Canvey Island

Canvey Island

Canvey Island, low-lying island on the north shore of the Thames estuary, Castle Point borough, administrative and historic county of Essex, England. The island is connected to the mainland by bridges at South Benfleet.

The island’s marine defenses were first constructed by a Dutch engineer in 1623, but they have remained vulnerable to exceptional tidal flooding—notably the catastrophic inundation of January–February 1953, in which 58 people died. Measures have been taken since then to strengthen and heighten the levees surrounding the island. Canvey is the site of the world’s first marine terminal for imported liquefied natural gas (1959); those storage facilities were later used for liquefied petroleum gas. Area 71 square miles (183 square km). Pop. (2001) 37,479; (2011) 38,170.