Do you remember that big lobster we used to climb on ?

The Fibreglass Creatures Rescue Squad.

Within the windy, grey, concrete walkways of Southend Victoria Plaza shopping centre in the 70s and 80s, there once lived some large fibreglass creatures. A crab on the upper level, a shell maze, and on the ground floor - a lobster. 

Lobbie - as the lobster will be referred as throughout this blog, is often the most well remembered - he remained at the centre for the longest, and was there into the late eighties.

We are two sisters who began our search for Lobbie one afternoon while talking about our childhood memories.

"Do you remember that big lobster we used to climb on?"

A Facebook page Find Lobbie the Southend Lobster was born. Through that page, a photo of each of the three were discovered. We learnt that they were part of a Hammerson development of the shopping center, and to our great excitement, discovered that another town centre developed by Hammerson, also had unusual fibreglass creatures. Once we realised there may be more out there, our search took a new direction, to find out where they were all located and get photographs out of photo albums and online, so the memories can be shared.

Our search for these creatures began on the discovery of the Aylesbury duck, saved and residing in a front garden.

How many of these creatures were there? Join us as we research this, beginning where it started for us - Southend Victoria.