IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Kursaal Way, SOUTHEND-ON-SEA, SS1 2SU

A turret for the house on the corner is not an uncommon feature of housing development of this sort of age.

Dating back to the late 13th/early 14th century.

In 1964 The Kursaal was home to an outdoor funfair area.

This is the rear of the manor house with the chimney on the left being the chimney on the right in Image

Southchurch Hall is a moated medieval manor house surrounded by earthworks. It comprises a late 13th or early 14th century timber framed building with a central hall open to the roof, which is to the left of the photo, and an extension on its west side dating from around 1560 to the right. Throughout the medieval period the Hall and its land was owned by Christ Church, Canterbury. In the early 1920s it was operating as a farm but was under serious threat of destruction from the rapid expansion of Southend. Fortunately, a group of individuals actively sought to preserve the threatened building and its earthworks. The Hall was eventually presented to Southend Borough Council by its then owners, the Dowsett family. It was extensively but sensitively restored in the late 1920s and opened to the public as a branch library in 1931 with the earthworks forming part of a public park. Following local government reorganisation in 1974, when libraries were placed under the control of Essex County Council, the Hall was converted to museum use, which it is used for today. It is also now a non-religious wedding ceremony venue.

Southchurch Hall, now a museum, stands in a delightful little park almost hidden by the surrounding terraced streets.

This view covers the seafront just east of the pier. The main road joining the seafront at the left is Southchurch Avenue. Just above right of this is the Kursaal, now a shadow of what it was in 1988 (when this was taken). The area below this in the photo (below the esplanade) is now occupied by the Sea Life Centre Image This is the first in a series of views of the seafront from the south (sea) side. The next one (to the west) is Image

The further east you go along York Road, the newer the houses become. The two semis nearest the camera date from around the time of the First World War and those beyond from a bit later. The mixture of semis and bungalows in the same block seems very characteristic of the C20 development of Southend. This shot was taken between Cheltenham Road and Leamington Road.