1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Southend-on-Sea

SOUTHEND-ON-SEA, a municipal borough and watering place in the south-east parliamentary division of Essex, England, on the estuary of the Thames. Pop. (1901), 28,857. Area, 5172 acres. It is 36 m. E. from London by the London, Tilbury & Southend railway; and is served also by the Great Eastern railway, and during the summer by steamers from London. It first sprang into notice from a visit of Queen Caroline in 1804, and as it is the nearest seaside resort to London it is much frequented. The bathing is good, but the tide recedes with great rapidity and for nearly a mile. The pier, which is over 1¼ m. in length, permits the approach of steamers at all tides. Westcliff-on-Sea, a western suburb, has a station on the London and Tilbury line. Westward again is Leigh-on-Sea (an urban district, pop. 3667); its lofty Perpendicular church tower is visible from afar. At Hadleigh, 4m. west, there is a Salvation Army farm colony. The church of Hadleigh is Norman, with an eastern apse, and later additions. The castle was built in the 13th century, and two ruined towers and other fragments remain. Thorpe Bay is a residential suburb about midway between Southend and Shoeburyness. Eastwood, Great Wakering and Little Wakering are parishes in the neighbourhood. Southend was incorporated a municipal borough in 1894, under a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors; in 1910 these numbers were increased to 8 aldermen and 24 councillors.