In the late 80's my year of apprentices from BCal did a trip to Southend to have a general look around. We were also allowed, for some strange reason to have a good clamber all over the Vulcan that was there at the time. Not sure if its the same one or not but it was a good day out.
Pretty certain it's the same one
https://avrovulcan.com/
Although it's a commercial airport ( Ryanair etc) we get some pretty interesting stuff. UK and foreign military often use it for practice take off and landings.
I remember as a kid that we used to go to the airport after the airshow on the front as a lot of planes used to land there and let you have an up close look. It was part of the "airshow day" type thing and they would have stunt shows and a few stalls etc
This was of course back in the 90s when it was nothing more than a small airport, not "London Southend" as it seems to now be known.
Always makes me chuckle to think of some poor bastard in a far flung country booking their first trip to London and picking Southend as an airport thinking that it must be very close to the city, looking on Google tk see that it's less than an hours drive......to then be stuck on the A127 for 3 hours after they land 🤣