28 Apr Author celebrates launch of book about key Southend Buildings
By Maurice Richmond
AN author has celebrated the launch of a book documenting around 1,100 years of history of key Southend buildings.
Ian Yearsley, 51, from Eastwood, showcased A History of Southend in 50 Buildings at the Royal Hotel, in the High Street – one of the most important buildings in the book.
Mr Yearsley spent two years working on the project, and is delighted with the end result.
He said: “There was a lot of interest in the book which was great.
“The timing was perfect as the Royal Hotel has reopened as a restaurant and bar, and that’s why I had the launch there.
“My original idea was to find all the pre-1800 buildings in Southend and write about them, the publisher liked this, but felt it would be wrong to exclude some of the modern buildings.
“So we reached some middle ground and agreed on picking 50 from across the board. I started out having around 200, and this went down gradually as I researched 80 in detail, before I then arrived at the final 50.
Mr Yearsley, who splits his time between writing and working in IT, added that the book “has something for everyone” and some hidden secrets.
He said: “There are buildings from the seventh century, right the way through to some of the more modern ones.
“I think there are a lot of things in the book which few people will know about. I don’t want to give too much away, but ultimately this is not just for people who are solely interested in history.”
