SNAP UP SOME ESSEX SPARKLE
Rough-and-ready Southend-on-Sea is having its moment in the sun
YOu have only to mention Southend-on-Sea and back comes a strangled ‘Sourfendon-Sea’, in a full (if not entirely authentic) Cockney twang. You might get an ‘innit’ as well, just to stress the town’s links with London’s duckin’ and divin’ east end.
easy to pigeonhole, in other words. But that doesn’t tell the whole story because, with some justification, Southend-on-Sea in essex is beginning to think of itself as the new Brighton. It’s easy to get there (an hour from London on the train or by car) but seems a world away from the capital; hotels, restaurants and bars are opening, the views across the Thames estuary to Kent are magnificent and there’s lots to do, especially for those nostalgic for traditional British seaside pursuits.
A walk along the pier (John Betjeman said ‘the Pier is Southend, Southend is the Pier)? How long have you got? Grade II-listed, it’s the longest of its kind in the world, extending nearly 1.5 miles into the estuary, hence the shuttle train that transports those not up for the trek.
Three Shells Beach is nearby, a mix of sand and shingle, with its own bathing lagoon. Then there are the town’s three casinos, while the Adventure Island fun park — ‘the pride of the town’, as one local put it — is as popular as ever.
At a different end of the cultural spectrum is the Beecroft Art Gallery, which matches anything you’d find in the trendier parts of Brighton. It has both a contemporary and historic collection, including Constable’s On The Stour and Henry Bright’s Hadleigh Castle.
In the basement, the jazz trumpeter Digby Fairweather runs the National Jazz Archive and hosts monthly concerts.
‘We’re having our moment,’ says Shaun Roche, from Hunt Roche estate agents, which has six offices in the area. ‘It’s the most affordable place to buy a property just over an hour outside London.’
aTHRee-BeDROOm family home in eastwood or parts of Westcliffe starts at about £300,000, and a first-time buyer can pick up a one-bedroom flat in the centre of Southend for £140,000, or £160,000 for two bedrooms.
There’s no shortage of activities: sailing clubs, tennis clubs, golf courses and a multiplex cinema. The Cliffs Pavilion Palace Theatre is still going strong, too, despite a chequered history.
It opened on the seafront in 1912 and was named the Palace of Varieties. After surviving both World Wars, it hosted a forerunner of the TV talent show Opportunity Knocks and witnessed an early performance by Dora Bryan.
From time to time, it has closed down owing to financial difficulties, but now something is on every night.
Southend’s airport has helped build momentum following the Stobart Group’s £160 million investment. easyJet and Flybe have increased their routes significantly to and from the airport, with the latter now running weekday flights in summer to Newquay in Cornwall.
‘ Where once we used to attract traditional east enders, now it’s yuppies who are moving here to start their families,’ says mr Roche. ‘In posh Leighon-Sea to the west and Thorpe Bay to the east, you can get a beautiful four-bedroom semi for less than £800,000 — and in a conservation area, too.’
The once-famous Royal Hotel, built in 1791, no longer has bedrooms but has become a popular cocktail bar and restaurant, while the gleamingly new Seven Hotel on Clifton Terrace overlooking the pier has become a symbol of the town’s thrusting future, following a £4 million investment.
With its shiny decor and penchant for gold taps, it might not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s attracting a moneyed young crowd — in sharp contrast to its days as an old people’s home.
Southend’s links to London culturally might be fading, but they remain strong when it comes to commuting, with two rail links, one into Liverpool Street, the other into Fenchurch Street.
‘You can still get a lot for your money here,’ says Lee Hassan, from Blackshaw Homes estate agents. ‘For me, one of the biggest changes is the airport. It’s brought new people into the area and provides jobs. Certainly, we are much busier now than we were at this time 12 months ago.’
Lovers of technology must feel they are in clover. Another day, another piece of wizardry.
You can view the contents of your fridge from thousands of miles away; you can monitor how a cake is doing in the oven; you can turn on or off your heating, talk to a delivery man even when you’re not in, check whether the garden needs watering.
In fact, you can be in almost total control anywhere in the world as long as your ‘smart’ appliances are connected by your home’s wifi and then operated remotely through an app on your mobile.
But hurry. The technology landscape is forever changing. The new version of the samsung Family Hub fridge is out later this month for a cool £2,999 — and it comes with built- in cameras, tracks expiry dates, suggests recipes based on your leftovers and will even talk to you.
Activated with Bixby voice control, you can ask ‘Hi Bixby, what’s new today?’ and it will read out the news, weather and calendar updates tailored to you.
sales of smart home products at John Lewis were up 106 per cent last year and are on track to double this year. The good news is that if you want to join the smart revolution, you don’t have to spend a fortune. However, you will in some cases, need a smart phone — one that is capable of downloading apps and operates like a computer.
smart lighting is a popular starting point — and costs from as little as £29 to set up — at Ikea. You don’t need a smart phone for this system. A remote, which can only be used in the house, puts you in charge of up to ten wireless LeD lights. switch from cool to warm light, and dim or brighten to create a range of moods.
Using an app, you can also, however, set it up to link to your smartphone so you can be in control when you’re out of the house. Ikea also sells a motion sensor (£16) which detects you entering and leaving a room, turning the light on and off.
smart plugs are another easy way to get your home in the smart zone. They can make any appliance or lamp remotecontrollable. Handy if you worry about whether you turned off the iron.
Plugs from Hive cost £39 each and you simply plug an existing appliance into the smart plug, which goes directly into the wall. The Hive app, once installed on your smart phone, will connect with the plugs and allow you to switch them on and off.
When it comes to security, such technology can be useful. ring is a video doorbell with an inbuilt camera and audio that lets you talk to people at your front door, even when you’re out.
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start from £89 and installation involves mounting the camera and doorbell units and installing the ring app on your smart phone. You can also buy a video recording plan allowing you to access videos of your home surveillance anytime, anywhere, save them for up to 60 days, and even share your videos with friends, family and neighbours.
The Nest cam, pictured, also sends camera feeds of your home — inside or out — to your mobile phone. Prices from £159, Yale has launched a smart lock allowing remote control of your front door. It’s operated manually by punching in a code on the keypad or with a key card — like the ones used in many hotels. It can also be controlled with a smart phone so you can let a friend in if they arrive early and you’re stuck in traffic. or you might want to offer a one-time code to a plumber so you don’t have to take a day off work, for example. Priced from £129, yalestore.co.uk. Laurence Mitchell, head of electricals buying at John Lewis, says: ‘Home monitoring is attracting interest from consumers as it is more affordable and flexible than the traditional built-in alarm systems. such products can help you keep an eye on elderly parents in case they have a fall and need help, for example.’ The Nest Protect smart smoke and carbon monoxide alarm runs battery and sensor checks some 400 times a day and alerts your phone to any problems. It costs about £90. Heating is another popular area of the smart world, particularly because there is an opportunity to save money on energy bills. Hive — one of the first to launch — is from £249, shirehome.com — which includes it being set up by a British Gas engineer. A device is installed that is connected to your central heating and hot water system. once the Hive app is downloaded to your phone and connects to your new device, you can switch your heating on or off remotely. While a recent survey revealed that a quarter of homes now contain a smart device of some sort, a new development of houses in Milton Keynes — sommar Place — is stocked from floor to ceiling with smart appliances. The homes, ranging from two-bedroom apartments to fourbedroom townhouses, are almost totally controlled via smart phones. A four-bedroom smart home costs about £ 435,000, and residents can control everything from their front door to the kettle with their phone.