A Guide to 8 Beaches in Southend Essex

When it comes to facilities and things to do, Southend is one of the best beach towns to visit. It’s located along the Thames Estuary and has some quite extreme tides, when it’s low tide, the water can be quite far out! Five of the nine Essex Blue Flag beaches are in the Southend Borough.

Beaches in Southend

Jubilee Beach | City Beach | Three Shells Beach 🟦 | West Cliff Bay 🟦 | Chalkwell Beach

Thorpe Bay Beach 🟦 | Shoebury Common Beach 🟦 | Shoebury East Beach 🟦

Jubilee Beach

Facilities: ☕️🚾🪑

The largest beach which is closest to everything is Jubilee Beach. This is to the left of Adventure Island, heading up towards Sea Life Adventure. It is a shingle beach but you can rent deck chairs during the summer and it’s near to public toilets, cafes, and takeaway restaurants. (Neptune’s is my favourite place for fish and chips!)

Jubilee Beach in Southend — Jubilee Beach, Southend

The tides at Southend are crazy. One minute the sea will be there, then at low tide it’s literally completely disappeared. (Hence why the pier needed to be so long back in the day!). At high tide, the beach can become extremely busy on warm days. But during low tide, if you want to paddle, you’ll have a very long walk!

City Beach

Facilities: ☕️🚾🪑

Next to Jubilee Beach, on the errr path, is City Beach. This is actually pretty cool, it has a large area of Splash Fountains. These are popular with kids that like to run through them on a warm day! When the tide is out, this may be a good comprise for water play while at Jubilee Beach.

Three Shells Beach

🟦Blue Flag

Facilities: ☕️🚾🚿

On the far side of Adventure Island is Three Shells Beach and Lagoon. Three Shells Beach is a tidal lagoon with toilets, a shower, and play equipment. It’s great for younger children, with the deepest part of the lagoon having a depth of 1.2 metres. There’s a small sandy beach area and it’s right outside the gates of Adventure Island amusement park. Just like Jubilee Beach, this location gets very crowded on warm days. The Three Shells restaurant has outside seating overlooking the lagoon.

West Cliff Bay

🟦Blue Flag

Facilities: ☕️🚾🚙

West Cliff Bay is another of the Southend Blue Flag Beaches. It’s in the area close to the Cliffs Pavilion theatre. Again it’s a mix of sand, shingle and it can be a bit muddy under the water. After all, Southend sits on the Thames Estuary and West Cliff Bay is heading closer to London, rather than out to sea.

Public toilets are on the opposite side of the road to the beach and there are cafes and restaurants nearby. The Rossi Ice Cream Parlour is also close to West Cliff Bay. Rossi ice cream originated in Southend in the 1930s!

Chalkwall Beach

Facilities: ☕️🚾🏄🏼‍♀️

The next beach along from West Cliff Bay is Chalkwall Beach. It is similar to West Cliff Bay as it’s mostly shingle. There is a coffee kiosk and public toilets. Nearby is Saltwater SUP which has stand-up paddle board rentals.

Southend Chalkwall Beach — Chalkwall Beach

Tips For Visiting The Central Southend Beaches

Parking in Southend can be a bit of a nightmare. It’s best to either get there early or go later in the evening once the crowds have started to go. The Seaway car park is a large pay-and-display parking area or there is roadside pay-and-display parking along the West Esplanade. It’s often easier to find a place to park closer to Westcliff and the Cliffs Pavilion and then walk back towards the pier.

Alternatively, Southend has 2 train stations: Southend Central and Southend Victoria. They are both within a 10-minute walk of the seafront. These may be a slightly more expensive option, but then you don’t have to worry about parking and traffic!

Thorpe Bay & Shoeburyness (Southend Borough)

The further away from the main ‘hub’ of activity, the beaches get a little quieter. The Blue Flag beaches of Thorpe Bay Beach, Shoebury Common Beach, and East Beach (Shoeburyness) are all closer to the mouth of the estuary too.

Thorpe Bay and Shoeburyness both have train stations too, however, this line is only serviced by the C2C line into Fenchurch Street, London.

Thorpe Bay Beach

🟦Blue Flag

Facilities: ☕️🚾

Thorpe Bay Beach is a large sand and shingle beach with a row of beach huts. There are a couple of coffee shops nearby, but this is closer to a residential area. You’ll also find a car park along Thorpe Esplanade.

Shoebury Common Beach

🟦Blue Flag

Facilities: ☕️🚾🚙🛝

Shoebury Common Beach has a pedestrian promenade with beach huts and benches, public toilets, a car park, and a cafe selling ice cream and beach toys. The beach is mostly shingle with shells. Shoebury Common North, opposite the beach, has a grass area with a children’s playground.

Shoebury East Beach

🟦Blue Flag

Facilities: ☕️🚾🚙🏄🏼‍♀️

Shoebury East Beach is the closest to a sandy beach in Southend! Here you’ll find a small cafe, public toilets, and a car park. There is also lots of green space for ball games. Like all of the beaches in Southend, the tides here can still be a little crazy, so make sure to look for when high tides are in you particularly want to swim. The Essex Kite Surf School is also based here.