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 authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England. The structure is the meeting place of

Southend-on-Sea City Council Southend-on-Sea City Council is the local authority of the Southend-on-Sea district in Essex, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It is a member of the East of England ...

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 Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

in 1892 and a

county borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent ter ...

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 a school. The new building was designed by the borough architect, Patrick Burridge, in the International Style, 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 the l ...

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 William Mitchell may refer to: People Media and the arts * William Mitchell (sculptor) (1925–2020), English sculptor and muralist * William Frederick Mitchell (1845–1914), British naval artist * William M. Mitchell, American writer, ministe ...

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 latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

, 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 magistrates' courthouse 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 god, the personification or source 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-European c ...

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D� ...

, 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 (often abbreviated to Westcliff) is an inner city area of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is on the north shore of the lower Thames Estuary, about 34 m ...

and but it was later relocated to the mayor's residence where it was placed safely out of view. The civic centre remained the local seat of power following the formation of the enlarged

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council Southend-on-Sea City Council is the local authority of the City of Southend-on-Sea, Southend-on-Sea district in Essex, England. It is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and distric ...

in 1974. A

Union Flag The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

, 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