Days At Southend

A Memory of Southend-on-Sea.

I remember travelling to Southend with my family on a steam train from London.  My sister and I use to put our heads out of the windows.  More often than not when we sat down our faces would be black with soot from the smoke of the train and our mum would try to wipe us clean with her hanky.
When we arrived at Southend it was off to the beach for a paddle and a play then a ride on the boats in the boating lake.  At lunchtime we walked up the hill to have our lunch of pie and mash, or fish and chips, then a Rossi ice cream for afters. In the afternoon we would get on a boat to the Isle of Sheppey, and spend the rest of the day in the Kursal.  My fondest memory of the Kursal was the bowl slide, where you were were taken to the top of the slide by an electric chair then, once at the top, you were given a coconut mat to sit on.  At the end of the slide there was a big wooden bowl to catch the riders in.  It was such a thrill, I remember how lovely and shiny the wood on the slide looked through constant use. At the end of the day we would head to the train station stopping to buy seafood sold in straw bags.  As you were walking along the liquid would seep through the bag! Those were the days.  How I long for my grandchildren to be able to ride that beautiful slide which is now long gone.