Nearest sandy beach to London ?

Question

I live in West/central London and wondered whether anyone could tell me where the nearest sandy beach is. My son and I are getting a little fed up with the stones/pebbles at Brighton and Hove!

Answer 1

You need to head to the Essex coast.

There are sandy beaches (of the kind that are suitable for children to play in, build sandcastles, etc) at (starting with the nearest to London first): Leigh-on-Sea, Chalkwell (immediately adjacent to the railway station in this case), a couple in Southend itself ("Three Shells beach", just west of the pier probably your best bet there), and at Shoebury(ness).

To be honest, apart from East Beach at Shoebury, none of these beaches are very big - but they are sandy, of the right sort of sand, and seem to be popular with families with children. And (apart from Shoebury, which is a bit further out) - they are all under an hour's journey from central London (whether by train from Fenchurch Street or by road).

Not so convenient if you're travelling by train, but OK by car: another sandy beach in Essex, a bit nearer to London, and a bit bigger than most of those named above, is at Thorney Bay on Canvey Island....which is in many regards like being in an English seaside town of the 1950s, all decaying art-deco buildings, helter-skelters, candy-floss and rock

EDIT: For all of these, I'd highly recommend checking tide-tables first: sure, the beaches themselves will be there, much the same, whatever the tide (in general the sandy part is above the tideline). The thing is, when it's low tide, beyond the sand, there's a lot of mudflats...which actually I find very beautiful and melancholic, but I don't think many children would (kind of like the taste of beer vs the taste of orange juice: it's definitely an adult thing) - Much better to go when it's high tide, as the sea will be A LOT nearer, and the grey mudflats won't be visible.  And there'll be alot more interesting things to see on the water at high tide - a lot of yachts/small boats actually in the water (rather than just resting on the mud) (Especially around Leigh/Chalkwell), probably a lot of windsurfers etc around Southend, too.

The tide tables linked to from here http://www.pla.co.uk/display_fixedpage.c... for Southend-on-Sea should refer to pretty much all of the beaches I've mentioned.

(They work like this: time is given in the 24 hour clock, with the height of the tide stated next to it. High tides and low tides are stated: so "0609 0.9" means a low tide of 0.9metres at 6.09 am "1218 5.6" high tide of 5.6m at 12.18pm)

Answer 2

yep, its Essex Coast.

Answer 3

The Essex coast definately.