Southchurch is a residential suburb to the E of central Southend-on-Sea, bisected by the A13, the main E-W road from London and called in this section Southchurch Boulevard. The church stands alongside this road on its S side, and the view from the road of the N side is of a large 19thc hall with an E gable. This conceals the medieval church; a much smaller building of chancel, nave with S porch and timber W bellcote with a shingled spire. The nave is mid-12thc in origin, and both of its lateral doorways survive: the S in-situ and the N reset as a W door to the new church. The chancel was rebuilt in the 13thc, and the bell cote and chancel arch are of 15thc date. The old church was restored in 1855-57 by W. Slater, then in 1906 Comper built a new church on the N side, turning the nave of the original church into a S aisle. Comper's church was extended eastward by F. C. Eden in 1931-32. The old church is built of mixed rubble with ragstone dressings. The 20thc addition is faced with ragstone and flints, but its core is probably of yellow brick, a material exposed in areas on the N side which were never completed.

The features recorded here are the S nave doorway of the old church, the doorway reset at the W end of the new addition and the bowl of a double piscina.

Southchurch was given to Holy Trinity Canterbury (now the cathedral) in or before 824; the grant confirmed by Edward the Confessor. In 1086 it was a manor of 4 hides, and in addtion to the ploughland there was pasture for 200 sheep, woodland for 40 pigs and 2 fisheries. In 1294 the manor was held by Richard de Southchurch from the monks of Christ Church, passing to his son Peter who died in 1309.

The doorways are notable for their tall, narrow proportions and for the unusual mismatch of orders in arch and jambs. The grotesque head above the reset N doorway was not part of the original design, suggesting that a corbel table once existed here.