West Thurrock

| Lakeside Shopping Centre is a large out-of-town shopping centre located in West Thurrock, Essex just beyond the eastern boundary of Greater London. It was constructed on the site of a former chalk quarry. The first tenants moved into the complex in 1988 and it was completed in 1990, being opened on 25 October of that year by Princess Alexandra of Kent, Marcus Bradford and Angus Ogilvy. New spaces in the red car park were added as recently as October 2019. The shopping centre, in addition to the retail parks, forms one of the largest shopping areas in a single location within Europe, with almost 2,600,000 square feet (240,000 m2) of retail space on a site of 200 acres (0.81 km2). The community of Chafford Hundred has grown to the east of the centre since its opening. Its main rival is the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Greenhithe, Kent, just across the River Thames. The centre was rebranded as Intu Lakeside in 2013, following the renaming of parent Capital Shopping Centres as Intu.The centre was sold in 2020, after Intu went into administration. In November 2020, Lakeside was taken over by Savills and was renamed Lakeside Shopping Centre. Lakeside has been described as being Thurrock's "de facto town centre". Thurrock Council wants to make it a "regional town centre", with plans to build new shops, facilities and 3,000 homes. A road linking it to the nearby Lakeside Basin will also be built.

Chafford Hundred Lakeside railway station, also known simply as Chafford Hundred station, is located on a single-track branch line of the London, Tilbury and Southend line, serving the area of Chafford Hundred as well as Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex. It is 20 miles 77 chains (33.7 km) down the line from London Fenchurch Street via Upminster; it is situated between Ockendon and Grays. Its three-letter station code is CFH. The station has a single platform and was opened on 26 May 1995 by Railtrack. Today, all passenger train services are operated by c2c, which also manages the station. Although outside the London fare zones 1 to 6, the station became part of the Oyster card pay-as-you-go network in 2010. According to the ORR, the station is the busiest single-platform station in the UK, beating the next busiest (Windsor and Eton Central) by some 900,000 passengers per year.

On 23 October 2019, the bodies of 39 Vietnamese people — 31 men and 8 women — were found in the trailer of an articulated refrigerator lorry in Grays, Essex, United Kingdom. The trailer had been shipped from the port of Zeebrugge, Belgium, to Purfleet, Essex, UK, and the lorry cab and its driver are believed to have originated from Northern Ireland. Investigations are being led by Essex Police, and involve the national authorities of the UK, Belgium, Ireland and Vietnam. Ten people have so far been convicted of crimes related to the incident in the UK and a further nineteen have been jailed in Belgium.

Arena Essex Raceway was a stock car and speedway racing track located near Purfleet, Essex. It opened in 1978 and closed in 2018. The Lakeside Shopping Centre was built close to the venue.

Harris Academy Chafford Hundred (formerly Chafford Hundred Campus Business and Enterprise College) is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status located in Chafford Hundred in the borough of Thurrock within the commuter belt of London, England, United Kingdom. The building was designed by Nicholas Hare Architects. Previously a comprehensive school, it became an academy on 1 October 2011.Harris Academy Chafford Hundred is closely linked to Harris Primary Chafford Hundred, Harris Mayflower, and the newer Harris Academy Riverside and Harris Academy Ockendon, sharing executive principals and teaching staff. Before the Riverside building was completed in 2019, Chafford Hundred hosted the establishing school.

Thurrock services is a motorway service station in Thurrock, Essex, serving the M25 motorway, and the Dartford Crossing (A282). It was planned in the mid-1980s and opened after the M25 was completed. Originally popular, the services have gradually deteriorated and have attracted criticism for poor facilities. They have also been a magnet for drug trafficking and other criminal activities.

St Clement's Church is a Grade I listed building in West Thurrock, Essex, England. It is the church for one of the traditional (Church of England) parishes in Thurrock. The building featured in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral.

West Thurrock Power Station was a coal-fired power station on the River Thames at Stone Ness, West Thurrock in Essex. The station was at the northern end of the 400 kV Thames Crossing of the National Grid.

Thurrock Football Club was an English football club based in Purfleet, Thurrock, Essex. Known as Purfleet until 2003, the club played at Ship Lane.

Chafford Hundred is an area in the Borough of Thurrock in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. Chafford Hundred is north-west of Grays. Its railway station serves the area and Lakeside Shopping Centre. Lakeside Shopping Centre is in West Thurrock and is located in the Chafford and North Stifford, and South Chafford wards in the borough of Thurrock. Chafford Hundred was built on parts of the historical parishes of Stifford and West Thurrock, Mill Lane being the border of the respective historical parishes.

The Chafford Gorges Nature Park is a 200-acre (81 ha) nature reserve located in Chafford Hundred, England and managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust. It includes two Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Grays Thurrock Chalk Pit has been designated for its biological interest, and Lion Pit for geological interest.

Lion Pit is a 2.5-hectare (6.2-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Grays in Essex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site, and part of the Chafford Gorges Nature Park, which is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust.The site is part of a nineteenth-century tramway cutting to carry chalk to riverside wharves. Evidence has been found of flint-knapping using the Levallois technique by Neanderthals 200,000 years ago, and it has even been possible to fit back together some of the flint flakes. Fossils have been found of mammals including, rhinoceros, bison, mammoth and straight-tusked elephant.A public footpath goes through the site from Weymouth Drive to London Road.