George Attridge was a gardener and lived in a cottage on the corner of the present High Street and Cliff Town Road. Attridge’s cottage dates well before 1856. He ran his business from here selling fruit and vegetables, and permitted a local fisherman to have a stall in the cottage garden to sell his catch from the estuary. Unfortunately the stall would become the source of an outbreak of typhoid, the fisherman concerned was found to be washing his catch from an infected well, the local board was swift to act and closed the well.

Southend-on-Sea

George Attridge’s Cottage Image from the Terry Herbert Collection

George Attridge’s Cottage in the High Street Southend, with Luker’s Brewery in the distance Image from the Terry Herbert Collection