Between London And The Sea Is A Bustling English City With Beaches, Tasty Eats, And An Amusement Park

Just under an hour from central London by train, Southend-on-Sea is a classic English beach destination. It sits on the northern side of the Thames Estuary as a vibrant accumulation of quintessential seaside clichés. You'll find golden sands punctuated by the flap of a striped windbreak cocooning a family of deck chairs and buckets in red and blue, a riotous confusion of noise and color from the arcades, and a gargantuan pier stretching out so far into the sea that you could swear it was a bridge to France.

The town was historically divided in two: the Upper Town, located on top of the cliffs, home to the High Street, train station, and Royal Terrace, and the Lower Town — where the beaches and the fun fair are located. Walk the streets and the seafront, and you'll find the sea breeze heavily laden with the scent of fish and chips, fishing boats bobbing in the water, and cafes and restaurants lining the maze of streets in the Upper Town. Stroll a little further along the coast to scenic Leigh-on-Sea, where a wonderful repertoire of local pubs and fresh seafood awaits, many with views over the boats docked there.

Southend Central station is around a 10-minute walk from the seafront, while c2c trains run directly from London Fenchurch Street, stopping at Limehouse, West Ham, and Barking on the way. The journey takes around an hour, and you can tap in and out as with the London Underground network, which makes this one of the easiest day trips from London.

Southend Pier is one of England's best piers and the city's defining attraction, whose size really shouldn't be understated. The wood-and-iron pier stretches 1.34 miles into the Thames Estuary and holds the title of the world's longest pleasure pier. Rather than simply walking its length, visitors can take the fabulous narrow-gauge railway to the end, where the estuary opens out on either side. Some visitors stop at the café, and then carry on to the very end of the pier to ring the old bell that is fixed to the final post at the pier head. Providing a startlingly apt contrast back on the seafront is Southend's 1912 Cliff Lift, a tiny funicular railway connecting the seafront with the top of the cliffs. It is one of Britain's shortest railways and one of Southend's more charming attractions.

At the other end of the scale is Adventure Island, which sits immediately beside Southend Pier, with rides ranging from family attractions to large, rattling roller coasters. The surrounding seafront has several beaches, including City Beach and Three Shells Beach, while the wider Southend coastline stretches for around seven miles with numerous much quieter stretches of sand farther east and west.

Food is ubiquitous along the seafront, with a variety of fish-and-chip shops serving fish coated in batter and fried until a pleasing golden brown, alongside cafés, restaurants, and bars. For a more atmospheric meal, walk to Leigh-on-Sea for seafood restaurants, fishmongers (some, like Osborne's, with their own seafood café), and cozy pubs clustered around a more traditional waterfront.

Leave the crowds with a walk west along the coastline toward Leigh-on-Sea. The shore-hugging route passes through Westcliff-on-Sea and Chalkwell before reaching Leigh, following the seafront for around three miles. Leigh-on-Sea feels quite different from Southend, with the old fishing village's streets providing a charming counterpoint. Its waterfront is a tight little warren of fishing huts and seafood restaurants, while independent shops and pubs give the old town a lively edge.

From here, the coastline opens onto the Thames Estuary, with vast salt marshes and mudflats providing habitat for large numbers of birds. The walk bends along the shore of a wreck graveyard, revealing abandoned ships on the mudflats, as well as modern fishing vessels and historic wooden cockle boats. Follow the route a little further, and you'll find one of Leigh's most under-the-radar but beautiful sights: the Graveyard of Lost Species, where the remains of an old fishing boat sit among the ephemeral estuary landscape. The wrecked boat is the Souvenir, a 1935 Thames bawley fishing boat, whose hull has been carved with the names of wildlife, industries, and places, lost to the estuary, left here to slowly fade into mud. 

From the Souvenir, you can walk back to Leigh-on-Sea station in around 15 minutes, where you can easily board the c2c train. Either take the train to Southend or ride it in the opposite direction, back to London, the vibrant British capital frequently named the world's best city.