Basildon, United Kingdom

The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway built its original main line from London to Southend via Tilbury with a station at Pitsea, which opened in 1855. The company subsequently built a shorter inland route, deviating from the older line at Barking and rejoining it at Pitsea. Laindon station opened with that new route on its completion in 1888.

The Basildon area remained sparsely populated until the early 20th century. The heavy clay soil was poor quality agricultural land. The first half of the 20th century was a period of wider agricultural depression, and many farms in the area were sold for development as plotlands, especially during the 1920s and 1930s. These saw people buy an individual plot to build a house. Little infrastructure was provided to serve the plotlands, and many of the houses built were of poor quality. The population of Basildon parish rose sharply in the early 20th century with the development of the plotlands; the population had been 179 in 1891, and grew to 505 in 1911 and 1,159 in 1931.

In the 1940s, Billericay Urban District Council and Essex County Council, concerned by lack of amenities in the area and by its development, petitioned the government to create a new town. Basildon was one of eight new towns created in the wider south-east of England after the passing of the New Towns Act 1946. On 4 January 1949 Lewis Silkin, Minister of Town and Country Planning, officially designated Basildon as a new town.

Basildon Development Corporation was formed in February 1949 to transform the designated area into a modern new town. The main villages within the designated area for the new town were Laindon and Pitsea, with other settlements including the smaller Basildon and Vange. There were about 8,700 existing homes in the designated area for the new town, of which 5,500 were deemed substandard. A masterplan was published in 1951, structuring the development around a number of small neighbourhoods. The landscaping was designed by Sylvia Crowe, with open space and playing fields distributed throughout the developed area to preserve the best landscape features. The first house built under the new town programme was completed in June 1951. The first tenants moved into homes in Redgrave Road in Vange.

The masterplan included employment areas along the northern edge of the town along the A127 corridor. A new town centre based around a pedestrian shopping precinct was begun in 1956. A new Basildon railway station on the southern edge of the town centre was opened in 1974.

A large, illuminated town sign "Basildon Town Centre Site" at 3.5 feet (1.1 m) was erected in 1956 beside the railway and stood until early construction was completed. The Basildon Centre, which incorporates the local council offices, was officially opened by Jack Cunningham on 14 November 1989.

Since March 2010, Basildon has a miniature famous white Hollywood sign, reading "Basildon"; at five feet tall, the new sign is one-ninth of the height of the Hollywood original. part of a plan of landscaping and infrastructure improvements funded by £400,000 from the Prescott-spearheaded Thames Gateway. Opponents from all parties believe spending could have been directed toward social problems.