Town in Essex, England
Basildon
Before it was a town, Basildon was a scatter of Londoners' holiday shacks and a village church. It went on to give the world Depeche Mode and a political catchphrase.
Key information
- County
- Essex
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- Post-war new town, Depeche Mode, 'Basildon Man'
- What locals are called
- Basildonians
- Famous people
- Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Vince Clarke, Alison Moyet
- Football clubs
- Basildon United (the Bees), Bowers & Pitsea
About Basildon
The town that began as a pile of shacks
Long before the bulldozers, the land around Laindon and Pitsea was cheap. After farming slumped in the late 19th century, it was sold off in small plots, and Londoners bought them for a few pounds. They put up chalets, huts and converted railway carriages, and spent weekends and holidays in the Essex air. These were the plotlands. Many owners stayed on, building up their shacks into permanent homes, often with no proper roads, mains water or drains. When the Second World War ended, planners looking for room to rehouse Londoners had a patchwork of ramshackle settlements and a lot of open land to work with. The original Basildon was a small village around the medieval Holy Cross Church on Church Road. The new town took its name from it.
Designed from scratch in 1949
On 4 January 1949, Basildon was designated a new town under the New Towns Act 1946. The aim was to relieve overcrowded, bomb-damaged London by moving families out to fresh housing with jobs close by. The master plan pulled together Laindon, Pitsea, Vange and the older villages and filled the gaps with neighbourhoods, industrial estates and a purpose-built town centre. The centre was largely pedestrianised, with shops arranged around Market Square, and was a showpiece of its time. Factories followed the families. Ford began building tractors in the town in 1964, and Basildon became a place where Londoners found modern homes and work in the same postcode.
Four lads, a synthesiser and a French magazine
In 1980, Depeche Mode formed in Basildon. They took their name from a French fashion magazine, and their synthesiser sound turned a new town's teenagers into international stars. 'Just Can't Get Enough' arrived in 1981. Dave Gahan and Martin Gore grew up in the town, and Andy Fletcher was part of the original line-up. Vince Clarke wrote much of the early material, left after the first album, and went on to form Yazoo with another Basildon voice, Alison Moyet, before founding Erasure. Few towns can claim to have shaped the sound of 1980s electronic pop so heavily, and Basildon is proud of it.
Why Basildon Man mattered
In April 1992, Basildon became a byword in British politics. Labour expected to win the seat as part of a national swing, but the Conservative David Amess held it. The result is often remembered as the moment the election turned. Commentators coined 'Basildon Man' for the type of voter involved: a working-class Londoner's descendant who had moved out, bought their own home, and felt that owning it had changed their politics. The label stuck for decades. Because the town was built from scratch with a mix of people from across London, it was treated as a barometer of the mood in the South East.
Wild corners and a rebel's name
For a new town, Basildon has plenty of green. Langdon Hills sits on high ground with woods and views across the Thames estuary, and the remains of the plotland landscape can still be traced there. Wat Tyler Country Park, on the Pitsea marshes, is named for the leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt, which flared up in Essex at nearby Fobbing. The site was once an explosives works, and wildlife now thrives where it stood. For entertainment there is the Towngate Theatre in the town centre, and for football the Bees: Basildon United, founded in 1967, play in the town, with Bowers & Pitsea nearby.