Southend United FC

Southend United FC

Next up for #GetInTheBadge, we move a bit further down the Essex coast to Southend United—a club with a great badge and rich meaning behind it. Their traditional-looking crest is divided into four sections, each telling a unique story.

Southend United was founded on 19 May 1906 at the Blue Boar pub, which still stands today and proudly displays a sign declaring it the "home of the Shrimpers" in the window. Initially, Roots Hall Stadium in Prittlewell was their home. Then came World War I, which, among other disruptions, meant dismantling parts of the ground to support the war effort. After the war, with Roots Hall in tatters, the team relocated to The Kursaal, Southend’s famous amusement park. I’m not sure how long they played beside the bumper cars and candyfloss, but they eventually moved back.

Now, onto the badge itself—a proud symbol that encapsulates the club’s identity. It’s quartered, like a classic English badge, featuring a football, three wavy lines representing the sea (similar to Ipswich’s crest), the Essex swords, and the shrimp that gives them their nickname.

Sticking with the sea motif, the town itself is essentially a tourist resort. Southend was built up from a small settlement in the 1800s by businessmen hoping to entertain wealthy Londoners over the weekends. Visitors would sail up on Thames barges in search of a good time. However, the shallow coastline often prevented the barges from docking, so most ships bypassed Southend and continued to Margate. In 1830, a group funded the construction of a pier, which was upgraded to solid iron in 1889. Today, it remains the largest amusement pier in Britain and even boasts a mini metro line to its end. This solved the issue of inaccessible barges, and soon thousands of affluent Londoners descended on the town each weekend. Many spent their time in the now Grade II listed Kursaal entertainment park, built by American investors in the early 1900s (though now, it’s mostly occupied by a Tesco metro, I believe). Given the pier's significance, it’s surprising there isn’t a nod to it on the badge.

The shrimp on the badge, and hence the nickname, is a nod to Leigh-on-Sea’s once-booming shrimping industry, back when fishing boats crowded the waters, and shrimp were plentiful. Today, the shrimping industry has all but vanished, leaving behind Sammy the Shrimp, Southend’s loveable, googly-eyed mascot, who has arguably preserved the shrimp tradition better than the waters of Leigh have managed.

The badge also features the iconic three Essex seaxes(Saxon short swords). These seaxes pay homage to the East Saxons, who ruled the area, with "Essex" deriving from Ēastseaxe, meaning East Saxons. The three swords match those on the county badge and are also sported by the county’s cricket team.

The story wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Southend’s recent financial rollercoaster. In the 2000s, a plan emerged to move the club from Roots Hall to a new, purpose-built 17,000-seater stadium, called Fossetts Farm, complete with restaurants and a hotel. It was the kind of ambitious project the town (and country) might have once embraced—back when they were building the nation’s longest pier and a new amusement park. Sadly, Britain has zero ambition these days- the project stalled in the planning stages, investors withdrew, and the site is now destined to become housing.

Then things got worse. Since 2019, the club has struggled with unpaid wages, winding-up petitions, and a less-than-glamorous drop to the National League. With chairman Ron Martin barely keeping the lights on, fans took to the streets in protest as debts ballooned to £17.4 million, and HMRC came calling. By 2023, Southend had accumulated a 10-point deduction and an unwelcome transfer embargo—a checklist no club wants to complete. Finally, in July 2024, the Custodians of Southend United (COSU), led by Justin Rees, an Australian businessman who stumbled across an article detailing the club’s struggles while holidaying in Europe, swooped in and bought the club by lunchtime (sort of). Hopefully, things will turn around. Essex, arguably the most populous county in England, only has one ‘professional’ football team in the Football League (Colchester). Both Southend the town, and the club, need some serious work, perhaps the work has already begun.