Record Breaking Year for Southend Pier

November 23, 2022

It’s been a bumper year for Southend Pier, with the ever-popular attraction having recorded its highest number of yearly visitors, with two months of the year still to go.

392,025 people visited the pier to the end of October – an increase of nearly 25,000 on the previous highest, which was 364,142 visitors in the entire 2018.

So far it has been the busiest October since records began, with over 27,000 people walking the planks and riding the trains – over 2,000 more than the previous highest in 2018.

The pier hasn’t stood still amongst all of the buzz of visitors and has recently undergone a number of improvements. The Royal Pavilion, the end of the Pier restaurant 1.33 miles out to sea, is soon to reopen, along with our new, eco-friendly, electric pier trains. Even after the teething problems we had, when the old diesel trains worked alongside them, they have transported residents and visitors on the spectacular journey for the panoramic views of the Thames Estuary.

Halloween on the Pier attracted hundreds of additional visitors throughout October weekends and there are more exciting events planned, like Santa on the Pier which is selling out fast.

The pier is now on winter opening hours. Our winter walk price is only £1 per person to walk both ways and with our loyalty card offer – six visits for the price of five - there’s even more reason to visit the pier.

Cllr Carole Mulroney, cabinet member for environment, culture and tourism, welcomed the impressive figures. She said: “It’s fantastic to see the Pier continue to go from strength to strength and breaking visitor records. To break previous records is incredible and to do it in month 10 is even more impressive. This shows that our continued investment in the jewel in the crown of Southend-on-Sea, is having a positive effect as we continue to welcome more people as the years go by.

“Family-themed events are always a huge hit, and we will continue working tirelessly to ensure that we offer a magnificent programme to our residents and visitors to our City, with more events such as City Jam, LuminoCity and the Halloween Parade. We want them to come back time and time again – because Southend City is a City for everyone to enjoy, that’s what we are about – a funtastic City by the Sea.”