SOUTHEND on SEA, 1972

Southend on Sea has long been the 'go-to place' for ordinary Londoners to holiday, and a major seaside resort since the early 19th century. Visitors would be ferried by boat from the heart of the city down the Thames to Southend at the mouth of the estuary. The opening of the railway line from London in 1856 enabled large numbers of Londoners to visit the resort. A bank holiday and summer weekends especially, would see a mass exodus of East-Londoners dressed in their Sunday finest with grandparents and kids in tow, scrambling to board the Southend train from Liverpool Street, and from other points along the Fenchurch Street line, Southend was the closest resort for many to have a celebratory day out, a stroll along the promenade or walk the pier and breath in the sea air.

Ron McCormick recalled his memories of the many daily trips he took to photograph the seaside resort of Southend on Sea,
“…the ‘Beano’, Bank Holiday and Southend Carnival, a crate of beer in the back of the coach, ‘kiss me quick’ to the sound of the Salvation Army band. Southend is the East Londoner’s Riviera... My pictures are about the people who come for the day and are out to enjoy themselves whatever. A laugh, booze up, let yourself go, dip in the sea and the race to catch the coach home.
I enjoyed being with them.”

His photographs capture the daily life of East-Enders on holiday, in a time before the recession of the mid-1970s seemed to bring it all to an end. Double inflation, unemployment figures topped a million, widespread power cuts, the Three-Day-Week, a worldwide oil embargo, miners and bin-men strikes caused many to cut spending and stay at home. The recession resulted in fewer visitors and day-trippers, and in 1973 the Kursaal closed down it’s outdoor funfair and amusement arcades selling off the land for housing and by the end of 1977 the decision was taken to also close the ballroom. Like much of the rest of the country, Southend was to face a bleak outlook for the next two decades.

As a young self-taught photographer in the early 1970s, Ron McCormick had already exhibited his photographs in several important London galleries by 1972. His work had attracted the attention of Barry Lane, a new Art Officer, with responsibility for photography at the Arts Council of Great Britain. This led to an invitation to participate in the ambitious 'TWO VIEWS' project and a commission to photograph Southend on Sea. TWO VIEWS was an innovative project whereby eight photographers would be commissioned to make photographs in eight British Towns. Each town being explored independently by two photographers. The resulting photographs would later be exhibited at a public venue or museum in the town, thus presenting two contrasting, individual insights about the place. In Southend his opposite number was Josef Koudelka, a member of the Magnum Photo Agency, who had previously covered the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia but by 1968 was resident in Britain. The exhibition 'TWO VIEWS, Southend on Sea' was shown at the Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend on sea in 1973 and later reprised for a second showing in 2022

NOW OUT OF PRINT, signed, rare

Published by Cafe Royal Books, 2022
36 pages
staple bound
14cm x 20cm