Its economy is linked to Port of London industries, its own offices, retail and the Lakeside Shopping Centre at West Thurrock.

[2] Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that he visited Grays on 24 September 1665 and apparently bought fish from the local fishermen.

Thurrock Town Hall on New Road in Grays was built in the 1980s;[4] work on an extension began in January 2020.

[7] On 23 October 2019, the bodies of 39 people were found in the back of a lorry at Waterglade Industrial Park in Eastern Avenue.

A 25-year-old lorry driver from Northern Ireland was arrested by Essex Police on suspicion of murder[8] and pleaded guilty to manslaughter in April 2020.

As well as Thurrock Yacht Club, Grays Beach is the site of the local landmark The Gull, a lightship built in 1860, which has lain on the foreshore for decades and is now in a serious state of dilapidation.

[18][19] In July 2021 Thurrock Council declared it to be surplus to budget requirements and announced plans for its closure.

[20] The Labour opposition in the council opposed the plans and an online petition calling for its preservation was signed by over 1000 residents.

[21] Grays native Russell Brand gave his support to saving the theatre on an Instagram post and pledged to perform a show there to help prevent its closure.

[22] In January 2022 Thurrock Council announced that they supported a counter proposal that will see the theatre remain open under community ownership.

[24] However, after an unnamed organisation expressed interest in buying the theatre, the council has delayed the deadline to September to allow it to put forward an alternative business plan.

Its economy is linked to Port of London industries, its own offices, retail and Lakeside, West Thurrock.

Its variously used riverside (from homes through wild bird-habitat marshland to importation, storage and distribution) faces Broadness Lighthouse in Kent.

[69] Grays Convent High School was attended by journalist and former Thurrock MP candidate Polly Billington and runner Jessica Judd.

[75] The Thurrock Campus relocated from Woodview Road to a new complex in Grays town centre in September 2014.

Grays railway station runs through the centre of the built-up core and is served by c2c services to London Fenchurch Street to the west and Shoeburyness to the east.

The town is served by BBC London and ITV London with television signals received from Crystal Palace TV transmitter,[85] BBC South East and ITV Meridian can also be received from Bluebell Hill TV transmitter.