Basildon's history of demolition did not end when the New Town was completed. Buildings erected during the New Town period have themselves become historic, and some have now disappeared. This means Basildon has experienced several layers of redevelopment: old villages were altered for the New Town, and parts of the New Town have since been replaced again.
Opened from 1969 – finally demolished 2019
Laindon Shopping Centre was built as the modern replacement for much of the old High Road shopping district. The first shops began opening in late 1969 and several traders moved there from older premises. The complex included shops, banks, Clock House and The Joker public house.
For decades it was the commercial heart of Laindon, but its condition and occupancy declined over time. Shops closed, units became vacant and repeated redevelopment proposals were discussed. In 2019 the remaining centre was finally demolished to make way for the Laindon Place development.
The story is historically striking: businesses were first displaced from old Laindon High Road into a purpose-built New Town centre, and roughly half a century later that centre itself became a lost building.
Laindon Shopping Centre – demolished with the centre
Clock House was the shopping centre's three-storey office block, designed for businesses and services that did not require conventional ground-floor retail units. Its height and position beside the pedestrian square made it one of the centre's most recognisable features.
As the shopping centre declined, Clock House became part of the wider redevelopment problem. It disappeared during the 2019 clearance with the surrounding centre.
Laindon Shopping Centre – former Truman's public house
The Joker was built as part of the new centre and became one of Laindon's best-known pubs. Its inclusion shows how the shopping centre was originally intended to provide more than retail: it was conceived as a neighbourhood centre containing social and commercial facilities.
Like the rest of the complex, the pub eventually disappeared. For residents who remembered the early years of the centre, the demolition removed a building strongly associated with the social life of post-war Laindon.
Fodderwick / Towngate – replaced by permanent civic development
Basildon's original civic centre relied heavily on buildings that were knowingly constructed as temporary accommodation. Council offices, the library and the Arts Centre occupied the Fodderwick and Towngate area while plans for permanent facilities evolved.
The temporary Arts Centre opened in 1968 and later became known as the Towngate Theatre. Despite its temporary nature it remained an important entertainment venue for about twenty years. The permanent Towngate Theatre opened in St Martin's Square in 1988, followed by the Basildon Centre, and the old civic site was eventually cleared for later redevelopment.
The Westgate Shopping Park that replaced the old civic area opened in 1999. It brought another generation of purpose-built retail buildings to Fodderwick. Since then individual units and surrounding structures have continued to change as retailers have closed, moved or been replaced.
This constant cycle is central to Basildon's architectural history. A building does not need to be medieval or Victorian to become historically significant. In a New Town, a 1960s shopping centre, a 1970s cinema or a 1980s civic building can become an important record of how residents lived only a generation or two ago.
The demolished buildings of Basildon reveal the town as a series of overlapping landscapes. Before 1949 there were farms, plotland homes, village shops and halls. The Development Corporation replaced much of that environment with planned estates and centres. Later redevelopment has begun replacing parts of that first New Town landscape as well.
Recording these buildings therefore does more than preserve nostalgia. Old property names, photographs, maps, directories and residents' memories help explain why roads have particular names, why neighbourhoods developed where they did and what existed beneath today's estates and shopping areas.