{"id":15486,"date":"2014-10-06T12:21:13","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T11:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=15486"},"modified":"2014-10-06T12:26:26","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T11:26:26","slug":"canvey-island-photos-sea-wall-murals-concord-beach-a-dr-feelgood-bench-sea-views-and-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/canvey-island-photos-sea-wall-murals-concord-beach-a-dr-feelgood-bench-sea-views-and-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Canvey Island photos – sea wall murals, Concord Beach, a Dr Feelgood bench, sea views and racism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

On the weekend, I took a trip out to Canvey Island, a\u00a0reclaimed island in the Thames estuary in the south-east of England.<\/p>\n

I was there to watch the mighty\u00a0Dulwich Hamlet FC triumph over the local team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It rained for the entire match but happily the sun broke through after\u00a0the final whistle, so I went off for a wander around the coast.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

The island was mainly agricultural land until the 20th century, before becoming the fastest growing seaside resort in Britain between 1911 and 1951 [Wikipedia<\/a>].<\/p>\n

The North Sea flood of 1953 wreaked devastation on the island, with\u00a0\u00a058 islanders losing their lives and 13,000 residents being temporarily evacuated.<\/p>\n

The area is now protected by modern sea defences comprising 2 miles (3.2 km) of concrete sea walls.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Walking the dog, Canvey Island.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Walking up to the sea wall.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

‘Sid Vicious RIP’ painted on the sea wall.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Walking along the sea wall.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Canvey Island is\u00a0probably best known for two\u00a0things: its petrochemical industry, which has been operating since the 1930s, and the truly wonderful pub rockers\u00a0Dr Feelgood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Watching the ships.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

In the distance can be seen Westcliff-On-Sea and Southend.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Down by the jetty.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Painted over graffiti.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Sea shells.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Wind turbines, chimneys and dock cranes in the distance.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Bench detail.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Shiny new benches line the sea wall by Concord Beach, each with its own message.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Dr Feelgood bench. I like!<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Rain drops on the newly varnished benches.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Made possible with a \u00a310,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, a series of attractive murals\u00a0painted by professional artists and Canvey\u00a0locals can be seen on the sea wall of Concord Beach.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

The sea wall murals focus on telling the story of the deadly 1953 floods, and the subsequent building of the sea wall.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

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\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Concord Cafe beach shop was closed, but the eyes were open.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

I loved these paintings of the birds that can be seen around the coast.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

During the Victorian era Canvey was a very fashionable place to visit, with its air supposedly containing\u00a0healing properties.<\/p>\n

A sea front was developed in the 1930s, packing in amusements, a cinema, the Labworth Cafe, and nightclubs such as the Goldmine and Monico were also built, but the trend for cheap foreign package holidays killed off the resort in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Bitumen on the sea front.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

A pioneering modernist International style reinforced concrete building on\u00a0Labworth beach, the Labworth Caf\u00e9<\/a> was built in 1932\u20131933 by the\u00a0distinguished engineer,\u00a0Ove Aru<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The building was designed to to resemble the bridge of the Queen Mary ship.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

The building fell into a state of disrepair in the 1970s and 1980s but was renovated in 1996 and now functions as both a beach bistro and restaurant.<\/p>\n

The ground floor was shuttered up when I went past, but the restaurant was open.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

A series of shelters with benches are located along the promenade. Some contain\u00a0curious graffiti, along with the traditional penis drawing.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

After the murals ran out, the messages on the sea wall got rather darker.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Sad to see this kind of moronic racism still appearing in 2014.<\/p>\n

Canvey Island is what Greg Dyke might have described as “hideously\u00a0white<\/a>” with the island registering a high proportion of white people compared to national figures,<\/p>\n

In the 2001 census, the ethnicity recorded was 98.2% white\u00a0(compared with 91% for England), \u00a00.6% of the population of Canvey were of a mixed ethnic group, while 0.6% were Asian, 0.2% Black, and 0.2% Chinese. [—<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Some more weird chalked-on graffiti.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

Heading back inland towards the bus stop, I passed this classic Essex half-timbered new build home.<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

A pink pony truck!<\/p>\n

\"Canvey<\/p>\n

This place – with its tacky ionic columns and jumbled architecture – has to be owned by a builder!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the weekend, I took a trip out to Canvey Island, a\u00a0reclaimed island in the Thames estuary in the south-east of England. I was there to watch the mighty\u00a0Dulwich Hamlet … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[193],"tags":[624,372,998,1195,32],"class_list":["post-15486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-places","tag-england","tag-essex","tag-labworth-cafe","tag-photos","tag-seaside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/canvey-island-photos-011.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-41M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15486"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15496,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15486\/revisions\/15496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}