Wiki map reveals most searched for celebrities in south Essex

The map links place names with their most searched-for public figure on Wikipedia.

It includes a wide-reaching spectrum of celebrities, and counts 18th-century poets and wrestling champions among its pinpoints.

The link between the location and the celebrity ranges from their place of birth, their current home or a connection.

Produced by The Pudding, an online publication which debates culture in visual essays, the map covers villages, towns and cities across the UK.

The map showing the most famous name from each part of Southend, Castle Point and Rochford

And replacing both Southend and Rochford on the map is Countdown star Rachel Riley.

She was born in Rochford but spent her childhood in Thorpe Bay and attended Southend High School for girls.

Another big name from south Essex frequently searched is Dame Helen Mirren.

The map showing the most famous name from each part of Basildon

She grew up in Leigh but attended Hamlet Court primary school in Westcliff.

Other household names which have replaced parts of south Essex on the map include comedian Russel Brand, TV presenter Rylan Clark-Neal and author Daniel Defoe.

The map showing the most famous name from each part of Thurrock

The Pudding map states: “Person/city associations were based on the thousands of “People by city or town” pages on Wikipedia.

“The top person from each city was determined by using median pageviews (with a minimum of 1 year of traffic).

Read more:

• Everything we know about the new TV series featuring Southend which starts next week
• Revealed: The top 10 beaches in Essex (according to visitors)

“We chose to include multiple occurrences for a single person because there is both no way to determine which is more accurate and people can 'be from' multiple places."

The People Map of the UK website is based on data collected and processed using Wikipedia from July 2015 to May 2020.