Such a wonderful film, thank you

The last time I went to Southend I was 15 I'm now 75 I loved it stayed in a hotel called the keyora

The hood old days back then ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Great punch ups !

Ah, the world sucks now. Be depressed, be very depressed. The paradigm is coming to a crashing end. I for one will continue spending my time laughing.😂

Body & Soul

Looked lovely back then, shame about the mess it is nowadays.

Well researched

What a fantastic trip down memory lane for me! Greetings from Portland, Oregon, USA. My grandparents retired and returned from Kingsbury, London, NW9 to live in Southend-on-Sea (actually Hadleigh, Essex) That was 1963, I was six. My father went to Southend-on-Sea high school. My brother and I were sent to live with his parents "at the seaside" for the entire summer holidays each year. Many a walk along the "World's Longest Pier" and a treat to ride the electric train if the weather was cold or raining. There was an RNLI Station at the far end, and every so often we'd be there for a launch. I well remember the Kursaal (mainly as it was "off limits" to us) There was the Guiness Clock on the Parade, and Osborne's cockle shed (in Leigh-on-Sea) The Southend "Illuminations (in August?) were eagerly awaited. Great to see them switch on each evening at 19:30 from the far end of the pier. The gardens in West Cliff were open as "Never-Never Land" alongside the year around West Cliff Lift (elevator that took passengers up to the cliffs road) Anyone remember "Mr Therm"? The cartoon mascot on the gas works bridge (on the main road towards Shoeburyness) I think coal barges fed the station and landed at a jetty. It was torn down in the mid 1970s, I think.

Thank you! This is such a thorough documentary on the club. Very well done.

This has brought back so many memories. After my dad bought our first, very old, car; we used to go to Southend at the week-ends. I used to love the Crooked House and the Helter Skelter. We used to have a plate of cockles from one of the little stalls under the promenade. Life was so much simpler then.

That brings back some memories. I used to love walking around Never, Never Land, with a bag of chips. My sister was a stewardess with Channel Airways, and where she met her future husband.

Oh happy days, when Britain was still Great, what a cosmopolitan dump Southend and the rest of our country is now🤬

Brought back wonderful memories of growing up in Southend and fishing from the pier at age of 13 onwards..

brings back wonderful childhood memories

My family used to load up the blue Bedford Dormobile crew bus with a days supplies, a Primus stove and head for Shoeburyness for the day. After a day of beach, sand castles and swimming it would be time for Peter Pans Playground, the Golden Hind and the Guinness House. We never went on the pier, maybe we couldn’t afford it I’m not sure. That was the late 60’s. I did eventually go on the pier about 10 years ago.

Wonderful

Beautiful clean ❤

Great to see the old Gas works jetty behind the corporation pier. Used to be fascinated and scared playing under it, watching the cranes unloading the coal barges. And a glimpse of my favourite shop, 'Owen Wallis'. Great toy department upstairs and ironmongers below. Christmas was a wonderful time with the lights and the shop windows all aglow with their displays. Happy times long gone....

WATCHING THIS IN JULY 2024, IN MY FLAT IN EAST SUSSEX, MAN DECIDING WHAT TO WRITE , SO SO HARD want to get it right, you sir have taken me back to a so so simpler time i new and lost , so many memeories of SOUTHEND , CANVEY ISLAND GOD WHERE DID EY GO THEY SAY TIME MARCHES ON , BUT ITS LIKE I BLINKED AND NOW ITS 2024 THIS FILM BROUGHT BACK MY MUM , DAD BROTHER , LL MY AUNTS , UNCLES , COUSINS NAN GRAND DAD , WE ALL WENT TO SOUTHEND OR CANVEY , WE USED TO MUM DAD BROTHER CUSINS NAN GRAND DAD STAY IN THE HOLIDAY CAMP IN CANVEY, NO RUNNING Water had to go to a COMMUNAL TAP, WE MADE OUR OWN ENTERTANMENT, GOT BITTEN ALIVE BY THE KNATS AT NIGHT , MAX BYGRAVES SUNG A SONG WRITTEN BY LINAL BART , FINGS AINT WHAT THEY USED TO BE , THERES ALINE THAT SAYS MUM DAD PADDLING DOWN SOUTHEND , BUT IT AINT DONE , PARIS IS WERE WE SPEND OUR OUTINGS , WHAT A SIMPLE TIME WE HAD I AM NOW 70 YEARS OLD BUT YOU TOOK ME BACK TO WHEN I WAS VERY VERY YOUNG THANK YOU ,, I CULDG O NBU FEELTHET RS COMING SO AGAIN THANK YOU

mmm strange i don`t see any diversity , not to worry fast forward to now and see how it has been destroyed

Zero BLA X

A rare beast at 3.37 a Vauxhall Cresta estate.

We owe a debt to the people who shot films like this, giving us genuine historical data. In those days it really took some effort to make a cine film so very few bothered. It's different now of course.

I miss my home and all the white happy people who belonged there in those happy innocent times.take a look now.oh boy!

Me and my friends would cycle from Manor Park to south end once a month in the summer. Through ilford and onto the A127 . You would take your life in your hand if you tried that nowadays great times

This was before they let the third world into England

Absolutely brilliant. Great memories. Used to travel from the East End by train with my mum and dad. Loved the Kursaal,the pier and Peter Pans playground. Sometimes we'd get the open top bus to Shoebury. Wasn't much there but we liked it. Happy days.

Full of you no what's now waiting to go rawanda

Never knew southend had a lift like hastings shown at the start. I also love the blokes in suits and ties on a hotday on the roller coaster.

A great way to date this accurately would be to find out when the Excel Bowling alley (2:54) turned into the pavillion lanes (4:58) I frost knew it as AMF bowling, and that was before the bowling alley burnt down, twice..

Look how clean and peaceful it looks. Now look at it

We now know of course that Southend was a much, much darker place back then than these videos might make it seem. An absolutely massive paedophile ring was operating in Southend bsck then which included the infamous child murderers Sidney Cooke and his accomplice Lennie Smith who lived in Southend for a while. The amusements were a particular hotspot. In league with another local paedophile, Jack Parsons, Lennie Smith worked at the amusements grooming local kids, and one of the kids he and Cooke murdered, Jason Swift, was trafficked to Southend in the 80s. The investigative journalist Charles Thomson put together a podcast about it called "Unfinished - the Lost Boys". He uncovered links to corrupt local police, drug dealing, child sex trafficking acros the south east, the industrial production of child sex photos and videos, and a sprawling local paedophile ring that included police, local criminals, local businessmen, bus drivers, teachers and pub owners.

Never to be seen again now look at Southend

All that is missing is the “Pathe” introduction 😉😆.

What a gem. Will go down in the archives and become more culturally valuable as time goes by. Love the shot from the train. Did you make the cine film ? Well edited and put together. 😎👍

I was 1970-1975. Great memories here, especially the pier train etc. Also, remember the state of those trains to London!

Lovely in the 70’s, plagued by drugs & immigrants now 😢

Clear from the clothes of the people in the street it is the end of the summer season.

... " Never The Same Again..."... 🥪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🥃 1:46

.... A Member of the '1%' and Winner Of The'Fattest Face' Contest of 1732 AD …@ 4:49

Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam ." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window ? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?"

Fantastic. I visited Southend twice around the time this film was made. I wasn't very old, about eight. Can someone confirm to me that the Kursaal had two roller coasters? The big one which you see in the all the films but also an older wooden one near the main entrance. It seemed very creaky but it didn't stop us riding it. I rode both. Unless my memory is playing tricks on me..?

I was born in 1969. Been going to southend every decade since 1975. Was GREAT in the 70s so so in the 80s n 90s ..REALLY bad in the 00s...but for the past 5 / 6 years, its been great again. Think the hot summer's now and staycations have helped it alot...just wish the kursaal comes back to life.

wow. love how they used such pleasant music while discribing these wicked people, places and practices. unbelieveble. heavy pandering and smoothing of evil deeds and wicked exercises. wow.

Thank you for sharing. I was born in 1960 in East London and have many fond memories of visits to Southend on the weekends during the 60's and 70's.

If only life could be that simple now !

I've worked with people who have never been to a British Seaside.

Great nostalgia

This is an absolutley FANTASTIC piece of archive footage from a time not so long ago , but somehow a million years ago in a strange way ... brilliant 👏👏👏