Originally Posted by
teflon
There are also direct trains from Liverpool Street.
Always worth checking the tides before a trip to Southend - we went a couple of years ago and were a little disappointed to find a whole lot of beach and any paddling being quite a long walk away.
Yes, there's a Facebook open water swim group for Southend, which lists the times of the high/low tides. It just happened that high tide was around 1-2pm the day we were there, which was when I went out in the water. I was really surprised how warm the water was. The sandy-looking beach was rather deceptive, as it was mostly just crushed seashells and pebbles.
There was quite a bit of fog when we first arrived though. So much that we could hardly see the pier at all, even from the top of the elevator level.
Originally Posted by
stut
I recommend the Fenchurch St service. Faster, better trains, better located station in Southend (plus, you can get off at Leigh-on-Sea and walk along the coast path...) There's also a convenient interchange at West Ham for a number of services.
One warning, if you do get off at West Ham and take the Tube, evidently you don't go through a turnstyle thing there...and you have to seek out the touch-in pad if you use an Oyster card. My other half didn't do this and was charged GBP 5 when he exited at London Bridge. He went online and I guess there was a quesiton about it, and he responded what he did and got a credit from TFL about 3 days later.
Originally Posted by
KellyeK
I would also recommend Fenchurch as the easiest way to get there.
After hearing what my other half did, I decided to just go back to Fenchurch. At least leaving Fenchurch, it was well-marked in walking to the Tower Hill Tube station (and I think DLR). Tons of people were doing it.
We stayed at the Hilton Tower Bridge. We walked to Fenchurch, via the London Bridge which seemed rather long (well we did pause at the Walkie-Talkie
). Going back, I was solo, and I followed the signs for Tower Hill, then went through an underpass, around the Tower of London, and across the Tower Bridge. It seemed shorter, or it could have just been because it was a more scenic route.