Cranfield's Curiosity Cabinet is a small private museum tucked off the Southend high street, on the model of the Victorian wunderkammer. The collection — assembled by the owner Daniel Cranfield over several decades — runs to taxidermy (including jackalopes, sirens and other deliberately fake cryptids alongside genuine specimens), medical instruments, two-headed lambs, scientific anomalies, occult artefacts, and the kind of objects you would expect on a 19th-century traveller's mantelpiece.
The labels are short and dry, and the lighting is appropriately dim. Allow 30 to 45 minutes. Modest entry fee; opening hours vary, so check ahead.