Southend Civic Centre is a municipal building in Victoria Avenue,

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England. The structure holds the chamber for

Southend-on-Sea City Council Southend-on-Sea City Council is the local authority of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. Southend has had an elected local authority since 1866, which has been reformed several times. Since 1998 the council ...

and houses the council's offices. Originally the Civic Centre incorporated the whole development of municipal buildings located between Carnarvon Road and

Southend Central Museum Southend Central Museum is a museum in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. The museum houses collections of local and natural history and contains a planetarium constructed by astronomer Harry Ford in 1984. The museum was opened in April 1981 i ...

History

The first municipal building in Southend was the municipal offices in Clarence Road completed in 1883. Following significant population growth, largely associated with the status of Southend as a seaside resort, the area became a

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

in 1892 and a county borough in 1914. As the responsibilities of the council increased, it secured additional office accommodation around Southend, but in the 1940s, the civic leaders decided to co-locate all its staff in one location. The site they selected on the east side of Victoria Avenue was occupied by three large private houses and by the former Westcliff High School, which had been purchased by the council as a planned site for a new further education college. The Civic Centre would encompass a new police station (that opened in 1962), a

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

(that opened in 1966), council offices and chamber, a new

College A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

(that opened in 1971) and a

Library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

(that opened in 1974). The planned fire station for the site was dropped and it built in Sutton Road. The new buildings were designed by the borough architect, Patrick Burridge, in the

International Style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

. The Council offices and chamber was built in concrete and glass and was officially opened by

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was al ...

on 31 October 1967. The design involved a 16-storey rectangular tower block with 20 bays facing onto Victoria Avenue and 10 bays at either end; the council chamber was contained in a separate two-storey structure built to the south west of the main building. A fountain, which took the form of three stone slabs located around a stone trough, was designed by William Mitchell and placed in the civic square adjacent to the civic centre at the time of its opening. The three slabs evoked local history by displaying carvings of the borough

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

, a local fisherman and a monk from

Prittlewell Priory Prittlewell Priory is a medieval priory in the Prittlewell area of Southend, Essex, England. It was founded in the 12th century, by monks from the Cluniac Priory of St Pancras in Lewes, East Sussex, and passed into private hands at the time ...

. The council also commissioned a bronze sculpture entitled "Leda and the Swan" which was designed by Lucette Cartwright. It was initially placed outside

the Court House The Court House is a historic Jacobean-style building located on Calf Lane in the town of Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England. The building dates back to the 17th century and is known for its distinctive architecture and historical signific ...

further south along Victoria Avenue but when councillors decided to relocate the sculpture to the civic square there was a backlash from protestors who objected to the sexual nature of the artist's work which depicted the

thunder god Polytheistic peoples from many cultures have postulated a thunder deity, the creator or personification of the forces of thunder and lightning; a lightning god does not have a typical depiction and will vary based on the culture. In Indo-Europea ...

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

, in the form of a swan, raping a woman. The sculpture was initially moved to the courtyard of the Palace Theatre in

Westcliff-on-Sea Westcliff-on-Sea (previously known as Milton, often abbreviated to Westcliff, and in the past spelt as Westcliffe-on-Sea) is a suburb of the city of Southend-on-Sea, located within the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is on the north sh ...

and but it was later relocated to the mayor's residence where it was placed safely out of view. A

Union Flag The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags. It is sometimes a ...

, which had been raised at the civic centre on special occasions, including the death of the Queen Mother, was stolen from the civic centre, to much dismay, in April 2002.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1967 City and town halls in Essex Buildings and structures in Southend-on-Sea