Prior to 2014, the gallery was located in an Edwardian building on Station Road at Westcliff-on-Sea, opposite the Cliffs Pavilion, and which was donated to the people of Southend-on-Sea in 1952 by Walter Beecroft (1885–1961) to house his eclectic collection of art works.
[7][10] The most famous feature of the gallery's building is a tiled wall created by German artist, sculpture and designer Fritz Steller.
[11] Steller's Transform Ceramic Company, was commissioned by Patrick Burridge, the councils architect, to create a sculptural wall around 1973, prior to the building opening as Southend Central Library.
The artist created a series of architectural ceramic tiles with an abstract design referencing the stacking of book spines on library shelves.
The local artist Alan Sorrell is represented by his Drawings of Nubia series depicting a visit to Egypt prior to the building of the Aswan Dam.
In 1972, as part of a major project involving eight towns, The Arts Council commissioned the two photographers to work in the city with the aim of revealing to the people of Southend how they and their environment are seen by two outside observers.
The resulting images were later displayed in the old Beecroft Art Gallery building between 24 March and 22 April 1973 and later toured local schools and community centres.
The collections' main strengths are the decades from the 1920s to the 1970s but there are important earlier and later pieces, most notably a rare, 17th century slap sole shoe.
Established by the gallery's founder in 1957 and inspired by the world-renowned Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, over the years, the exhibition has evolved into a cornerstone of the local cultural scene, drawing participants from across Essex and the historic Essex boundaries of East London (today the London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest).
It was founded from overstock of the National Jazz Archive[16] by trumpeter Digby Fairweather in 2016 to celebrates the music’s heritage, art and memorabilia.