Qualla: Cliffs Pavilion

Cliffs Pavilion: Introduction

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Southend-on-Sea bought the cliff-top land for a 500-seat theatre in 1935. Construction began in 1939. Then Hitler invaded Poland and Britain went to war, and the foundations sat half-built on the cliff above the Thames Estuary for the next twenty-four years. Locals took to calling the site 'Southend's white elephant'. In 1963, with the war long over and the seaside resort hungry for a flagship venue, the borough council finally restarted the project on a far more ambitious plan - 1,100 seats, multi-purpose, capable of hosting plays, concerts, conferences, banquets, exhibitions, wrestling, and boxing. The actor Sir Bernard Miles opened it in July 1964, almost thirty years after the council had first bought the field. The next night, the venue's first show featured Norman Vaughan and his troupe of dancers, the Swinging Lovelies. The Cliffs has not been quiet since.

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Cliffs Pavilion: Hendrix and the Pop Festival

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In February 1967 the Cliffs hosted a Grand Pop Festival. The top of the bill was Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, a chart band whose appeal was straightforward sing-along pop. Lower down the bill, on the same stage on the same night, was Jimi Hendrix. He had been in Britain ...

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Cliffs Pavilion: McCartney's Secret Show

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 19 July 1991, Paul McCartney played one of six 'secret' shows at the Cliffs Pavilion during the Unplugged Summer Tour - a small-venue warm-up sequence ahead of MTV's Unplugged broadcast and his subsequent stadium dates. The tickets were not advertised. The audience that night,...

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Cliffs Pavilion: The 1992 Art Deco Renovation

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

From July 1991 to December 1992 the building was closed for a major redevelopment funded by Southend Borough Council, designed by Tim Foster Architects. The stairs were rebuilt, a new Foyer Bar was added, and a balcony was inserted into the auditorium - taking capacity up to 1,63...

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Cliffs Pavilion: Bottom Live and Blur's Beetlebum

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 2003 Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson recorded the final show of the Bottom Live: Weapons Grade Y-Fronts Tour at the Cliffs. It was the last time the two played their characters Richie and Eddie on stage; Mayall died in 2014 and the tour they ended that night in Westcliff was, ...

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Cliffs Pavilion: Sport on the Stage

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 4 January 1965, the BBC broadcast the first professional wrestling event ever shown on British television live from the Cliffs - Mike Marino, World Mid-Heavyweight Champion, against Harlem Jimmy Brown from the United States. Wrestling continued for years afterwards. Boxing was...

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Cliffs Pavilion: Pantomime, Every Year

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Cliffs Christmas pantomime has run unbroken since 1983, occupying a particular cultural niche - the festive variety show that draws families from across south Essex year after year. The roll of stars who have done the panto reads like a complete index of British television en...

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Cliffs Pavilion: He Built This City

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 13 February 2022, the Cliffs hosted a memorial concert called He Built This City, in honour of Sir David Amess, the Conservative MP for Southend West who had been murdered in his constituency surgery on 15 October 2021. Amess had campaigned for decades for Southend-on-Sea to b...

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