IT’S been exactly a decade since Basildon went a little bit Tinsel Town and our now famous white Hollywood-style sign went up.

The landmark, which graces the A127 Noak Bridge turn-off, cost £90,000 to make and was finished being installed by the first week of April, 2010. There it has stood for the past ten years, weathering snow, storms heatwaves and the odd prankster attack or two.

Thurrock Gazette:

It has largely been seen as a positive part of the furniture in Basildon but in the beginning, the sign received its fair share of ridicule in its comparisons to the iconic ‘Hollywood’ sign.

Yet it certainly helped to put the town on the map and continues to do so.

Within days it had its own Wikipedia entry and newspapers and TV stations from as far away as Perth in Australia covered the story.

Even celebrity fans came fawning. Dapper designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen praised the Basildon sign when he came to town in to film an episode for his ITV series House Gift calling it (perhaps tongue in cheek) “shiny, sexy and elegant”.

Basildon-born TV presenter Denise Van Outen also poured out her love for her hometown after hearing the new Hollywood-style sign had gone up saying: “I’d take Basildon over Hollywood any day.

“Sure, the weather in Los Angeles is better, but you can’t beat the people in Basildon.”

In the early days there was some concern over the cost of the sign, with some labelling it a waste of taxpayer money, but in fact the bulk of the cost was paid for by a grant from the Homes and Communities Agency.

The sign was part of a bigger £400,000 plan to flag up the location of the town to passing traffic on the A127 and to highlight the growing industrial areas of Basildon.

Thurrock Gazette:

Stephen Horgan, leader of Basildon Council at the time, welcomed the international media attention the sign attracted, saying: “It must be fairly rare for an English council putting up a sign gets worldwide publicity, but we seem to have managed it.

“It has garnered a great deal of interest in the media, as far away as Australia.

“ I think the sign looks good and it does its primary job. There’s no way you can speed down the A127 now and not notice when you get to Basildon district.”

The sign could well have said “made in Basildon”. It was manufactured just a few hundred yards from its permanent home at Ace Sign Group based in Bentalls.

Made from rolled stainless steel, the imposing letters were designed and hand crafted. It was all about the bespoke manufacturing.

Andy Wightman, Ace’s product development manager admitted: “This is not the sort of item you keep in stock or just pick off the shelf.”

Each one of the letters were constructed from 3mm-thick steel.

Laser cutters were used to slice the steel, but the highly-skilled process of rolling it into shape was done by hand.

Andy was responsible for the shape of the letters.

He even spent hours polishing the sign.

Naturally the sign has attracted a few jokers - in 2011 a prankster from Southend added the word “smells” beneath the sign to cheer up motorists.

There have been lovely gestures too. A giant poppy placed on the side by a resident one Remembrance Sunday, the ‘70’ addition in 2019 to celebrate Basildon’s birthday and of course lately we’ve seen the sign lit up in blue to honour the NHS.

So with so much in the pipeline for Basildon’s future does the sign still have its place as the gatekeeper to our town? Yes says leader of Basildon Council, Gavin Callaghan: “I think it has become much loved and iconic and my administration has adopted it as a symbol to celebrate, commemorate and bring the community together,” he said.