IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Meredith Road, CLACTON-ON-SEA, CO15 3AG

The Citadel is on Old Road at its junction with St Osyth Road. The location was formerly the site of a Zionist Methodist Chapel.

This picture shows the Salvation Army citadel on the corner of Old Road and St Osyth Road, taken from the opposite side of Old Road. The citadel was built in 1901 as Zion Church, when it was used by the Primitive Methodists. Following bomb damage during the Second World War, it was reconstructed in 1952, when the Salvationists took possession. The bell-towers of the former St Osyth Road Infant School, now Tendring Adult Education College, can be seen in the background to the right of the citadel. Catherine Booth, the wife of General William Booth and co-founder of the Salvation Army, died in Clacton in 1890. [Source for details of the history of the building: "The History of Clacton", by Kenneth Walker, 1966].

A former church in St Andrew's Road (built in 1893 as St Andrew's Mission Hall and originally used by the Church Army, a Church of England evangelistic organisation). It is now used as a community hall for hire, containing the hall proper, a classroom, kitchen, toilets and changing-rooms. The East of England Co-op Funeral Services building, to the left of picture next door, appears to have been part of the same set of church buildings. (Note it has a matching spire and a cross painted on an exterior wall). See Image [Source for details of original use of hall and construction date: Kelly's Directory of Essex, 1902].

A former church in St Andrew's Road (built in 1893 as St Andrew's Mission Hall and originally used by the Church Army, a Church of England evangelistic organisation). It is now used as a community hall for hire, containing the hall proper, a classroom, kitchen, toilets and changing-rooms. The East of England Co-op Funeral Services building, to the left of picture next door, appears to have been part of the same set of church buildings. (It has a matching spire and a cross painted on an exterior wall, neither visible here; see Image). [Source for details of original use of hall and construction date: Kelly's Directory of Essex, 1902].

The cinema was opened in 1936 as the Century Cinema, but became the Essoldo in 1946. It reverted to its original name in 2013. The building was designed by a local architect, G.H.B. Gould, in the Art Deco style, although some of the original Art Deco features have since been concealed. It is also now a bingo hall.

The Warwick Arms is on Pier Avenue. The building appears to have started off life as a private residence called Sutton Dene, and it appears as such on all the old large scale Ordnance Survey maps up to the 1950s. The name Sutton Dene can still be seen underneath the first floor bay window, while there is a date of 1897 below the second floor dormer window. There is also an attractive vegetation design most of the way around the building under the gutter line. So the building is probably unusual in being converted from a house to a pub, rather than the other way round. On the opposite side of the road, where the Aldi supermarket is now, was the site of the former Warwick Castle Hotel, so one suspects that the names of the two buildings were linked. The large building to the rear is the Century Cinema.