Clacton-on-Sea, United Kingdom

In 1865, railway engineer and land developer Peter Bruff, the steamboat owner William Jackson, and a group of businessmen bought an area of undeveloped farmland adjoining low gravelly cliffs and a firm sand-and-shingle beach lying to the south-east of Great Clacton village, with the intention of establishing a new resort. One of the first facilities they built for the new resort was the pier, which opened in 1871, allowing visitors to travel by ship; the railway would not reach Clacton until 1882. The town of Clacton-on-Sea was laid out rather haphazardly over the next few years; though it has a central 'grand' avenue (originally Electric Parade, now Pier Avenue) the street plan incorporates many previously rural lanes and tracks, such as Wash Lane. Plots and streets were sold off piecemeal to developers and speculators. In 1882, the Great Eastern Railway already serving the well-established resort of Walton-on-the-Naze along the coast, opened a branch line to Clacton from a junction on the existing railway at Thorpe-le-Soken.

Clacton grew into the largest seaside resort between Southend-on-Sea and Great Yarmouth, with around 10,000 residents by 1914 and 20,000 by 1939. Due to its accessibility from the East End of London and the Essex suburbs, the town, like Southend, remained preferentially geared to catering for working-class and lower-middle-class holidaymakers.

For well over a century, Clacton Pier has been used as an RNLI lifeboat station.

Just before the Second World War, the building of Butlin's Holiday Camp boosted its economy; the Army took it over between then and 1945 for use as an internment, engineer, pioneer and light anti-aircraft artillery training camp.

Notable incidents occurred in Clacton-on-Sea during the Second World War. A Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111 bomber crashed into the town on 30 April 1940, demolishing several houses in the Vista Road area as one of the magnetic mines on board exploded on impact, killing the crew and two civilians; another mine was defused by experts from the Navy. In addition, the Wagstaff Corner area was bombed in May 1941, demolishing some well-known buildings. Finally, a V-2 rocket hit in front of the Tower Hotel, injuring dozens of troops inside though without bringing down the structure. Clacton lay beneath the route taken by many of the V-1 flying bombs and V-2 rockets aimed at London.

A big role in the town during the pre- and post-war period was played by the Kingsman family, which bought and developed the pier and ran a pleasure-steamer service from London. A summer sea excursion to Calais also ran until the early 1960s. Butlin's reopened the holiday camp after the war. This, along with the expansion of the nearby chalet town of Jaywick, originally a speculative private development of inter-war years, and increasingly capacious caravan sites, all swelled by the movement of retired Londoners into the area, altered the character of the town.

Throughout the 1960s, Clacton beach remained a popular summer excursion for residents of Essex and east London and in August was often crammed to capacity in the area around the Pier. The pirate radio ship MV Galaxy (originally known as USS Density), which broadcast Wonderful Radio London, was anchored offshore from 1964 until its forced closure in 1967.

With the advent of cheap flights to Mediterranean resorts in the 1970s, the holiday industry began to decline. Pier Ward, in the centre of the town, is one of the poorest in England; nearby Jaywick was cited as the poorest of all in 2025.

Since around 1970, several well-known local buildings have been demolished, including the palatial art deco Odeon Cinema , the Warwick Castle Pub; the Waverley Hotel; Barker House, a large home for the learning disabled and John Groom's Crippleage which housed orphaned handicapped girls from London. Cordy's, a well-known large seafront restaurant has recently been demolished. The site of Butlin's Holiday Camp was redeveloped as a housing estate. The once famously crowded bus station in Jackson Road has become a car park. The Ocean Revue Theatre, where Max Bygraves made one of his first appearances, has closed.

The town expanded substantially in the 1980s, 1990s and first decade of the 21st century, with new housing estates on the rural margins of town, and some brownfield developments. Many residents commute to work in Colchester, Witham, Chelmsford or London. Clacton was in the news when its town centre and seafront areas were struck by an F1/T2 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.

Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm, built in the early 2000s, is around 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) offshore, is visible from many places in the flat hinterland of the town.

As is common with many English seaside towns, unemployment has remained stubbornly high in Clacton. In 2023, the town was awarded a £20 million government levelling-up grant to improve the town centre.