Back Electric Parade & Jackson Road, Clacton-on-Sea

Image: © Duncan Graham Taken: 3 Feb 2018

This is a street scene close to Clacton town centre. To the left is Back Electric Parade, a service road running behind Pier Avenue, one of Clacton's main shopping streets, which was formerly called Electric Parade. (The name Electric Parade fell out of use in about 1960). Jackson Road, to the right, contains a car park, (yellow sign and light grey bollards in front being visible in the picture), and rows of small shops and businesses to both sides of the street. The bus station once stood on the site of the car park. On the right of Jackson Road are St Helena Hospice (red brick building) and (not visible in the picture) a Travelodge and Magnet House (containing Clacton social services). St Helena Hospice day centre (opened 2002) was built on the site of the old Clacton Police Station and the old magistrates' court. Jackson Road was named after William Parry Jackson (d. 1881), chairman of Woolwich Steam Packet Company, who helped to fund the construction of Clacton-on-Sea in the years after its foundation by Peter Bruff in 1871. In return, his paddle steamers had the sole right to visit the new seaside resort. The headquarters of the Clacton Gazette are in the foreground at the far left of the picture, the fascia board obscured by reflecting light. [Sources: "Clacton-on-Sea: A Pictorial History" by Norman Jacobs, 1993; Anthony Allston, clactonthroughthelens.weebly.com (captions to his photographs of the street from February 1995); my thanks to them. Also, William Parry Jackson's obituary in The Times, Nov 15, 1881. The form of words and this photograph are my own].

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