sea has come a long way since its eighteenth-century origins as an oyster fishing hamlet at the south end of Prittlewell parish. Now Southend is a regional employment, shopping and educational centre, attracting 6.5 million visitors a year and housing 180,000 permanent residents. The construction of the Royal Hotel in the 1790s began Southend’s transformation into a resort, but it was the arrival of the railway in 1856 that was the real catalyst for growth. The town’s boundaries expanded three times: in the 1890s, 1910s and 1930s. During the Second World War, Southend played a key part in the defence of London and in the organisation of merchant shipping convoys. By the 1950s and 1960s the town was known far and wide as a mecca for leisure and entertainment. The awarding of city status in 2021, following the senseless murder of Southend West MP Sir David Amess, who had long campaigned for it, was bittersweet but it was also the latest symbol of how Southend has grown.

Illustrated throughout, this accessible historical portrait of the transformation that Southend has undergone through the ages will be of great interest to residents, visitors and all those with links to the city.