Shoeburyness

Shoeburyness is a town in southeast Essex, England, situated at the mouth of the river Thames Estuary. It is within the borough of Southend-on-Sea, and is situated at the far east of the borough, around 3 miles (5 km) east of Southend town centre. It was an urban district of Essex from 1894 to 1933, when it became part of the county borough of Southend-on-Sea.

The eastern terminus of the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (c2c line) is at Shoeburyness railway station. The eastern end of the A13 is at Shoeburyness. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) site at Pig's Bay is situated nearby and the facility is run by the company QinetiQ.

Shoeburyness has two beaches; East Beach and Shoebury Common Beach (also known as West Beach), both Blue Flag beaches:

East Beach is a sandy/pebbly beach around a quarter of a mile long and is sandwiched between the Pig's Bay MOD site and the former Shoeburyness Artillery barracks. Access to the large gravel/grass pay-and-display car park is via Rampart Terrace. East Beach is the home of a defence boom, built in 1944, to prevent enemy shipping and submarines from accessing the River Thames. This replaced an earlier similar boom built 100 yards (91 m) east. The majority of the boom was dismantled after the war, but around one mile still remains stretching out into the Thames Estuary. East Beach benefits from a large grassy area immediately adjacent to the sands that is suitable for informal sports and family fun. Shoeburyness is where during WW2 a Magnetic Ground mine that was deposited in the mud at the mouth of the Thames the Luftwaffe, it was discovered by the MOD. Up until that time various sinking around the English coats were thought to be due to U-Boat torpedo singings. Its discovery allowed countermeasures to be introduced to neutralise its effect one of those was the degaussing cables installed in merchant ships in allied and British fleets, and of course the wooden minesweepers. Shoebury Common Beach is bounded to the East by the land formerly occupied by the Shoeburyness Artillery Barracks and continues into Jubilee Beach. Shoebury Common Beach is home to many beach huts located on both the promenade and the beach. Uncle Tom's Cabin provides visitors with the usual seaside refreshments. A Coast Guard watch tower at the eastern end of the beach keeps watch over the sands and mudflats while listening out for distress calls over the radio. A cycle path skirts around the sea-front linking the East Beach to Shoebury Common Beach, and thence into Southend.

A tower was planned to stand in the Shoeburyness Garrison housing development. The tower was to be 18 storeys high and designed to mark the start of the Thames Gateway development.