Purfleet, The Royal Hotel c.1950

Photo ref: P148001

More about this scene

So Essex can be seen as a county where the normal seems abnormal; where ordinariness rubs shoulders with surprises. This book takes us to a failed spa, a Pierrot show, and a water-tower named after an elephant. It incorporates turn-of-the- century markets and 1950s beaches. We will visit buildings that have been swept away by bombs, storms, and changes of fashion, and buildings that stand as firm today as they did 100 years ago. Our tour, as it happens, starts at Purfleet - only a stone's throw from that churchyard where the mourners laid Simon Callow's character to rest, the wind tousled Hugh Grant's hair, and the rain fell. Of course, films and photographs are not the real thing, but they can make good introductions. The truth, as they say, is out there; and the pictures in this book are a useful cross-section of something that is proud, unique, and ultimately three- dimensional. Essex awaits.