Southend Central Museum

Local-history museum opposite Victoria Station, holding the artefacts from the Prittlewell Anglo-Saxon prince's burial.

The Southend Central Museum sits next to Victoria Station and is the town's principal local-history museum. The displays cover the prehistoric and Roman archaeology of south Essex, the development of Southend as a Victorian and Edwardian resort, the local fishing industry of Leigh, and an unsettling waxwork tableau of the Cluniac Prittlewell Priory.

The headline exhibits are from the Prittlewell Anglo-Saxon princely burial of around 580 AD, found in 2003 — gold-foil crosses, drinking horns, a hanging bowl, a lyre, and the tableau of the chamber as it was found. The planetarium on the museum's upper floor runs small shows on weekends. Free entry; closed Sundays and Mondays.

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A story
In 2003, during road works near Prittlewell on the northern edge of Southend, archaeologists uncovered the undisturbed burial chamber of an Anglo-Saxon prince from around 580 AD — gold foil crosses on the eyes, two Coptic flagons, drinking horns, a lyre, a folding stool. The find has been called "Britain's answer to Tutankhamun" and is held here.