Editing Clacton-on-Sea (section)

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

For well over a century Clacton Pier has been an [[RNLI]] lifeboat station.

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

Four notable incidents occurred in Clacton-on-Sea during the Second World War. First, very early in the war a German airman bailed out over the town. Procedures for dealing with enemy captives were not yet well-established and he was treated as a celebrity guest for some days, including by the town council, before eventually being handed over to the military. Second, 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. Third, 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 bomb]]s and V-2 rockets aimed at London.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

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.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

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|USS ''Density'']]), which broadcast [[Wonderful Radio London]], was anchored offshore from 1964 until its forced closure in 1967.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Radio London Story, Part One: Big L Begins |url=https://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/bigl1.htm |access-date=2025-04-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Radio London Story, Part Six: Peel, Pepper and their final hour |url= https://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/bigl3.htm |access-date=2025-04-27}}</ref>

With the advent of cheap flights to Mediterranean resorts in the 1970s, the holiday industry began to decline. Increasingly, hotels' and guest-houses' spare capacity came to be used as 'temporary' accommodation by the local authority to house those on welfare, refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. Pier Ward, in the centre of the town, is one of the poorest in the UK (nearby Jaywick is often cited{{by whom|date=April 2025}} as the poorest of all). 

Since around 1970 several well-known local buildings have been demolished, including the palatial [[art deco]] [[Odeon Cinema]] (a great loss to both the town and the county); the Warwick Castle Pub; the Waverley Hotel; Barker House, a large home for the learning disabled, and [[Livability (charity)|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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jacobs|first=Norman |author-link=Norman Jacobs |date=1967 |title=Clacton Past and Present|publisher=WO series (War Office), ADM 1 (Naval), HO 192/3 (Civil Defence) files at the National Archives}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Jacobs|first=Norman |author-link=Norman Jacobs |date=1967 |title=The Essex Countryside|publisher=WO series (War Office), ADM 1 (Naval), HO 192/3 (Civil Defence) files at the National Archives}}</ref>

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 [[1981 United Kingdom tornado outbreak|an F1/T2 tornado]] on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.eswd.eu/cgi-bin/eswd.cgi|title=European Severe Weather Database|website=www.eswd.eu}}</ref>