Uncoloured postcard showing a nocturnal view of illuminations in Priory Park, Southend, with the bandstand. Pencil: [personal message] [address in Bradford 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).