Sepia-tinted photographic postcard showing a view of the bandstand in Priory Park, Southend. Pencil: [personal message] [address in Ilford supplied]. Southend was developed as a tourist destination in the 19th century, and was equipped with the world's longest recreational pier (1830), an ornamental bandstand (first erected in wood on the cliffs, 1902, and replaced by an iron bandstand in Priory Park 1909), and the Kursaal, one of the first purpose-built amusement parks (1894).