Places of Worship in South End

2005 Fused DKP Malm bricks, Shoebury East Beach.

2008-03-04T00:53:00.002Z

2005 Fused DKP Malm bricks, Shoebury East Beach. This has been a religious site since September 2005 since it hosts the annual Ganesh Visarjan or Hindu Unity Day of Shree Jalarum Mandir, Greenford & Southern. But it became a public beach, when not a war zone, when Dale Knapping (1823-1878) purchased the end of Rampart Road from the Gunnery School, giving access to the beach between George Street and Blackgate Road beside his Shorefield Brickworks. The fused pair of reject yellow bricks on the beach are still marked DKP, meaning Dale Knapping Proprietors, while the more worn red bricks could have been made by the later Jackson Co. and Eastwood Ltd. who also loaded bricks on to barges from the beach. The origin of the public beach is presumably 1859, although that is unclear from the excellent book Shoeburyness a History by Judith Williams (2006, Phillimore, Chichester) showing photographs of barges loading among Edwardian picnic parties.

2007-11-06T21:06:00.000Z

1995 with 1928. Thorpe Bay Methodist Church rebuilt opposite St. Gregory’s, seen as roof in background. Smooth and fine grained red and modern blue bricks simulated a Victorian window, but it can be seen that the mortar thickens upwards because the blue bricks have not been cut into wedges in the old way.

2007-11-06T20:59:00.000Z

1994 and c.1250. Salvation Army Hall and Community Centre, Frobisher Way, with St. Mary’s North Shoebury behind and actually next to a large Wal-Mart alias Asda Supermarket. The bricks are probably from the adjacent, now recently closed Starr Lane site in Great Wakering and show a red sandy texture like Friars Baptist Church. This hall replaces one of c.1900 on Ness Road in South Shoebury.

2007-11-06T20:58:00.000Z

1991. Friars Baptist Church, named after a built-on farm in North Shoebury, is an real new church; with 69 members according to the 2004-5 Baptist Directory. The bricks are sandy with grey central and red marginal faces.

2007-11-06T20:49:00.000Z

1984-5. Shoeburyness and Thorpe Bay Baptist Church rebuilt on their 1928 site as pale red brick with glass artwork in June 1985 and a yellow patinated brick hall of 1984. Between them there is what looked to me to be a newer red brick entrance but their website does not refer to it at all (www.shoeburybaptistchurch.org.uk).

Second View

2007-11-06T20:45:00.000Z

Post-1973. There are two undated Kingdom Halls of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, post-1973. The unillustrated one on Highfield Crescent lacks a car park as well as windows and looks older than it is in red brick. The illustrated larger building on Southchurch Road illustrates the post-1960 practice of driving to worship of particular sects.

2007-11-06T20:42:00.000Z

1977. Unitarians, with a similar dispersed membership and relatively large car park to the Brethren, were displace to this site from their Darnley Road chapel of 1897 by Queensway ring road. Modern blue and pale red bricks below a smaller potential carbon footprint provided by the singular invention of window.

2007-11-06T20:39:00.000Z

1972. Brethren’s Meeting House, Fairfax Drive, with a minimalist ornament of 8 modern blue in cracked pale red Stretcher Bonded bricks, and virtually no natural light admitted. Presumably belongs to the Plymouth Brethren.

2007-11-05T20:48:00.000Z

1970b. Christchurch, Free Church of England, Victoria Road, Leigh-on-Sea, replacing Reformed Episcopal one of 1920 there and dating back before 1900 as a low church split from St. Clement’s rather high status.

2007-11-05T20:41:00.000Z

1970. Eastwood Baptist Church opened exactly 59 years after the now demolished first church in March 1970. It is of pale red bricks with a later extension. The first church was built by a retired Baptist minister from India, who also laid a 1913 stone at and doubtless funded West Leigh Baptist Church. His name was T.R. Edwards and as explained above his arrival stimulated the Anglican Church cause in western Eastwood and probably the Peculiars as well (see 1934 and 1966). But looking at legal documents forland along Rayleigh Road, there was (in 1907) a prohibition on building any public buildings selling drinks or providing any species of amusement except presumably church activities.

2007-11-05T20:37:00.000Z

1968c. This logo of Earls Hall Baptist Church in Prittlewell is on the front and south hall addition faced with brownish sandy bricks. Most bays of the hall on the north side are of pale rid bricks with the same ornamentation as Elim 1950; but according to a 1975 leaflet by R.J.H. Banks laid in 1954-5. The first baptist service in the now hidden Pryors Private School took place on November 18, 1939.

2007-11-05T20:34:00.000Z

1968b. Southend Evangelical Church displaced by downtown development from the 1877 Milton Street/Lambert Street Peculiar Peoples Chapel. The stone reporting this information shows a rugose coral in a probable Waulsortian reef limestone, with laminated siltstone slabs laid around it and yellowish bricks elsewhere.

2007-11-05T20:32:00.000Z

1968a. Roman Catholic St. Peter Church, Eastwood viewed from the ancient Owlshall Wood of Quercus petraea after demolition of the small 1955 concrete church had reduced the car parking space.

2007-11-05T20:29:00.000Z

1967. Southend and Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, with foundation stone laid by a Rabbi who was prominent enough locally for me to remember the name and another stone giving the architects name as Norman Green. The yellowish bricks resemble those in 1984 part of the Shoebury Baptist Church and in the other building Hadleigh 1957. The previous Orthodox sites of 1911-2 and 1921 have been sold and they now worship at this single but larger location.

2007-11-05T20:21:00.000Z

1966. Anglican St. David Church, Eastward, with hall in cream coated rather than yellow coated bricks dating from 1979 on the right. If I remember correctly the bell and bracket, not unlike those on the 1922 School Chapel illustrated above, came from the original shed-like structure in Gale’s brickyard, built of his own London ashes bricks and in response to the opening of an adjacent Baptist Church in 1911. That building and a later one with a red brick front to a lower corrugated iron roof have now been demolished from their site further to the right than the new hall. Where the road there meets Rayleigh Road, at the S.E. corner of the present church grounds, there was once a gate into the now destroyed Rayleigh Park which continued eastwards on the north side to include the future brickyard as well as St. David’s.

2007-11-05T20:15:00.000Z

1963b and 1938. Anglican St. Peter Church, Prittlewell, Eastbourne Grove. Rebuilt church on site of 1933 is inconspicuous despite being on the skyline due to the thin nature of the spire on the high angle roof seen in distance here. Walls of yellowish brick and concrete with flint pebble ornament, also has image of a fish in coloured tiles just inside door. My photograph shows the two older halls in foreground, both of the 1950 photograph wavy red bricks but paler when facing the air raid rest centre than the 1930’s style hall in the middle. A similar one of St. Lawrence Eastwood was illustrated as part of a set of six coloured postcards commissioned by Medhurst’s Shop and taken in 1938. Probably they were built just after the 1936 Royal Coronation.

2007-11-05T20:13:00.000Z

1963a. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Glenwood Avenue, Eastwood, in modern yellow bricks and area of facing with polygonal Kentish Ragwork.

2007-11-04T21:06:00.000Z

1961a. Clarence road or Central Baptist Church, Southend, is not illustrated except in background to 1887 photograph. The original buildings of 1883 and 1902, reviewed as Particular Baptist by Kaye (1999), were rebuilt by one with a stone of 25 January 1961. Pale smooth red bricks and some concrete rectangles with flint pebbles embedded in it.

1961b. United Reformed/Anglican Bridgewater Drive – Hilltop Building use for services. Built as Bridgewater Drive Congregational. Grey facings appear to be concrete tiles.

2007-11-04T21:03:00.000Z

1960. Anglican St. Luke, Prittlewell Church showing squared rubble of probably Forest Marble with Liostrea and Kentish Ragstone on extension beyond brick (1984-5 photo of type) and tile faced wall. Currently has a looser but similar association with Roman Catholics as St. Cedd’s has with U.C.R.

2007-11-04T20:56:00.000Z

1957. Anglican St. Barnabus Church, Hadleigh and therefore just outside Southend-on-Sea, within sight of Leigh. Illustrated to show the modern Malm bricks with black spots seen in many 1960’s buildings illustrated below looking yellow in the distance. Here early and dated by the stone on the left dated June 11, 1957.

2007-11-04T20:53:00.000Z

1956. Anglican St. Aidan Church, so called Leigh-on-Sea, but on site of Beggarsbush Farm, Eastwood parish. First church, now hall on left had bell not removed to new 1971 church on right. Both of smooth red bricks and some concrete.

2007-11-02T19:25:00.000Z

1955b. Whittingham Avenue Methodist church with no sign of the 1923 gothic edifice reported by Kaye (1999, Chapels of Essex) in secular use. New Church of smooth red bricks of sandy composition and grey 5 mm grog.

2007-11-02T19:18:00.000Z

1955a. St. John Fisher Roman Catholic Church, Manners Way, Prittlewell, better known as Cuckoo corner on the A127 from London. The Catholic directory conflicts with Kelly’s 1940 in suggesting a 1939 date for the site. My photograph shows the 1955 building with a white statue of the former Bishop of Rochester (c.1469-1535) reproduced better in coloured Tudor clothes on the 1964 church of smaller, similarly smooth red and some modern blue bricks. The illustrated car park wall shows the melted local bricks termed Burrs. The saint is also local Rochester being opposite Southend behind the Isle of Grain Erasmus reported that ‘there is a persistent rumour here, probably true, that when the King discovered that the Bishop of Rochester had been appointed to the college of Cardinals by Paul III, he speedily had him led out of prison and beheaded. In this fashion did the King bestow upon him the red hat”.

2007-11-02T19:10:00.000Z

1954. The Brigwater Drive Church, now a joint Anglican-United Reformed Church with services at their 1961b building, built as parish church within Prittlewell termed St. Cedds. Stone laid inside porch by Admiral Godfrey in October 30, 1954 and consecrated the next year, with the ships on the spire and gates added later also to reflect the maritime associations of Southend in 1939-45 war. I remember going in a crocodile of Eastwood Infants school children in December, probably 1955, to a Christmas crib and probable consecration service. The incumbent called himself father and it was not until I went in again in 2007 that I discovered it was not a Roman Catholic Church and never was. Shows smooth red bricks and they have applied to place a microwave transmitting phone mast on the uplifting spire as another own goal.

2007-11-02T19:08:00.000Z

1953. St. Edmunds Community Hall is secular but hired for Sunday services, but originated as a new Anglican parish church in Prittlewell with a stone laid by the rector E.N. Gowing seen outside it.

2007-11-02T19:01:00.000Z

1950. Elim Pentecostal or George Kingston Memorial Church, Leigh-on-Sea, has this clearly dated rebuilt front of pale red wavy-ornament bricks behind a garden wall of the melted London ashes bricks termed Burrs (see 1955a). In 1924 Elim Gospel Hall appears on the site in Kelly’s Directory and this indicates that it is one of the 70 assembles in Great Britain and Ireland formed into a fellowship then. The name Elim originated in Ireland rather than in the U.S.A. Pentecostal movement as I had assumed, and as recently as 1915.

Foundation stone of rebuilt Gendale Gradens Elim Church dates pale red bricks with herringbone ornament.

2007-11-02T18:55:00.000Z

1948. Anglican St. Stephen Church, Alton Gardens, Prittlewell, is dated by the subdivision of the parish and by the resemblance of at least one of the buildings behind the show fronts to a prefabricated concrete air-raid rest centre intended to last for ten years after about 1940. These were to a common feature of Southend schools in the mid 1960’s Earls hall Baptist Church go one in 1946 and kept it for 22 years, and St. Peter’s Prittlewell appears to have kept theirs.

2007-11-02T18:52:00.000Z

?c. 1940. St. Cecilias Christian Spiritualist Church, Leigh, has no date but appeared between the 1940 and 1950 editions of Kelly’s Directory. The bricks front could be later and the large car park certainly is.

2007-11-02T18:46:00.000Z

1939c. Roman Catholic St. George and the English Martyrs Church, Shoeburyness. The Catholic Directory England and Wales Gabriel Communications 1004 pp. gives dates of 1862, 1891, and 1939 for the large site but this ugly, if memorable tower, shows many features of the 1939 date. Although the window arched heads have relieving arches, they are external in a manner thought unsightly in the 19th Century and below them whole bricks are stuck in vertically in the style of the 1930’s. The Malm bricks are no longer of the finest quality, despite the latter being made nearer to the church in 1900 than inferior grey types also seen in the 1869 R.C. church at Southend. Even there the London ashes bricks were somewhat yellow and mixed with red and blue ornamental courses. This grey 1939 tower and a cinema of 1913-55 stand at the end of the famous A13 road from London, recently giving its name to a salacious novel.

2007-11-02T18:43:00.000Z

1939b. Eastwood United Reformed Church, built as Christchurch Congregational by 1940 edition of Kelly’s and with stones laid in July 12 1939 “to the Prince of Peace” by minister and also widow of Thomas Dowsett (compare 1900c). brownish concrete used for window ashlar, smooth pale red bricks in stretching Bond for walls but porch resembles 1939a.

2007-11-02T18:40:00.000Z

c.1939a. The Gospel Hall, built on Carlton Avenue as Ebenezer Gospel Hall between 1937 and 1940 editions of Kelly’s Directory of Southend. Tiles used for arches between smooth dark red bricks in Flemish Bond. The unusual use of two steps to the porch is mirrored in the otherwise different 1939b church.

2007-11-01T23:15:00.000Z

c. 1938. With 1969 behind on left. Anglican St. James the Great Church, Leigh-0n-Sea, was originally dedicated to unspecified St. James. The hall of probably 1938 shows this original name as well as wavy ornamentation on the pale red bricks. I could not photograph the rebuilt church a on a site of 1933 as building work was going on, but I previously noted a consecration stone of 15 February 1969 and darker, smooth red bricks on it.

2007-11-01T23:13:00.000Z

1936. Southend Friends [Quaker] Meeting house, Dundonald Drive, also shows unusual diagonal red brick courses in the porch.

2007-11-01T23:12:00.000Z

1935. Anglican St. Mellitus Centre, Prittlewell is a church for deaf and dump people photographed here from the unpainted back to show London ashes below red bricks in Flemish Bond.

2007-11-01T23:09:00.000Z

1934c. Anglican St. Andrew Church and hall, Westcliff, shows no ashlar and has a bell tower like Christchurch 1921. Being at a bend on Westborough Road it is still an attractive urban landmark, but might be improved by some white paint at close range.

2007-11-01T23:06:00.000Z

1934b. Leighfields Road Evangelical Church built against two steep loess sides in Leighfields brickfield as Eastwood Peculiar Peoples Chapel. A new part is added at the back and this old front lacks memorials and a display of the local brick products. A gospel hall, more recently a demolished barber’s shop, was probably built by the Peculiars before this church but continued in religious use opposite Bell House Road on Rayleigh Road until after 1940.

2007-11-01T23:02:00.000Z

1934a. Anglican St. Augustine Church Thorpe Bay reminds me of Passchendaele Church after it was captured by Canadians in 1917. Probably additional expenditure on a small spire or battlements would make it look less like a ruin or power station cooling system. It originated as an iron church in the new suburb in 913, near Thorpe Bay train station, which opened in 1911. Most windows have an oolite ashlar with small Jurassic shells in it. These windows are small compared to the depressing bricks and the flattish roof makes it look as if it has not got one.

2007-11-01T22:56:00.000Z

1933c with 1929d behind. The Leigh Salvation Army Hall on Elm Road dates back to before 1901. The present structures look later than that and include this smooth red brick front with memorials of June 3, 1933. In the distance is a child minding centre in the former Peculiar Peoples Chapel. It was dated to 1929 by reference to Kelly’s Directory street logs. It has still biblical texts in front memorial stones and London ashes bricks between red brick side buttresses. There used to be a helpful sign on a house between these Christian buildings, which had a hand pointing to the Elm Road traffic and read “prepared to meet thy God”. Probably it originally was intended to direct people to the Peculiars and has gone since their departure.

2007-11-01T22:54:00.000Z

1933b. Elim International Gospel Centre in Westcliff appeared on this site as Elim Gospel Hall in the 1933 Kelly’s Directory. The central building looks like St. Andrew’s Church Hall on an adjacent Anglican site of 1930 (compare 1934c).

2007-11-01T22:49:00.000Z

1933a. Shoebury Evangelical Church, previously a Peculiar People’s Chapel, and before 1933 meeting at number 83 on the same West Road. See introduction for description of the London ashes bricks seen also in front.

Shoebury 2nd view.

2007-10-31T18:53:00.000Z

1932a. Southend and Leigh Bridge Club preserve Redcliff Drive Strict Baptist Church opened in 1932 to seat 150 people. This reasonably respectable card-game of Russian origin also takes place within coursed ragstones of the Southchurch Holy Trinity School building, which is perhaps where the missing stones were diverted to in 1906?

2007-10-31T18:50:00.000Z

1930b. Anglican St. Margaret of Antioch Church with statue of 1931 and adjacent hall of 1966. The small flints in gravel probably hide local London ashes bricks between red courses.

2007-10-30T20:12:00.000Z

1930a. Potter House Christian Center, originally a church termed Elmsleigh Hall, Leigh-on-Sea. The red bricks in front are unusually small.

2007-10-30T20:10:00.000Z

1929d. Elm Road, Leigh behind.

2007-10-30T20:06:00.000Z

?1929c. Westcliff National Spiritualist Church, Hildaville Drive, has a note on the blue illustrated signs “first church was built 1929” so I have included it here. The middle higher part looks like the back of the similarly undated seventh-day Adventist Church near by. Actually there was a spiritualist church on this site in 1924.

2007-10-30T20:04:00.000Z

1929b. Chalkwell Park United Methodist Church of 1929-30 showing flushwork in the older part.

2007-10-30T20:03:00.000Z

1929a. Leigh Road Second Baptist Church with tower in reply to R.C. one opposite but in red brick and oolite not random rubble.

2007-10-30T19:59:00.000Z

1928b. Mock-Tudor, purpose-built St. Gregory Roman Catholic Church, Thorpe Bay. In a third such case it is opposite protestants, in this case Broadway Free Church of 1921, now rebuilt by Methodists (see 1995).

2007-10-30T19:56:00.000Z

1928a. Mock-Tudor house used now for Rock Dene Christian Fellowship adjacent to site of demolished Eastwood Bethell Free Church built earlier in 1923.

2007-10-30T19:53:00.000Z

1927c with 1988 extensions. Ferndale Baptist Church, originally built on left as Jubilee Memorial Baptist Church. Smooth red bricks in both parts.

2007-10-30T19:52:00.000Z

1927b. Elim Christian Centre with new front to the original Southend Christian Tabernacle of London ashes bricks in Flemish bond with red brick headers in arched window head.

2007-10-30T19:50:00.000Z

1927a with 1952 behind. Highlands Methodist Church, Leigh-on-Sea, original church of oolite ashlar and red brick, with 1955 church beyond entirely in similarly smooth red bricks.

2007-10-30T19:46:00.000Z

1926c. St. Georges United Reformed Church, formerly Crowstone Congregational, Westcliff. Polygonal P.K.R. and oolite ashlar also used in the paler porch built by F. J. French Ltd. Of Chelmsford dated 2001.

2007-10-29T23:14:00.000Z

1926b. Anglican St. Michael and All Angels Church, Westcliff, illustrated near the April 17, 1926 foundation stone to show micritic ashlar with large fossils in the red bricks seen also in the late 1950’s of the building.

2007-10-29T23:10:00.000Z

1926a. Alexander, now Westcliff Free Church, Ronald Park Road, was presumably named by the musical Chapman and Charles M. Alexander Missions, and between 1913 and 1925 was just called a Gospel Hall. The exterior is of white painted concrete blocks of the type seen in adjacent thin walls and the bricks merely painted red. Probably they date from 1926 rather than 1912 when the hall replaced an iron church.

2007-10-29T22:57:00.000Z

1925b. Westcliff Christian Science Church and Public Reading Room; smooth red brick and pale ornate tiles with Mock Tutor front.

2007-10-29T22:53:00.000Z

1925a. Bournemouth Park Road United Reformed Church, formerly Congregational and before 1925 Warrior Square Congregational with their 1897 corrugated iron church probably rebuilt in 1925 on right. It simulates the geometric window tracery [C] and door [B] of English stone churches of 1300. The new church in red brick is dated 1925.

[B]

[C]

2007-10-29T22:48:00.000Z

1924 with 1908 behind. Roman Catholic Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Joseph Church Leigh with dates of 1912 and 1924-5 in Catholic Directory England and Wales 2006-7. 1924 comes from stone in the homogeneous facings of random rubble and tile fragments, which includes dark split Chalk flints and some plutonic ultrabasic or high grade metamorphic rock. Pale Kentish Ragstone and thick mortar present and continue up tower with similar blue clock face to 1903b Greek Orthodox Church. Behind is Mock Tudor front covering London ashes brick hall, originally the Leigh Road Baptist Church, designed by Charles Bowhill.

2007-10-28T23:32:00.000Z

1923b. Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Northview Drive, with coarse sandy red bricks and uncertain date taken from their arrival on the site in Kelly’s Directories.

2007-10-28T23:30:00.000Z

1923a. Swedenbourgian New [Jerusalem] church of London ashes bricks with micritic limestone ashlar and pale roof tiles, with newer red brick hall behind on Swanage Road.

2007-10-28T23:28:00.000Z

1922. Eucharist chapel of St. Michael’s School, Leigh-on-Sea, used for public worship on Saturdays.

2007-10-28T23:25:00.000Z

1921b. Unillustrated. London ashes brickwork sides to the former Westcliff and Leigh Hebrew Synagogue, now behind altered secular front. They held the site from this date although the synagogue is usually dated to 1928, perhaps the now missing front.

2007-10-28T23:24:00.000Z

1921a. Anglican Christchurch, Southchurch still in English bond red bricks with oolite ashlar below new design for bell tower, with modern hall undated stretching bond on right.

1920b Shoebury Gospel Hall

2007-10-28T23:19:00.001Z

1920b Shoebury Gospel Hall of grey local bricks appeared between the 1922 and 1923 editions of Kelly's Directory as "Shoebury Mission Hall". A 1905 Gospel Hall was on another site near by.

But there is contemporaneous evidence from the O.S. 1=10,560 series map of 1920-1 of that particular gap in Wakering Avenue being filled earlier. This is confirmed on page 133 of The Shoebury Story by Maureen Oxford (Ian Henry Publications, Romford, 142 pp.; 2000) where “Shoebury Hall” is reported to hold anniversary conferences commemorating the first service held in it in November 1920.

1920a Southend Crematorium and chapel

2007-10-28T23:17:00.001Z

1920 (date unclear). The previous church monument stone was dated July 25, three days before Austria-Hungary declared war on the Serbia. It seems better to mark the resulting World War by this view of the smooth red brick and concrete Southend Crematorium and chapel containing a memorial to that war inside. This was a new process in England where the first Crematorium opened in 1885. It might be thought that the move away from proper building materials and Victorian standards was due to the war but actually it took place a few years before with decreased social inequalities. Cremation also seemed to be more socially responsible than burial but in the context of the current CO2 emissions debate responsible people may perhaps prefer to maintain some areas of public space for burials?

1914b. Westcliff United Reformed

2007-10-28T23:11:00.000Z

1914b. Westcliff United Reformed, formerly Congregational Church, near Mount Avenue. Oolite ashlar, P.K.R. and coursed Ragstone front to cheaper, largely hidden brickwork

1914a. Westcliff Baptist Church and Churchgate

2007-10-28T23:08:00.000Z

1914a. Westcliff Baptist Church and Churchgate was built to house the congregation in the 1914 church in the early 1960’s, with a new church on the left. Some people thought it was too introverted. Originally the congregation had built the Valkerie Road 1901d building and then an iron church here. Notice the bays on the right with 1914 straight arched window heads and the crude modern use of vertical bricks on the left.

1913b. West Leigh Baptist Church

2007-10-28T23:05:00.000Z

1913b. West Leigh Baptist Church front with stones of September 24 showing oolite window in Flemish bond brickwork below flushwork of probable concrete. The aisle of 1926 are a good match in front but with rectangular windows, and there is also a 1961 red brick extension.

1913a. Foundation stone date of Belleview Baptist Church

2007-10-28T23:01:00.000Z

1913a. Foundation stone date of Belleview Baptist Church embedded beside opening date stone of February 14, 1914 in red Flemish bond brickwork, above concrete ashlar with rustication simulated by modern local cockle shells.

1912b. Westcliff Business Center

2007-10-28T22:57:00.000Z

1912b. Westcliff Business Center, formerly Southend and Westcliff Town Misson Hall, including a painted rusticated keystone to the arch in front of London ashes brick sides.

1912a.Former Alexandra Road Hebrew Synagogue

2007-05-29T13:07:00.000+01:00

1912a. Royal village day Nursery is non-Jewish and secular 2002 organization housed in the former Alexandra Road Hebrew Synagogue (not a tautology it means Orthodox services in Hebrew not English). The sides are of pale red bricks and simple windows, but this front above high steps and Hebrew inscription includes a rose and other oolite windows in darker red Herringbone and English Bond brickwork. The Hebrew services continue at a 1967 building elsewhere.

1911c Allington House

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1911c Allington House was used to teach dancing in 1953, was Westcliff Baptist Church in 1959, was Southend Progressive Synagogue by 1967 and now has been given this entrance to Southend and District Reform Synagogue.

1911b to 1934 (right) Anglican St. Saviour Church

2007-05-29T13:02:00.000+01:00

1911b to 1934 (right) Anglican St. Saviour Church, Westcliff, was dedicated in 1906 and the nave opened in 1911 on the site of a tent and temporary buildings used for fund raising by the Rev. Hugh Morrison Rose. The chancel was completed in 1934, all in squared Kentish Ragstone and oolite ashlar.

1911a with 1954 hall and 1987 front, Belfairs Methodist Church

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1911a with 1954 hall and 1987 front, Belfairs Methodist Church near the site of a c.1840 Eastwood “Chapel” of unclear denomination.

1909b-1912, also 1918. Roman Catholic Sacred Heart Church, Southchurch

2007-05-29T12:57:00.000+01:00

1909b-1912, also 1918. Roman Catholic Sacred Heart Church, Southchurch. The older part on the left shows English Bond red brickwork and oolite ashlar with large Jurassic shells in it. To the right of the traffic cones blue bricks appear near the base, Flemish Bond starts in similar bricks and concrete replaces oolite. Presumably this was done after the war in 1918.

1909a. Former Union Congregational Church

2007-05-29T12:55:00.000+01:00

1909a. Former Union Congregational Church waiting for demolition for replacement to a new hall beside their existing later, less attractive Leigh-on-Sea Church dated 1934. Oolite ashlar and red bricks made by the local Milton Hall company.

1907d. Former Branksome Road Methodist Church

2007-05-29T12:51:00.000+01:00

1907d. Former Branksome Road Methodist Church waiting for planning permission for conversion into apartments changing the front and sides of London ashes and red bricks, plus white painted stone sills. Although inscribed Methodist Church on the porch it was an English Presbyterian Church 1920-1925. Foundation stones laid by Thomas Dowsett and others September 21, 1907.

1907c. Southchurch Park United Reformed Church, formerly Congregational

2007-05-29T12:48:00.000+01:00

1907c. Southchurch Park United Reformed Church, formerly Congregational. Red brick and white painted ashlar front, with London ashes bricks behind, and modern extension post-dating the Great Tide of February 1953.

1907b. Salvation Army Hall, Southchurch Road

2007-05-29T12:46:00.000+01:00

1907b. Salvation Army Hall, Southchurch Road. Sides are London ashes bricks in Flemish bond with red window straight arches and front, with white painted sills.

1907a. Southend Council’s Young People’s Healthy Living Centre, formerly Southchurch Baptist Tabernacle

2007-05-28T12:51:00.000+01:00

1907a. Southend Council’s Young People’s Healthy Living Centre, formerly Southchurch Baptist Tabernacle and before 1926 Stornoway Road Misson Hall (? of Belleview Baptists). Note use of English bond London ashes bricks (right) and stretching bond modern yellow malm bricks in replaced window above truncated Jurassic oolite sill.

1905b.Hindu Temple, Shree Swaminarayan Mandir Swami Narayan

2007-05-28T12:48:00.000+01:00

1905b. Pale London ashes brick house now used as Hindu Temple, Shree Swaminarayan Mandir Swami Narayan (1781-1830) followed by many U.K. citizens of Gujurati descent.

1905a. Southend Full Gospel Church, formerly Original Peculiar People’s

2007-05-28T12:43:00.000+01:00

1905a. Southend Full Gospel Church, formerly Original Peculiar People’s (i.e. not Liberty Section) Chapel, St. Ann’s Road, Southend. Modified and painted later, lacks texts like 1904a, with London ashes brick original sides.

1904a in general view

2007-05-26T13:28:00.000+01:00

1904a in general view shows same London ashes and brickwork, with red brick straight arched window heads, and slate roof.

1904a. Wallis Avenue Evangelical Church

2007-05-26T13:23:00.000+01:00

1904a. Wallis Avenue Evangelical Church, renamed by similar congregation from Peculiar People’s Chapel with justificatory text on front.

1903b. Greek Orthodox Church of St. Barbaras, St. Phanourios and St. Paul

2007-05-26T13:17:00.000+01:00

1903b. Greek Orthodox Church of St. Barbaras, St. Phanourios and St. Paul, formerly St. Paul Reformed Episcopal Church and In 1922 Anglican, showing grave of Alfred Waller who raised the money for the present building in red and Blue Staffordshire Bricks with Jurassic oolite ashlar.

1903a. Wesley Methodist Church, Elm Road Leigh

2007-05-26T13:15:00.000+01:00

1903a. Wesley Methodist Church, Elm Road Leigh, originally London ashes brick Wesley hall but has 1903 front of coursed Kentish Ragstone ashlar and Jurassic oolite true ashlar (<3mm mortar thickness).

1902b. Non-conformist Chapel of rest, council Cemetary, Sutton road

2007-05-26T13:13:00.000+01:00

1902b. Non-conformist Chapel of rest, council Cemetary, Sutton road; same materials as 1902a.

1902a. Church acting as chapel of rest, Council Cemetary, Sutton Road

2007-05-26T13:10:00.000+01:00

1902a. Church acting as chapel of rest, Council Cemetary, Sutton Road. Polygonal Kentish Ragwork Slate and coarse shelly oolite ashlar.

?1901d. The Homeless Action resource Centre

2007-05-26T13:08:00.000+01:00

?1901d. The Homeless Action resource Centre, formerly Westcliff Hall Valkerie Road; the first ‘London Road’ baptist’s church. Jurassic oolite ashlar and red brick front, with London ashes bricks on sides.

?1901c Southend Mosque and Masjid, formerly Wesleyan Church and Hall Prittlewell

2007-05-26T12:55:00.000+01:00

?1901c Southend Mosque and Masjid, formerly Wesleyan Church and Hall Prittlewell. Some red brick and flushwork arch as in the Moose Hall, but with additional flushwork and Staffordshire Blue Brick courses. White painted ashlar.

?1901b. Moose Hall Number 29, formerly Leigh Primitive Methodist Church

2007-05-25T12:57:00.000+01:00

?1901b. Moose Hall Number 29, formerly Leigh Primitive Methodist Church originally The Public Hall Cranleigh Drive. Note red brick and black flint flushwork arch.

?1901a. Trinity Methodist Church and Family Centre, Westcliff

2007-05-25T12:53:00.000+01:00

?1901a. Trinity Methodist Church and Family Centre, Westcliff, formerly United Methodist Free Church, white painted ashlar (perhaps Portland Stone) and red brick. Compare with 1901b and 1901c. All three dates are approximate.

1900c. Former Prittlewell Congregational Church with 1908 Harcourt hall

2007-05-25T12:49:00.000+01:00

1900c. Former Prittlewell Congregational Church with 1908 Harcourt hall, similarly in red brick with Jurassic oolite ashlar behind on right. Stones dated 6th December 1900 “laid in gratitude to ALMIGHTY GOD for his mercy at the dawn of the twentieth century” by ministers John Granger Sadd and Thomas Dowsett Esq. JP”.

1900b Avenue Baptist Church

2007-05-25T12:48:00.000+01:00

1900b Avenue Baptist Church of 1900 with similar oolite mainly in red brick.

1900a. Coleman Street Chapel

2007-05-25T12:47:00.000+01:00

1900a. Coleman Street Chapel, formerly a Gospel Hall, Southend. White painted ashlar in red brick front, with London ashes bricks and original metalwork on sides.

1899 Shoeburyness Methodist Church, formerly Primitive

2007-05-25T12:44:00.001+01:00

1899. Shoeburyness Methodist Church, formerly Primitive, in painted bricks with the 1950 illustrated bricks (see below) in hall and other unpainted brick in porch. Memorial “laid by Louie Self for the Sunday School” in old front wall.

1898. Anglican St. Alban the Martyr Church, Westcliff

2007-05-25T12:39:00.000+01:00

1898. Anglican St. Alban the Martyr Church, Westcliff; showing chancel completed in 1904 of red brick arches and lacing courses in random rubble of patinated white and split black chalk flints and brown Lower Greensand.

1893. Providence Baptist Church, Prittlewell

2007-05-25T12:35:00.000+01:00

1893. Providence Baptist Church, Prittlewell, on site of 1854 baptist chapel built by Anthony Smith; rebuilt in red and painted bricks plus stone sills.

1889. Anglican All’ Saints Church, Porterstown

2007-05-17T13:04:00.000+01:00

1889. Anglican All’ Saints Church, Porterstown, in red brick and tile, plus coarsely shelly oolite ashlar, all continued in 1934 bay of paler colour.

1887. Salvation Army Citadel, Clarence Street Southend

2007-05-17T13:01:00.000+01:00

1887. Salvation Army Citadel, Clarence Street Southend, with red and superior Malm brick gauged window arch within London ashes brickwork; with Clarence Road on left showing St. Martin’s Christian Spiritualist Church (1889 built as Liberal Party hall) in red brick and white painted ashlar and behind it in paler 1961 red bricks the rebuilt Central Baptist Church of 1883.