Westcliff
Geography
The cliffs formed by erosion of the local quaternary geology give views over the Thames Estuary towards the Kent coastline to the south. The coastline has been transformed into sandy beaches through the use of groynes and imported sand. The estuary at this point has extensive mud flats. At low tide, the water typically retreats some 600 m from the beach, leaving the mud flats exposed.
History
The southern area of what is now known as Westcliff, south of the London Road, was known as Milton or Milton Hamlet until the period 1860–1880 when the Milton Estate and surrounding land was sold to speculators who preferred the name Westcliff-on-Sea. The name Milton was derived from being in the middle between Leigh and Southchurch, with the settlement said to be from where Leigh Road meets Chalkwell Park to the mayor's residence at Porters. The protestant martyr John Frith was captured on the shore at Milton trying to escape in 1532. By the time the station opened in 1895, it was named Westcliff not Milton. The area between Milton Road and Hamlet Court Road was named The Hamlet by the original developers Brassey, Peto, Betts & Co. when they developed it as a "high class suburban retreat". Milton Hall (demolished 1900) was on the site of the what is now Nazareth House on the London Road. Hamlet Court was a large house in the area between Hamlet Court Road, Canewdon Road, and Ditton Court Road and was demolished in 1929.
Governance
Westcliff-on-Sea is covered by several wards under Southend-on-Sea City Council, including some that fall outside of the designated area of Westcliff. The wards are:
- Westborough
- Milton
- Victoria
- Prittlewell
Westborough Ward
| Westborough | |
|---|---|
 Westborough Ward Within Southend-on-Sea | |
| Area | 0.9172 km (0.3541 sq mi) |
| Population | 11,284 (2021 census) |
| • Density | 12,303/km (31,860/sq mi) |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| UK Parliament | |
| Councillors |
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The ward starts at Southbourne Grove in the West, Prittlewell Brook to the North, Wenham Drive in the East and London Road/West Road in the south. The ward borders Blenheim Park, Prittlewell and Victoria. In 2021 it had a population of 11,284.
Transport
The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway route passing through the suburb was completed to Southend in 1856 but the Westcliff railway station in Station Road was not opened until 1895. It is now managed by c2c.
Education
Westcliff is served by two selective secondary schools: Westcliff High School for Girls and Westcliff High School for Boys, two Catholic secondary schools: St Thomas More High School for boys and St Bernard's High School, Westcliff-on-Sea for girls, and the non selective Chase High School.
Architecture
Several areas of Westcliff have been classified as conservation areas: Clifftown bordering Southend town centre and including Prittlewell Square gardens, Shorefield and the Leas towards the sea front, and Milton focused on the Park Estate between Park Street and Milton Road. The Milton Conservation Area includes the Grade II listed building which was formerly the Wesleyan Chapel (Park Road Methodist Church) it was completed in 1872 to the design of Elijah Hoole (1837-1912) and was Southend's first permanent Methodist Church.
Westcliff contains a number of other Grade II listed buildings, Our Lady Help of Christians and St Helen's Church in Milton Road, the Church of Saint Alban the Martyr in St John's Road, the former Havens department store in Hamlet Court Road, Marteg House in Annerley Road, Westcliff Library in London Road and the Palace Theatre. Westcliff Library, designed by Patrick Burridge, the councils architect in 1956, built on a site damaged by bombing in World War II. The building was listed as Grade II in 1998.
The official list entries for these are available from Historic England on the National Heritage List for England.
Economy
The main shopping area in Westcliff-on-Sea is Hamlet Court Road, where the department store Havens established itself in 1901, and remained the anchor store until its closure in 2017. Hamlet Court Road took its name from a manor house called the Hamlet Court, which stood on land now occupied by Pavarotti's restaurant and adjoining shops, facing towards the sea with sweeping gardens down to the rail line. The road later developed into a strong independent retail area and quickly became famous outside the area as the Bond Street of Essex. There were many haberdashers and specialist shops, and it was not too unusual to see chauffeurs waiting for their employers to emerge from the shops.
The economic recessions of the 1980s and 1990s saw the area decline. The road underwent a £1 million regeneration in the early 2000s and a further regeneration in 2010. Further plans have been put forward by Southend-on-Sea City Council to pedestrianise half of the street, while the local historical organisation, the Milton Society is campaigning to regenerate the road on the lines of Margate and the Cathedral Quarter in Derby.
The Milton Ward in Westcliff is one of the most deprived areas in England. The ward is mostly in the top 20% most deprived areas in the East of England, but some of the ward is in the top 10% most deprived areas in the country.
Leisure
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The two main theatres in Westcliff are the Cliffs Pavilion, which overlooks the seafront, and the Palace Theatre situated on the London Road.
Westcliff-on-Sea is also home to the Thames Estuary Yacht Club and the Genting Casino Westcliff. Westcliff RFC currently play in National League 2 East, the fourth tier of the English rugby union system.
In Literature
Westcliff is the location for the French novel Un souvenir by Michel Déon.
Notable people
- Sir Edwin Arnold (1832–1904), poet and journalist, lived at Hamlet Court from 1878.
- David Atkinson, politician
- Trevor Bailey (1923–2011), test cricketer and cricket writer and broadcaster, was born there.
- John Barber (1919–2004), former Finance Director of Ford of Europe and managing director of British Leyland.
- Dorothea Bate, Welsh palaeontologist and pioneer of archaeozoology, died in Westcliff-on-Sea in 1951
- E. Power Biggs (1906–1977), concert organist was born there.
- Robert Williams Buchanan (1841–1901), poet, novelist and playwright, lived at Hamlet Court from 1884.
- Dick Clement (born 1937) comedy writer and director, was born there.
- Geoffrey Crawley photographic expert and journalist. He was the editor in chief of British Journal of Photography for two decades and was noted for exposing the photographs of the Cottingley Fairies taken in the early 20th century as a hoax.
- Josh Cullen (born 1996), professional footballer who currently plays for Burnley and the Republic of Ireland national team.
- Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen (1828–1894), curator and Director of the South Kensington Museum in London lived at Hamlet Court.
- Lee Evans, comedian. Lived in Westcliff.
- Jean Floud (1915–2013), sociologist and academic, was born there.
- Edward Greenfield (1928–2015) chief music writer in The Guardian from 1977 to 1993 and biographer of Andre Previn was born there and attended Westcliff High School for Boys.
- John Horsely (1920–2014), actor, was born there.
- Wilko Johnson (1947–2022) guitarist, singer and songwriter attended Westcliff High School for Boys and lived in Westcliff until his death.
- Frank Matcham (1854–1920), theatre architect, retired to 28 Westcliff Parade, Westcliff-on-Sea and died there in 1920.
- Hugh Sells (1922–1978), first-class cricketer and Royal Air Force officer.
- Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams (1929–2003), English moral philosopher.
- Charles Leslie Wrenn (1895-1969), scholar and Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon 1945-1963.
References
- ^ Church of England terms.
| Unitary authorities | |
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| Boroughs or districts | |
| Major settlements (cities in italics) |
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- ^ "Southend Ward population 2011". Retrieved 30 November 2019.
- ^ "A visit to Southend". British Film Institute. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ^ "London Tilbury and Southend Railway". The Railway News. 5 June 1897. p. 888.
- ^ Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 178 Thames Estuary (Rochester & Southend-on-Sea) (Map). Ordnance Survey. 2014. ISBN 9780319229675.
- ^ "Southend Local Plan". Southend-on-Sea City Council. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ^ Church of England parish finder "Westcliff: St Saviour's Church"
- ^ Church of England parish finder "Westcliff: St Michael and All Angels"
- ^ Pearce, Marion. (2000). Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone. Romford: Ian Henry. p. 1. ISBN 0-86025-510-7. OCLC 46570209.
- ^ Pearce, Marion. (2000). Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone. Romford: Ian Henry. p. 41. ISBN 0-86025-510-7. OCLC 46570209.
- ^ Rounding, Virginia (2017). The burning time : Henry VIII, Bloody Mary, and the Protestant martyrs of London. p. 55. ISBN 9781250040640.
- ^ Pearce, Marion. (2000). Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone. Romford: Ian Henry. pp. 46–49. ISBN 0-86025-510-7. OCLC 46570209.
- ^ Pearce, Marion. (2000). Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone. Romford: Ian Henry. p. 35. ISBN 0-86025-510-7. OCLC 46570209.
- ^ "Westborough Ward". Southend-on-Sea City Council. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ^ "Areas touching Westborough". Mapit. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
- ^ "Westborough". City Population. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
- ^ James Bettley and Nikolaus Pevsner (2007). Essex. The Buildings of England. Yale University Press. p. 712.
- ^ Holmes, Katherine. "Milton Conservation Area". www.southend.gov.uk. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
- ^ Pevsner, Nikolaus (1954). Essex. Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 326.
- ^ Pearce, Marion. (2000). Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone. Romford: Ian Henry. p. 56. ISBN 0-86025-510-7. OCLC 46570209.
- ^ Nelson, Rob. "Listed Buildings". www.southend.gov.uk. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
- ^ Harwood, Elain; Davies, James O. (2015). England's post-war listed buildings : including scheduled monuments and registered landscapes. Batsford. p. 221. ISBN 9781849941464.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "National Heritage List for England". Historic England.
- ^ "End of an era as Havens store prepares to close after almost 100 years on the high street - Evening Echo p.12 May 2017". Retrieved 12 May 2017.
- ^ "Hamlet Court Road street party filmed for BBC show - Evening Echo p.6 June 2013". 6 June 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
- ^ Cohen, Philip; Rustin, Michael J. (January 2008). London's Turning - The making of Thames Gateway - Edited by Philip Cohen & Michael J. Rustin page 219. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 9780754670636. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
- ^ "Half of Hamlet Court Road could be pedestrianised". Evening Echo. 17 March 2023.
- ^ "Regeneration". Milton Society. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ^ "Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004" (PDF). 2004. Southend-on-Sea Borough Council.
- ^ "Southend Theatres". www.southendtheatres.org.uk. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
- ^ "Un souvenir (TV)". AlloCiné (in French). Retrieved 13 May 2015.
- ^ Pearce, Marion. (2000). Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone. Romford: Ian Henry. p. 46. ISBN 0-86025-510-7. OCLC 46570209.
- ^ Robert Waller, Byron Criddle (1999). The Almanac of British Politics. Routledge. p. 93. ISBN 9780415185417.
- ^ "Southend Timeline". Southend Timeline. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
- ^ "Obituary - John Barber". aronline.co.uk. 13 November 2004. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
- ^ Bate, Dorothea Minola Alice (1878–1951), palaeontologist by Karolyn Shindler in Dictionary of National Biography online (accessed 23 November 2007)
- ^ Pearce, Marion. (2000). Milton, Chalkwell, and the Crowstone. Romford: Ian Henry. p. 47. ISBN 0-86025-510-7. OCLC 46570209.
- ^ Webster, Richard; Clement, Dick; la Frenais, Ian (2001). Porridge The Inside Story. Headline Book Publishing. ISBN 0-7472-3294-6.
- ^ Staff. "Geoffrey Crawley, who has died aged 83, was a scientific journalist specialising in photography and in 1982 exposed the world's longest-running photographic hoax – the myth of the so-called Cottingley Fairies.", The Daily Telegraph, November 7, 2010. accessed November 10, 2010.
- ^ "All you need to know about the Ireland U19 starlet who's just made his full debut for West Ham". The42. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
- ^ Lee Evans (2012). The Life of Lee. ISBN 9780718177133.
- ^ Robert Skidelsky, "Jean Floud obituary", The Guardian, 3 April 2013.
- ^ "Edward Greenfield Writer Obituary". The Telegraph. 3 July 2015.
- ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 14 May 2011.
- ^ "Wilko Johnson - ARU". aru.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
- ^ "Guitar legend Wilko back home after operation". Echo. 4 June 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
- ^ "Mr Frank Matcham Dead". Western Daily Press. 19 May 1920. p. 10.
- ^ "Player profile: Hugh Sells". CricketArchive. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
- ^ Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "Sir Bernard Williams, 73, Oxford Philosopher, Dies", The New York Times, 14 June 2003.
- ^ Tom McArthur (1992). The Oxford Companion to English Language. Oxford University Press. p. 129. ISBN 019214183X.