Education
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File:P1020316.JPG|University of Essex accommodation in Southend
File:Southend - University of Essex..JPG|South Essex College's Southend Campus
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Southend has a mixture of secondary school offerings. The mainstream secondary schools are mixed-sex comprehensives, while the city retained the grammar school system, which it has four schools. Additionally, there are two single-sex schools assisted by the Roman Catholic Church.
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.
Higher education is provided in the city by the University of Essex. The university has operated from the city since 2003. It also operates the East 15 Acting School Southend campus at the Clifftown Theatre. It was announced in December 2025 that the Southend campus would close in Summer 2026, with courses transferring to the Colchester campus.
Sport
thumb|Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre
Southend United is the only professional club in the city. The club was formed in 1906 and has played as high as English football's second tier and three time runners up in the EFL Trophy. It currently competes in the National League, after dropping out of the Football League at the end of the 2020–21 season, after 101 years of participation. Southend Manor, the city's other senior club, plays in the Eastern Counties Football League, the 9th tier in the English football pyramid and are based at Southchurch Park Arena.
There are two rugby union clubs in the city: Southend RFC play in London 1 North, while Westcliff R.F.C. play in London & South East Premier. The city has formerly been home to both the Essex Eels and Southend Invicta rugby league teams. The Essex Pirates basketball team that played in the British Basketball League, were based in the city between 2009 and 2011.
Essex County Cricket Club previously played in Southend for 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 Garon Park next to the Southend Leisure & Tennis Centre. The only other cricket is local. The world record for the highest ever number of runs scored on one day in a male first class match was set by Australia at Southchurch Park in 1948.
The Old Southendians Hockey Club is based at Warner's Bridge in Southend. Previously, the city had hosted Greyhound racing, initially at the Kursaal football stadium, before the permanent Southend Stadium opened in 1933. The stadium was demolished in 1985. 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.
Entertainment and culture
Southend Pleasure Pier
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File:Southend from Southend Pier.jpg|A mile out along the pier
File:Southend Pier Railway, Southend-on-Sea, UK.jpg|A pier railway train
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Southend-on-Sea is home to the world's longest pleasure pier, originally built in 1830 from wood before being replaced in iron during 1889. The pier stretches some 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". The pier has been home to a narrow gauge railway since 1846.
Kursaal
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File:Kursaal Ballrooms - geograph.org.uk - 30246.jpg|The Kursaal
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The Kursaal was one of the earliest theme parks, opening in 1901. 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 had 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
Southend Cliff Railway|thumb
A short funicular railway, constructed in 1912, links the seafront to the High Street level of the town. The line runs on the site of a pioneering moving walkway, a forerunner of today's escalator. This was constructed in 1901 by the American engineer Jesse W. Reno, but soon proved noisy and unreliable due its exposed location.
Adventure Island
The sunset in Southend, a view of Adventure Island in 2007|thumb
Located either side of the pier the esplanade, Adventure Island is an amusement park. The park was originally opened on the west side of the pier as the "Sunken Gardens" in 1926, before becoming Peter Pans Playground. In 1976, the Miller family purchased the site and started to transform it into a modern amusement park. In 1996, the east side of the pier that was formerly a boating lake, was purchased and the park expanded onto the site. In 2010, the theme park entered the Guinness World Records when the record for the number of nude people on a roller coaster. The park won Silver in the "Best Theme Park for Families" at the UK Theme Park Awards in 2022.
Other seafront attractions
SeaLife Adventure aquarium and zoo is located at the east end of City Beach and has been open since 1993. It is owned by the same company as Adventure Island.
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.
Former attractions
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. 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 were Southend City Jam, a street art festival and LuminoCity, a light festival. The Old Leigh Regatta takes place every September, while Leigh Folk Festival has run since 1992. 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.
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 that started in 1998, featuring motorbikes and scooters. It took a three-year hiatus before returning in 2025. There are other scooter runs throughout the year, including the Great London Rideout, which arrives at Southend seafront each year.
Parks and nature reserves
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File:Southend Cliff Gardens - geograph.org.uk - 734118.jpg|Southend Cliff Gardens
File:Southend-on-Sea, UK - panoramio - cezma.jpg|Priory Park
File:Prittlewell Square.jpg|Prittlewell Square
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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.
Part of Southend's foreshore is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest, while there are nature reserves at Belfairs and Belton Hills.
Conservation areas and architecture
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File:3-6 Royal Terrace, Southend on sea, Essex.jpg|The Royal Terrace, Southend
File:Southend-on-Sea war memorial - geograph.org.uk - 734140.jpg|Southend-on-Sea War Memorial
File:Porters Civic House and Mayor's Parlour, Southchurch Road, Southend-on-Sea.jpg|Porters Civic House and Mayor's Parlour, Southchurch Road, Southend-on-Sea
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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. Five of these are Grade I listed: St Mary's Church, Prittlewell; St Laurence and All Saints Church, Eastwood; Southchurch Hall; Prittlewell Priory and Porters.
Art, galleries, museums and libraries
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File:Southend-on-Sea Museum - geograph.org.uk - 560855.jpg|Southend Central Museum, Victoria Avenue
File:Beecroft Art Gallery front.jpg|Beecroft Art Gallery, Victoria Avenue
File:Southchurch Hall, Southend (north-west elevation) - geograph.org.uk - 5708565.jpg|Southchurch Hall
File:Prittlewell Priory.jpg|Prittlewell Priory
File:Return sculpture, Southend-on-Sea, England.JPG|Bronze sculpture called Return located in Victoria Circus, outside Southend Victoria station. Designed by Belgian sculptor Rene Julien. 2011.
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Southend Museums, part of Southend on Sea City Council, operates two historic houses, Southchurch Hall and Prittlewell Priory; the Beecroft Art Gallery and the 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.
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.
The Old Waterworks Arts Centre 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 has been based in Chalkwell Hall since 2006. The organisation offers residency space for artists and also organised the Village Green Art & Music Festival. The park is also home to NetPark, which claims to be the world's first digital art park. 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 but was suspended by the outbreak of World War II. 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.
Former venues
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 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 which was destroyed by 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, hosting acts like Harry Houdini, but was purchased by Gaumont Theatres and was converted to a cinema in 1933.
Cinema and film
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File:Two buses in Southend-on-Sea - geograph.org.uk - 2756114.jpg|Former Astoria/Odeon cinema - High Street
File:The ever changing face of Victoria Circus - geograph.org.uk - 533002.jpg|The current Odeon
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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.
On film
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, while Stephen Poliakoff used several locations in the city to film his 1981 film Bloody Kids. 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.
Music
Venues
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Southend Christian Fellowship, 600 Southchurch Road, Southend-on-Sea (May 2024) (4).jpg|The Plaza Centre, Southchurch Road
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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
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File:The Esplanade - geograph.org.uk - 2957405.jpg|The former Esplanade pub, now demolished
File:Chameleon nightclub, southend.jpg|Chameleon Nightclub in Lucy Road, Southend
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The city has previously had some well-known venues:
- The Kursaal Ballroom hosted many of the big dance bands of the 20s and 40s. During the 1970s it became a renowned rock music venue, hosting acts such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Queen and AC/DC. Dr. Feelgood recorded their Going back home album which was also recorded on film. A photograph of the performance of AC/DC at The Kursaal in 1977 was used on the front cover of their Let There Be Rock album.
- 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 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. In 2015, Snoop Dogg held a DJ set at the club. The club closed for the last time on New Year's Eve 2019.
- 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.
- Originally opened as Mr. B's in the 1980s and hosted acts like The Prodigy. It was reopened as Adlib in 1994 by Dick de Vigne and Ian Reading, hosting a host of big name DJs including Jeremy Healy, Paul Oakenfold and Pete Tong at Glow nights, and the likes of Atomic Kitten and Steps at Outrage nights. In October 1999, the club night Rage controversially held a Halloween party with act Nightmare, with Southend East MP, Sir Teddy Taylor, saying,
The club was bought by Luminar Leisure and in 2000 was refurbished and renamed as Chameleon. Chameleon hosted various club nights, but was known for its alternative Panic night on Fridays, which hosted DJs like Radio 1's Daniel P. Carter until it ended in 2018. Later that year, owner Dick de Vigne put the club up for sale, however the club remained open until the Covid lockdown and has never reopened.
- 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, with 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, Los Angeles, 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
- Ipso Facto
- Neils Children
- Ulterior. 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:
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 and 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 broadcasts to Southend is BBC Essex.
On 28 March 2008, Southend got its own radio station for the first time, which was also shared with Chelmsford Radio. Southend Radio started broadcasting 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 between 2014 & 2021 was 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 holiday location 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 from London, compared to the easier distance of 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 Golds 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.