Beecroft Art Gallery
A free Southend Museums gallery with over 2,000 works, from Dutch Golden Age paintings to local art, plus changing exhibitions and the borough's fashion collection.
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About the museum
The Beecroft Art Gallery is part of Southend Museums Service and began as a gift to the town: in 1952 Walter Beecroft endowed Southend with an Edwardian building in Westcliff-on-Sea and an eclectic collection of art. The gallery stayed there until 2014, when it moved to its present home in Victoria Avenue, next door to the Central Museum and Planetarium. The building is a large 1970s Brutalist structure that was previously Southend's library.
The permanent collection now numbers more than 2,000 works. Its core is seventeenth-century Dutch painting, with artists such as Molenaer, Ruisdael and Berchem, alongside nineteenth-century names including Rossetti, Constable and Edward Lear. British twentieth-century art is represented by Carel Weight, the Great Bardfield Group and Jacob Epstein. The local artist Alan Sorrell is shown through his series of drawings of Nubia, made on a visit to Egypt before the building of the Aswan Dam, and the Thorpe Smith Collection brings together paintings, drawings and prints of local landscapes from as early as 1803.
The gallery shows changing exhibitions throughout the year and rotates displays from its own collection. It is also the home of the service's fashion and textile exhibitions. Southend Museums has been collecting fashion since the 1970s, and the collection is strongest for the 1920s to the 1970s. It includes a rare seventeenth-century slap sole shoe and some 500 bathing suits, dating from about 1900 to the 1980s, donated in 2009 by the collector Mavis Plume.
Highlights
- Over 2,000 works, including Dutch Golden Age paintings
- Works by Constable, Rossetti and Edward Lear
- Great Bardfield Group, Carel Weight and Jacob Epstein
- Alan Sorrell's Drawings of Nubia
- Thorpe Smith Collection of local views from 1803
- Fashion and textile collection with historic bathing suits
Permanent exhibition
- Permanent collection of the Beecroft Art Gallery – Rotating displays of the gallery's 2,000 works, including Dutch Golden Age painting, nineteenth-century British art, the Great Bardfield Group, Alan Sorrell's Drawings of Nubia and the Thorpe Smith local views.
- Founded
- 1952
- Operated by
- Southend-on-Sea City Council (Southend Museums Service)
Admission & discounts
Admission is free.
Entry is free.
Accessibility
- Wheelchair accessible
- Elevator
- Accessible restroom
- Accessible parking
- Service dogs welcome: no information
- Tactile models & exhibits: no information
- Sign language tours: no information
- Easy-to-read materials: no information
- Audio description: no information
The front entrance is on one level and all floors are reached by public lifts. An accessible toilet is on the ground floor. Limited disabled parking is behind Southend Central Museum, next to the gallery, reached from Great Eastern Avenue through the gallery's staff car park.
Kids & families
The museum hasn’t published any information on this.
Getting there & parking
By public transit
Southend Victoria station
The closest station is Southend Victoria (Greater Anglia, from London Liverpool Street); leave the station, turn right onto Victoria Avenue and walk past the Central Museum, and the gallery is immediately on the right. Southend Central station (c2c, from London Fenchurch Street) is a 5 to 10 minute walk. A bus hub is next to Southend Victoria station.
By car
Paid parking
The closest car park is the Beecroft Art Gallery car park (the former Southend Library car park) just off Great Eastern Avenue, which leads off Victoria Avenue; it is pay and display. The Victoria Shopping Centre car park (SS2 5SP) is an alternative.
- Accessible parking
The gallery is on the A127 near the junction with the A13, and is signed with brown signs from both roads.
Get directionsAmenities & dining
- Museum shop
The gallery shop sells books, jewellery, toys, cards, homewares and gifts from independent makers and retailers. Hot and cold drinks and a small range of snacks can be bought there, but food and drink must be consumed in the designated seating area.
Events & venue rental
The museum hasn’t published any information on this.
Plan your visit
| School programs | yes |
|---|---|
| Good to know | Schools can book an artist-led tour of local paintings followed by an art workshop in the gallery (Art at the Beecroft); the learning programme is being redeveloped, so enquiries go to the museums education team. |
