The Idler

Southend-on-Sea

04 August 2005

“The seaside town they forgot to bomb,
come, come nuclear dawn”

It was no accident that Morrissey chose Southend as the location for the video to ‘Everyday Is Like Sunday’. A prime spot for summer holidays a century or so ago, Southend is now characterised by tracksuited mediocrity, fervently Tory constituents, and the odd Eastenders location shoot. Its greatest claim to fame, “the longest pier in the world”, is a neat symbol for the town; having burnt down several times. It was also severely damaged by a wayward trawler in the late
1980s; and has since been patched up and remarketed for straying tourists.

As in many of Britain’s towns today, the high street is pervaded by a varied detritus of grubby drunks, Poundsaver shops, middle-aged Goths, and, as Mark E Smith would say, “seething towers of adidas trash”. Cultural life here extends little further than a Wimpy on the way to Tots nightclub or Mike Reid at the Cliffs Pavilion. There aren’t any decent pubs.

Doug McCarthy