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The Central Museum is a museum in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. The museum houses collections of local and natural history and contains a planetarium constructed by astronomer Harry Ford in 1984.

Description

The Central Museum is a museum in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. The museum houses collections of local and natural history and contains a planetarium constructed by astronomer Harry Ford in 1984.

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Well worth a visit, especially as it is free to enter. The museum concentrates on Southend's history throughout the ages showing you archaeological finds from the local area. It's exhibits are set up in a way that you are walking through each period of human history from neolithic stone age, Iron age Bronze age, Romon etc. They travel up the time line through to modern day and have a spectacular collection of period radios all manufactured in Southend. We went to see the planetarium which you do have to pay for but is also well worth the price of admission. There are toilet facilities and an area for you to eat your own packed lunch as there isn't a café and the tea/coffee machine was switched off. There is a car park not 2 minutes away with plenty of parking. We went on a Sunday and had the museum basically to our selves.

David H-RDavid H-R
00
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The Southend Central museum is a small local museum dedicated to the history and wildlife of the Southend area. Although rather small and old fashioned, the museum contains a lot of interesting artifacts and little rooms you can look into to discover how people in the area lived over the years. There's also a temporary gallery, at the time of visiting (July 2018) it contained an exhibit dedicated to veterans, full of fascinating photos and places where you can stand to listen to the people tell their stories. The museum is run by elderly staff who are very welcoming and friendly. Both the main part of the museum and the temporary exhibit are completely free to enter, so I strongly recommend making a small purchase in the gift shop to support the museum and keep it running.

Bartek SoltysBartek Soltys
00
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Small but perfectly formed museum! This is a brilliant place to spend an hour or two. There are a couple of standout gems. First is a beautiful modern exhibition about the wreck of the ship "London" which sank in 1665 just off what would later be the end of Southend Pier when on its way to fight the Dutch (see the photo of a brass cannon from the ship). The second gem is a brand new exhibition on an early (AD 600) "prince" of Essex, which is the earliest Anglo-Saxon christian burial to be found in the UK - the exhibition is like a mini Sutton Hoo, and all for free!

BKBK
10
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I've been meaning to visit our museum for years... chance would have it that I was on foot today... I felt transported... such interesting objects and information... the building was cool and all was peaceful inside... was easy to forget the busy world outside and step back in time for a while.... thoroughly recommend.

Simonne DavisSimonne Davis
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Overview

4.5(153 reviews)

Phone

+44 1702 212345

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Website

southendmuseums.co.uk

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Deep Dive

A deep dive into Southend Central Museum & Planetarium