Southend Pier — Attraction in England

The pier opens at 10 15am, the information for this is on the website or to the side of the door, where it is often missed. A sign on the door would help! Which side do you queue? Either side it turns out, and it appears to then merge into 1 queue for tickets. We waited west of the pier for about 45 minutes, before some others walked to the front of the queue and then up the stairs inside, for the pier walk, if there had been a sign, or someone telling us this we wouldn't have had to waste so much time. When we did get up there, there were 2 separate queues for 1 kiosk, with one guy in! It was taking between 10 seconds and 2.5minutes to serve each group, and with over 100 people in front it was some wait!! It is worth noting if you are o er 60 you get a reduced price. As soon as we were passed the ticket office, there was a lot of rubbish strewn around, this was due to the fact the bins had not been emptied from the day before, and all up the pier walk nearly all of the bins were the same. I noted that traffic wardens were out in force, but obviously not the cleaners, a very poor image of southend. The walk can be breezy as it is open sea, so worthwhile taking a jacket with a hood. Once up there, there are a couple of small cafes and a snack place. The Rnli life boat is stationed there. The floating Spanish museum was there, but the council really didn't bother to think of the queues that would occur. You may be lucky to see a fisherman pull in a fish or two. The walk is nice, and on a normal day the train ride is pleasant. The council need to be a bit more protective with information and entry systems, they need to tidy it up a bit and add some...

We usually love the pier, but today we arrived with a wheelchair user and had a very different experience. We were impressed with ramp access at every stage (though the ramp onto the pier is very bumpy). There were no staff on the gate so we walked through. Sadly the front wheels of the wheelchair kept dropping between the boards almost dumping the wheelchair user out of the chair. We carefully made our way back to the front kiosk to ask if there was a wheelchair we could borrow with suitable wheels. We were told that "lots of wheelchair users have this problem". When we asked if there was a suitable wheelchair we could borrow we were told the wheels were no different our our chair. It was suggested that we go by train instead, but I pointed out that we'd still have the same problem when we got off the train at the other end, to shochthe staff member just replied "oh yeah". They then turned their back and ignored us. We left frustrated and disappointed.

Although there's a note on the website that some wheelchairs may not be suitable, there are no warning signs up anywhere.

Please put up signage to warn wheelchair users of the potential danger. And please make a suitable wheelchair available for use...

As Southend Pier is the longest in the UK we wanted to take a stroll along instead of taking the train. £2 to go on to walk both ways. You can get the train both ways, or train one way walk the other. And yes the do check your tickets!

At the desk a lovely guy called Jack was waiting at the desk. He was really informative and helpful. What a legend! It was so refreshing and a great start to our visit. Thanks Jack.

We look a stroll along the pier as planned. There are lots of seats along to rest on if you need to. There are also alert buttons along the pier in case you need medical assistance. The train runs along side the walkaway behind a barrier. There were some people fishing off the pier catching little fish. At the end of the pier the is a signpost showing distance to destinations. There was an audio bench so you could hear facts about Southend. So sat there looking out to see listening to the audio bench while drinking a coffee from the shop there. Oh my goodness there is no way people will say the coffee is cold at this coffee shop! It was hot but lovely. There is an RNLI shop too. Spent about 4hrs all in all with the walk both ways and time at the end of the pier.

Was really nice and...