The current managers of one of Canvey’s most iconic buildings have been celebrated by a community archive project for their resilience over the past four years.

The Canvey Community Archive project, who are the custodians of 90 years of images and text about the island’s history, presented the current managers of the Labworth restaurant in Furtherwick Road with a memory stick containing 65 photos of the building.

The couple also received a framed picture of the Labworth in the past, with the presentation being an opportunity to celebrate the Labworth coming out of several years of uncertainty following the pandemic and the sea wall repairs, which saw it closed from last October to May.

Janet Penn, current chair of the archive, took the opportunity to praise Darren and the spirit of the building.

She said: “We felt after Darren had shut, and with the pandemic and sea wall work, because we have all these images of the building it would be nice to give them all to him as a celebration that they got through it.

“Before the sea wall works, they were getting shut around the pandemic time and they just couldn’t open properly, they have found their way through though.

Janet added that the Labworth itself is an “iconic building, which we don’t have many left of on Canvey.”

She said: “It is special to us and when you go there and have something to eat an the sun shines, you could be anywhere, you could be on the riviera and you don’t think about the wall, it is just lovely.

“When you look back, we have 65 pictures back to 1932 and it changed but it hasn’t, they moved the wall from in front to behind, filled in the underneath but it is all still there.

“It has always been used as a café of some kind, not in any other way.

“It is amazing, and Darren gave us a cup of coffee for it, I have been a customer for a long time.”

The Eastern Esplanade restaurant has been housed in a stunning grade II listed building and has been visited by Prince Edward and the Princess Royal in the past.