Southend Central Museum

The 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]

Central Museum, Southend
Central Museum, Southend
Southend Central Museum is located in Essex
Southend Central Museum
Museum location in Essex
Established1981
LocationSouthend-on-Sea, Essex
Coordinates51.5422°N 0.7106°E / 51.5422; 0.7106
TypeLocal history
Key holdingsPrittlewell Anglo-Saxon burial; The London shipwreck
CollectionsCostume, fine art, local history, natural history, archaeology
ArchitectHenry Thomas Hare
OwnerSouthend-on-Sea City Council
Public transit accessNational Rail Southend Victoria
Websitewww.southendmuseums.co.uk
A close up of the Central Museum, Southend

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.

The displays also include local and natural history and archaeology.[4]

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.[5]

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.[6][7]

From October 2021 the museum plans to host a new exhibition titled Wunderkammer: Southend's Cabinet of Curiosity.[8]

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

References
  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. "Southend Museum Service (Central Museum)". Southend Museum Service. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  5. "Opening of HMS London, museum exhibition". Leigh Times. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  6. "Southend burial site 'UK's answer to Tutankhamun'". BBC. 9 May 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  7. 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.
  8. Webster, Poppie (28 September 2021). "Southend Central Museum set to launch exciting new exhibition". Basildon Canvey Southend Echo. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
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