‘I hate the word deprived’: Jaywick, actually a happy place in Essex – photo essay

Sitting in the Broadway Club, a members’ club on the main street of Jaywick in Essex open to all, is David, who works as chief frier in a chippy. He speaks of how proud he is to be from Jaywick, while others joyfully sing their favourite cockney classics. Others, such as JB, are not even from the village, but visit regularly for a night of karaoke. At the end of October 2025, for the fourth consecutive time, Jaywick was named Britain’s most deprived neighbourhood by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

• The Jaywick Sands Happy Club, established in 2015, is run by Danny Sloggett, a community activist and champion.

• Josie, left, a Jaywickian who previously volunteered at a food bank, and Miss Roz, who is apparently ‘the posh one’, mans the desk at the Jaywick Sands Revival food bank.

• The Jaywick Sands Revival food bank provides food and other items to people in need in the community

If one googles Jaywick, a village on England’s Essex coast facing out to the North Sea, a long list of negative headlines comes up. The village has a reputation for poverty and social problems, regularly highlighted in documentaries such as the Channel 5 series Benefits by the Sea and the many YouTube videos exploring the village. These YouTubers make brief visits that often continue the narrative of Jaywick being a broken place.

Many feature images of boarded-up houses with cracked roads and fly-tipped furniture.

• O Yemi Tubi is a Nigerian artist who has moved to Jaywick from London with his wife. He loves the village and refers to it as ‘Joywick’.

Despite the negativity associated with the area, the village has a thriving community and a strong culture of care that people are very proud of. Most do not feel deprived and there’s a prevailing sense of being unsurprised and untroubled by the MHCLG’s recent declaration.

• Ieda Lima, a fashion designer and artist from Brazil, with her husband, John. They live in an area called Brooklands in Jaywick

• Bethany models designer Ieda Lima’s clothing on Brooklands’ sea wall in Jaywick.

Many Jaywickians identify as cockneys from London and speak about how similar the culture is to London’s East End 30 years ago. A DIY village spirit exists where neighbours care for one another and people organise support events such as free meals, karaoke parties, dances, art and music events or tabletop markets.

Jaywick is situated two miles west of Clacton and was built in the 1930s as a holiday destination for Londoners predominantly from the East End. Today, many Jaywickians have moved to the village from London after spending their holidays there in their youth. After the second world war, the holiday homes became permanent residences, despite not being built for this purpose. In 1983, Clacton’s Butlin’s closed, and most of the jobs the people relied on disappeared. Jaywick has a population of about 5,000, of which 97% are ethnically white and 38% aged over 65 (more than double the national average) in the 2021 census. 62% of the population live on some form of government benefit.

• The Broadway, Jaywick’s high street.

• Much of the investment in the area goes to flood defences, including expensive upgrades to the sea wall that stretches the length of the village.

In 2018, Nick Stella, a Republican politician campaigning for Donald Trump, used an image of a street in Jaywick with the words: “Only you can stop this from becoming a reality. Help President Trump keep America on track and thriving.”

Jaywickians are very aware of how their village is represented in the media. Many are fed up with journalists coming to the village with a preconceived story and people give examples of when they have felt tricked by interviewers promising a positive report that ends up portraying them with the same negative stereotypes. “We’ve all been caught out by it at least once,” says Davina, the landlady of Jaywick’s Never Say Die pub.

• Judges, contestants and onlookers at the Miss Jaywick 2025 competition at the Never Say Die pub.

• Participants of the annual Miss Jaywick competition held at the Never Say Die pub.

In Jaywick many live day to day, sometimes meal to meal, and people vote for what they think will benefit them. The Labour government’s removal of winter fuel payments is regularly raised, while they claim Reform UK’s promise to cut net zero policies and drill for North Sea gas and oil will reduce heating bills. In the 2024 election, Nigel Farage became Jaywick’s MP for Reform UK and he pledged to abolish climate change policies.

Two Martello towers sit on either side of Jaywick. Built in the 18th century to protect England from the French, they now sit behind large sea walls, protecting them from the rising ocean. Jaywick was hit by the 1953 North Sea flood in which 35 people lost their lives. Climate change-related sea level rise is predicted to negatively affect Jaywick (according to Climate Central), and in 2024 a £12m sea wall was completed to help provide flood protection to the area.

• ‘Lynn off Gogglebox’ is well known locally. She used to be a regular on the Channel 4 programme.

• Nathan with his grandma, Sandy, at the karaoke at the Broadway Club. Danny Sloggett on stage at the Clacton Prince theatre, which hosted a fashion show of work by local designers, using models from Clacton and Jaywick

• The Broadway club hosts karaoke and a pool league match on Friday nights. The club used to be called Eldorado and would put on Motown nights. Now it is much smaller and home to many events with karaoke every day and evening over the weekend.

• People attend the Jaywick Sands Happy Club. Many feel their village is negatively misrepresented in the media when there is actually a strong culture of community and care.

Jaywick Sands Happy Club is a community support group run by Danny Slogett. It is a monthly event for anyone to talk about what’s going on in Jaywick. Danny takes the points raised to local councillors and offers support through food and clothing donations. The club represents Jaywick’s wider culture – a place that despite its reputation for social problems is a community that provides support and care.

• Danny writing in his home. Danny is contacted almost daily by journalists and YouTubers wanting access to people in the village.