Seaside building added to 'endangered' list

The Victorian Society put the Kursaal in Southend in its top ten endangered building list for 2024

A historic seaside building, thought to be the world's first entertainment park, has been placed on a top ten list of endangered buildings.

The Victorian Society included the Kursaal, in Southend-on-Sea, as a building worthy of restoration.

Southend-on-Sea City Council owns the freehold of the land but London-based property group AEW has a 200-year lease on the building.

Planners said they had been trying to negotiate to bring it back into full use. AEW was contacted for comment.

The Kursaal's dome featured on a 2011 postage stamp

Self-proclaimed Essex Boy, Griff Rhys Jones, the Victorian Society president, said: "I love the Kursaal. It was part of my childhood. It’s an exhilarating building. An entertaining building. It is the history of Southend.

"It has more embedded value, commercially and collectively as a great entertainment complex than it could ever have as a derelict site."

The Kursaal is thought to be the world's first purpose-built entertainment park

The Kursaal amusement park was designed by George Sherrin in 1896 and completed in 1901.

The German word Kursaal, meaning "cure hall" refers to the main banquet hall of a spa town.

Its eye-catching tower, featured on a 2011 postage stamp, made it an East Anglian landmark.

It was thought to have been the world's first purpose-built amusement park with a circus, ballroom, arcade, dining hall, billiard room, a zoo, and an ice rink, the Victorian Society said.

Later it housed a casino, bowling alley, and hosted a number of major bands, including AC/DC, Queen and Dr Feelgood.

The Kursaal’s Wall of Death motorcycle rides were the first such spectacle in Britain, the Victorian society said.

The whole complex finally closed its doors in 1986 with its ballroom demolished that year.

Following years of dereliction, and millions of pounds spent on restoration, it re-opened 1998.

But presently, only a Tesco Express occupies a small part of the building.

The local council wants to buy back the lease from a property company so that it can carry out a restoration

The local council said the Grade II-listed building remained "an important landmark", but the building had deteriorated.