Aerial images looking West along the Cliff line, towards the Port of Dover
South Foreland Lighthouses are a pair of Victorian lighthouses on the South Foreland in St. Margaret's Bay, Dover, Kent, England, used to warn ships approaching the nearby Goodwin Sands. There has been a pair of lighthouses at South Foreland since at least the 1630s. Even after the decommissioning of the Lower Lighthouse the pair continued to be used as leading marks, with Admiralty charts into the 20th century indicating that the 'Lighthouses in line lead south of the Goodwin Sands'.[2] South Foreland Upper Lighthouse was built in 1843. It went out of service in 1988 and is currently owned by the National Trust. It was the first lighthouse to use an electric light and was the site chosen by Guglielmo Marconi for his pioneering experiments in wireless radio transmissions. South Foreland Lower Lighthouse was built at the same time further down the cliff, to the east, where it still stands; decommissioned in 1904, it is now in private ownership. The cliffs are part of the coastline of Kent in England between approximately 51°06′N 1°14′E and 51°12′N 1°24′E, at the point where Great Britain is closest to continental Europe—the Strait of Dover is a distance of approximately 20 miles (32 km) across. On a clear day the cliffs are visible from the French coast. The chalk cliffs of the Alabaster Coast of Normandy in France are part of the same geological system. The White Cliffs are at one end of the Kent Downs designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In 1999 a sustainable National Trust visitor centre was built in the area. The Gateway building, designed by van Heyningen and Haward Architects, houses a restaurant, an information centre on the work of the National Trust, and details of local archaeology, history and landscape
Size: 5464px × 3070px
Location: West of St Margaret's Bay, Kent, UK
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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