Famous Essex features you know your driving in Essex

Be it Ferris wheels, the infamous adult store off the A12, or the dreaded Greenstead roundabout, these are the sights which – love them or hate them – make Essex what it is.

1. Greenstead Roundabout

The Greenstead Roundabout in Colchester (Image: Steve Brading)

Roundabouts are something of a challenge on their own – so how about one massive roundabout with five mini roundabouts around it?

Constructed back in 1972, it is far from a motorist’s idea of fun, and one senses this structure has ended the hopes of many a learner driver over its 51 years of existence.

2. Pulse Superstore

The Pulse adult superstore off the A12 near Rivenhall

Decked in luminous pink, the Pulse adult superstore is one of a kind.

It is nothing if not distinguishable, and will catch the eye of most drivers as they go past on the A12 – even if they get only a brief glance of it.

It’s a place you tell yourself you might go to, one day, even if it is just to say you’ve been there.

Whether we have been inside or not, we all know about it.

3. Ferris wheels

Southend's new City Wheel is open to visitors (Image: Martin Harvey)

A day out at the seafront playing on the 1p machines wouldn’t be complete without marvelling at Clacton’s own version of the London Eye.

Southend too has its own Ferris wheel to shout about, and, even if it is not on the level of its London equivalent, most people would agree it does look impressive at night.

4. Basildon’s ‘Hollywood’ sign

The Basildon entrance sign

OK, Basildon may not quite be on Hollywood’s level, but it is at least something to aspire to.

It set the council back £90,000 when it was built back in 2010 and, as with Southend’s Ferris wheel, you wait until the night time for it to impress.

5. The Kursaal

The Kursaal in Southend is a striking symbol of Victorian-era leisure.

It was constructed in 1901 and, if you told the original designers George Sherrin and John Clarke that it would still be around 112 years later, they would probably have never believed you.

The Kursaal closed in 1986, lying vacant for eight years before reopening in 1998.

Sadly, however it is empty once again – but the building, and what it stood for in early 20th century Southend, lives on.

6. Bizarre place names

Turkey Cock Lane in Stanway

The scourge of any teacher taking a class on local history, Fingringhoe is the one place almost guaranteed to provoke suppressed fits of laughter from a class of pupils.

Other street names in Essex are even ruder, and you sometimes wonder if they damage the value of the house – can you imagine sending out change of address cards to say you had moved to Burnt Dick Hill, Boxted?

Creasen Butt Close in Heybridge, Turkey Cock Lane near Stanway, and Wigley Bush Lane in Brentwood are just three of the most, how shall we put it… distinctive street names in Essex.

And just to top it off, just outside Braintree, there’s a Rotten End on the banks on the River Pant.