WONDERFUL, wonderful.

Echo readers galore have been voicing their thoughts this past week, in print and online, about whether or not Southend might ever again consider bringing back the town’s long-ago, famous illuminations. Or the Lights, as many of us ancients knew ‘em.

 

There have been plenty of praises for the sparkling, afterdark displays by Adventure Island, the modern era, expanded version of what oldies knew in the distant past as Peter Pan’s Playground. But in the eyes – and memories – of many, there’s nothing, now, to match the town’s council-run displays that continued from the 1930s until 2007.

The pier – our once so wonderful, magnetic Southend Pier – was spectacularly lit with strings of bulbs and great setpieces. There were more setpieces on the foreshore, in the cliffs gardens and especially in that stretch known then as Never Never Land.

Atop the gardens back then, of course, was the quite splendid Cliffs Bandstand, often also lit up for concerts. That, too, sadly disappeared back in the early 2000s, taken down, piece by piece and moved to Priory Park where many of us go to listen to and admire Southend bands.

More coaches – or charabancs, as ancients of this age then knew them – than could possibly be anywhere near counted and totalled, used to come here. In those earlier years, before extensive private car ownership, The Lights, the Kursaal, the Pier were major magnets.

When the Lights were on there would be rows and rows of closely-packed coaches in the Kursaal car park, in the shadow of the huge rides in the amusements park.

Friendly arguments were overheard or appeared in print, over whether the much older Blackpool Illuminations, dating from the late 19th century, were better than those of upstart Southend. Blackpool had its famous, lit-up Tower. Southend, of course, had its worldrenowned Pier.

We who knew Our Town of yesteryear can look back and tell ourselves it was truly wonderful, way back then. But life and times and technology have advanced apace.

Yesterday is no more. Today is fine, tomorrow and all tomorrows to be looked forward and cherished. Time to raise a glass to wish good health – and good sense – to all those in authority whose decisions and deeds so greatly determine the future of Our Town and its people.

May good sense brightly.

IN PICTURES: The heady days of Southend's illuminations