Southend-on-sea

 Southend-on-Sea

 Southend-on-Sea was not always called Southend-on-sea the town started its life has a village called Prittlewell. Prittlewell was originally a stone age village and was made more accessible to people by the Romans. The Romans had a lot of influence in the area. The Romans built dwellings like farmhouses, villas and roads that had a major effect on the area. It brought new skills and new ideas to the people of Prittlewell. The Romans also brought new social structures that help Prittlewell become a thriving village. 

 

The town continued to grow at a slow rate over the years and only started to become the Southend we love and know, until the Georgian era. The Georgian era put Southend on the map has it had became very popular with tourists from London. The tourists were attracted to the seven miles of beaches that were ideal for bathing. The art of bathing had become very popular at this time in history. The town also had good railway links, which made it very easy for Londoners to visit the seaside town and return home within a day.

Has the town became more popular, it was thought that a pier would be a good idea. In 1828 work started on the pier and the work was completed in 1830 and the pier opened that year. The first original pier was only reached 600ft and was made of entirely of wood. Building work continued to extend the pier over the years and after 16 years in 1846 the pier reach a grand one and quarter miles. This made the pier the longest in Europe and prove to be a major attraction to the public. In 1888 work started on a new iron pier to replace the wooden one. The new pier was designed by Mr James Brunlees and cost £80,000 with £10,000 on the money being spent on a new electric railway that would travel the whole length of the pier. The new pier opened its doors on 24^th August 1890. In 1890 it was decided to extend the pier again. The pier now reach 7080ft making it the longest pier in the world. A record that has not changed since the pier was built. In 1908 an extension was built creating an upper deck, they also turned the single track railway into a double track. The Prince George steamer extension was add in 1929.

Following the end of world war II the pier started to become very popular with the British public again after the hardships of war. During the season of 1949/1950 the pier trains carried a whooping 4,713,082 passengers and with another million choosing to walk along the pier. This was the hay days of Southend pier. Since the 1950's the seaside resort has being slowly declining. This was especially seen in the 1970's, were it was decided to franchise the entertainments on the pier because of falling trade. In 1976 the there was a huge fire that cause extensive damaged to the pier head leaving a repair bill of 1.4 million. To add salt to the wounds the piers railway had to closed due to safety reasons that was only two years after the fire in October 1978. In 1980 the local council made plans to close the entire pier for good in September that year. These were very sad times for Southend pier.

The council did not really want to close the pier for good, so after much debate within the council cambers. They came up with a rescue package with a local building firm and work stared on the pier in 1984. The work was to include a new 3 foot gauge railway to replace the old out of date one. The work was completed in 1986 but just before the pier was due to open a ship called the “Kings of Abbey” which was 180ft long collided with the pier causing some minor damage and some of the pier being sectioned off. This only delayed the opening for a short time and later that year the newly refurbished pier was opened by Princess Anne.

In 1989 the pier museum opened at the shore end of the pier. The museum showed the history of the pier from its early days has a wooden pier. In June 1995 a fire started at the shore end of the pier. The fire destroyed most of the pier shoreward end and the bowling ally that was adjacent to it. The railway was damaged has well and had to close. The pier shoreward end was rebuilt in 1998 with a grant from the Heritage Lottery fund which was rejected at first. In 2000 the RNLI station and gift shop were opened at the pier head. In October 2005 fire struck again this time damaging the pier head station and 130ft of the pier. This was repaired like all the other disaster before. Southend's pier has had a lot of setbacks, ups and downs throughout its history but it has stood the test of time being around for nearly two hundred years.

Southend his still a great place to visit especially if you live in London taking only an hour to reach there by car. It is and always will be a favourite place for Londoners to visit and it is one of England's great seaside resort. I myself visit southend at lease two to three times a year and enjoy it very much.