Southend-on-Sea

Southend-on-Sea ( pronunciation ) (commonly referred to as just Southend) is a seaside resort town and wider unitary authority area with borough status, in Essex, England, on the north side of the Thames estuary 40 miles (64 km) east of central London. It is bordered to the north by Rochford and to the west by Castle Point. It is home to the longest leisure pier in the world, Southend Pier.London Southend Airport is located 1.5 NM (2.8 km; 1.7 mi) north of the town centre.

History

Originally the "south end" of the village of Prittlewell, Southend was originally home to a few poor fisherman huts and farms that lay at the southern extremity of Prittlewell Priory land. In the 1790s landowner Daniel Scratton sold off land either side of what was to become the High Street, and the Grand Hotel (now Royal Hotel) and Grove Terrace (now Royal Terrace) were completed by 1794, and stagecoaches from London made it accessible. Due to the bad transportation links between Southend and London, there was not rapid development during the Georgian Era like Brighton. It was the coming of the railways in the 19th Century and the visit of Princess Caroline that Southend's status of a Seaside resort grew. During the 19th century Southend's pier was first constructed and the Clifftown development built, attracting many tourists in the summer months to its seven miles of beaches and bathing in the sea. Good rail connections and proximity to London mean that much of the economy has been based on tourism, and that Southend has been a dormitory town for city workers ever since. Southend Pier is the world's longest pleasure pier at 1.34 mi (2.16 km). It has suffered fires and ship collisions, most recently in October 2005, but the basic pier structure has been repaired each time. There has been significant loss of pier-head facilities since the major fire in 1976.

Southend (UK Parliament constituency)

Southend was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Southend-on-Sea in Essex. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The constituency was created in 1918 by splitting the town of Southend from the existing constituency of South East Essex. The sitting MP for that constituency, Rupert Guinness, was elected to the new constituency. It was abolished for the 1950 general election, when it was divided into the new constituencies of Southend East and Southend West.

Members of Parliament

Guinness family

For most of the 20th century, this constituency and one of its successors was held by four members of the Guinness family. When Rupert Guinness was elevated to the Peerage upon the death of his father, he was succeeded by his wife, Gwendolen. When she retired in 1935 she was succeeded by her eldest daughter's husband, Henry "Chips" Channon. Channon continued to serve as MP for one of the successor constituencies, Southend West, until his death in 1958. That seat was then represented by his son, Paul Channon, until 1997. Because of this connection, the seat became known in the media as "Guinness-on-Sea".

Southend (band)

Southend (sometimes known as South End) is an Australian house-techno band formed around 1992. Based in Sydney and formed around synthesiser/keyboardists Stuart McCarthy, Steve Younan, Sameer Sen-Gupta and vocalist Melinda Page, they had a number of hits in the mid-1990s, most notably "The Winner Is...", released in June 1994 which reached the national ARIA Top 10. "The Winner Is..." was based around a sample of the then International Olympic Committee chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch announcing that the winner of the 2000 Summer Olympics was "Syd-er-ney". They were signed to the Volition Records label and performed regularly at the Big Day Out from 1993 to 1996.

Sen-Gupta left the band in 1995 to pursue a solo career, and was replaced with guitarist Justin Frew who would go on to form Antenna with McCarthy, Dave Faulkner (Hoodoo Gurus) and Kim Salmon in 1998. Antenna’s Installation album was the first ever release on Mushroom International.

On the production side, Southend have produced local and international releases for Hoodoo Gurus, Paul Holden, Acid Babies, The Whitlams, Kim Salmon and Michal Nicholas as well as a remix collaboration with Sasha Vatoff of Vagen’s track "Buggin" and a cover of Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy" which appeared on Groovescooter Records’ Re:fashioned 2.