Places to explore near Southend-on-Sea

The longest pleasure pier in the world, stretching 1.3 miles into the Thames Estuary with its own little railway to the end.

1.4 km S

Thames Estuary island with Minster Abbey, clay cliffs full of fossils, the Elmley marshes' birds and Leysdown's beaches

11.1 km S

The most complete surviving First World War aerodrome in Europe, its grass field ringed by original 1916 buildings near Maldon.

15 km N

Marshland church with a carved medieval oak screen, near the Gad's Hill home of Charles Dickens.

20.2 km SW

Norman keep beside England's second-oldest cathedral.

22.4 km SW

Seat of England's second-oldest bishopric, founded in 604, with a Norman west front and a large crypt, across the green from the castle.

22.4 km SW

Medway city of a Norman keep and cathedral, its High Street thick with Dickens associations.

22.4 km SW · Kent

Chalk hills, ancient woods and orchards, ending in the white cliffs above the Channel

23.3 km S

Pilgrim country: orchards, vineyards and chalk downs between Farnham and the white cliffs of Dover.

24.3 km SW · Kent & Surrey

A deer park reworked by Capability Brown around James Paine's Palladian hall.

24.3 km W

One path around a whole country — beach, clifftop and seawall the entire way round England's coast, opening stretch by stretch.

1.3 km S · spans 24 counties

The oldest pub in Old Leigh, a low-beamed waterfront bar opposite Billet Wharf where drinkers spill onto the cobbles above the estuary.

4.2 km W

A country park in Essex.

5.5 km W

A country park in Essex.

6.1 km W

Hadleigh Castle: an enclosure castle and an associated dam and mill

6.8 km W

A restored tower mill on Bellingham Lane housing a local museum, free to enter through the summer months.

8.9 km NW

A country park in Essex.

10.7 km NW

A rambling Grade II listed inn on Burnham-on-Crouch's quay, its wooden jetty and window seats looking straight out over the moored yachts.

11.7 km NE