Bed and breakfast availability
Southend-on-Sea b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit Southend-on-Sea and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Southend's history as a holiday resort dates from the early years of the last century when the villages of Leigh and Prittlewell commenced that expansion which now stretches along the mouth of the Thames estuary for some 7 miles. The mention of the name Southend evokes an almost automatic response - “The Pier”, and with its length of almost 1 ½ miles it is in fact the longest in the world - a far cry from the small wooden jetty erected in the 1830s. The pier with its railway, its amusements and its arcades caters for the fun-seeking tripper as well as serving as a port of call for the ships which make the voyage to London and the French ports. Excitement may be found, too, at the famous Kursaal, where every possible fairground device makes the season one long Bank Holiday fair.

The quieter side of life may be found at the resorts along the coast - at Westcliff, with its Edwardian bandstand, and at Thorpe Bay on the other side of the pier. As it has grown, so Southend has swallowed the villages which were once its neighbours. Eastwood, Leigh, Prittlewell, Shoebury and Southchurch once had separate identities, and each still retains something of its old character. Of the old churches and buildings which remain, the oldest are the ruins of Prittlewell Priory, founded c. 1110 in Priory Park by the Benedictines. The churches of Prittlewell, Southchurch, Eastwood and South Shoebury have Norman work and those of North Shoebury and Leigh are interesting though later.

Porters in Southchurch Road, Southend, is the Mayor's Parlour and is early 17^th-century. South-church Hall, now a library, was a moated manor house of the 14^th century, while Thorpe Hall along the boulevard is dated 1668.

Nearby towns: Basildon, Billericay, Burnham-on-Crouch, Canvey Island, Chelmsford, Corringham, Maldon, Wickford

Nearby villages: Allhallows, Barling, Battlesbridge, Burnham-on-Crouch, Canewdon, Eastwood, Grain, Great Wakering, Hadleigh, Hawkwell, High Halstow, Isle of Grain, Leigh-on-Sea, Little Wakering, North Fambridge, Rawreth, Rayleigh, Rettendon, Rochford, Sheerness, Shoeburyness, South Benfleet, St. Mary Hoo, Thundersley

Have you decided to visit Southend-on-Sea or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a Southend-on-Sea bed and breakfast (a Southend-on-Sea B&B or Southend-on-Sea b and b)
• a Southend-on-Sea guesthouse
• a Southend-on-Sea hotel (or motel)
• a Southend-on-Sea self-catering establishment, or
• other Southend-on-Sea accommodation