Southend Central Museum

Central Museum, Southend
	Central Museum, Southend
	Museum location in Essex
Established	1981
Location	Southend-on-Sea, Essex
Coordinates	51°32′32″N 0°42′38″E / 51.5422°N 0.7106°E
Type	Local history
Key holdings	Prittlewell Anglo-Saxon burial; The London shipwreck
Collections	Costume, fine art, local history, natural history, archaeology
Architect	Henry Thomas Hare
Owner	Southend-on-Sea City Council - Southend Museums
Public transit access	Southend Victoria
Website	www.southendmuseums.co.uk

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.^[1]

The museum was opened in April 1981 in a Grade II listed building that was previously Southend's first free public library. The library service had moved to a new purpose built site on Victoria Avenue, which opened on 20 March 1974.^[2]

The building

The Museum was originally built in 1905 as a free library, with £8,000 of funding from Andrew Carnegie. The architect was Henry Thomas Hare. The building was listed in 1974.^[3]

The collections

The Museum features a collection of original Ekco radios, manufactured by E.K. Cole & Co. Ltd. (or 'Ekco') formerly based in Southend. In the 1930s, this company was one of Britain's largest radio manufacturers.^[4]

The displays also include local and natural history and archaeology.^[5]

In September 2018 the museum opened a major exhibition of finds recovered from the wreck of the London, a 17th Century Cromwellian era warship that exploded and sank in the Thames Estuary in 1665. The exhibition ran till July 2019.^[6]

In May 2019 a new gallery opened to display the archaeological finds from the Royal Saxon tomb in Prittlewell, an Anglo-Saxon burial mound in the suburb of Prittlewell that was discovered in 2003 as a result of a road-widening scheme. The excavations unearthed a number of Anglo-Saxon artefacts that suggested a high-status burial; carbon dating has revealed that the burial probably dates from about 580 AD, and may have been the tomb of Sæxa, brother of Sæberht, King of Essex.^[7]^[8]

Additional photographs

Collection of Ekco radios on show at the Central Museum
Butterflies from the reserve natural history collections of Southend Museums Service

References

^ "Southend Planetarium". Southend Museums. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
^ "History of Libraries in Southend". Southend on Sea Borough Council. Archived from the original on 24 September 2013. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
^ "CENTRAL MUSEUM, Non Civil Parish - 1322354 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
^ "Ga-ga for radios". Evening Echo. 23 October 2007.
^ "Southend Museum Service (Central Museum)". Southend Museum Service. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
^ "Opening of HMS London, museum exhibition". Leigh Times. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
^ "Southend burial site 'UK's answer to Tutankhamun'". BBC. 9 May 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
^ Whitehouse, Ellis. "Anglo-Saxon king exhibition showing 'Southend's rich cultural heritage' officially opens". Halstead Gazette. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2019.

External links

Southend Central Museum website

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[1] "Southend Planetarium". Southend Museums. Retrieved 27 October 2019.

[2] "History of Libraries in Southend". Southend on Sea Borough Council. Archived from the original on 24 September 2013. Retrieved 12 March 2013.

[3] "CENTRAL MUSEUM, Non Civil Parish - 1322354 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 20 June 2022.

[4] "Ga-ga for radios". Evening Echo. 23 October 2007.

[5] "Southend Museum Service (Central Museum)". Southend Museum Service. Retrieved 12 March 2013.

[6] "Opening of HMS London, museum exhibition". Leigh Times. Retrieved 20 June 2022.

[bbc20190509-7] "Southend burial site 'UK's answer to Tutankhamun'". BBC. 9 May 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2019.

[8] Whitehouse, Ellis. "Anglo-Saxon king exhibition showing 'Southend's rich cultural heritage' officially opens". Halstead Gazette. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2019.

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