Canvey Island

Close community – ‘everybody’ knows your business.
Too much traffic – only two roads connecting to the outside world.
Ugly view of the oil refinery twinned with the sulphur smells.
It’s below sea level and sinking!

The nightlife is non existent now that ‘Kings’ nightclub is closed down and the bars are full of under 21s, leaving those 30 somethings with nowhere to go except return to the twilight zone of the ‘Monico’ nightclub, which only brings about memories of Saturday morning disco when we were all at secondary school – frightening!

They recently demolished the market place, leaving behind an age old Woolworths, several charity shops and not forgetting ‘New Look’ for all your fashion needs (as there isn’t much else worth shopping at).

On the plus side, Canvey Island does have sand and sea, which we like to call a beach even though it’s the shoreline of the Thames and the view is the teasingly green Kent coastline. You can buy fish and chips in a paper bag, ice cream and candy floss and have the pleasure of sunbathing on the concrete sea barrier or the strips of sand, watching the windsurfers and dogs do their stuff…

Even so the people are welcoming and proud of their town steeped in history.

Zena Hockley