The United Kingdom (officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) includes England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. England is the largest and most populous of the four, occupying more than 62% of the island of Great Britain and with a population of more than 56 million. Separated from the European mainland by the North Sea on the east and the English Channel on the south, it also has coasts facing the Celtic Sea on the southwest and the Irish Sea on the northwest. England is divided into counties but historically the division has been done is several ways. The Directory pages are organized by the division of England into 48 "ceremonial" counties (officially called lieutenancy areas because each one has a Lord Lieutenant representing the monarch in that area). For local government the counties are subdivided in various ways into council areas. This page covers lighthouses of southeastern England including the counties of Essex, Greater London, and Kent. The south coast of Kent faces the Strait of Dover; the rest of this region faces eastward on the North Sea. London is by far the largest port, but there are many smaller ports. The British system of lighthouse administration is decentralized, with the major towers under the management of Trinity House (a corporation chartered by the Crown) and smaller towers generally under the control of local port authorities. This system has generally assisted lighthouse preservation, and so has the British custom of building very sturdy brick or stone lighthouses at most of the stations. Most of the onshore lighthouses are accessible to visitors, and several of them are major tourist attractions. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from Volume A of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA numbers are from Publication 114.
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Essex Lighthouses
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Greater London Lighthouses
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Kent Lighthouses
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![]() Lightships 86 (left) and 80 at Hoo (now Port Werburgh), September 2012 Google Maps photo by Chris jW |
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![]() Lightship 88 at Hoo, November 2009 photo copyright Anna Jenšíková; used by permission |
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![]() Trinity House Lightship 19 Varne and White Cliffs of Dover photo copyright Capt. Theo Hinrichs; used by permission |
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![]() South Foreland Light, St. Margaret-at-Cliffe, July 2011 Flickr Creative Commons photo by David Meggers |
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![]() Old Dungeness Light (with the new light in the right background), June 2007 Flickr Creative Commons photo by diamond geezer |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
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Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Eastern England | South: France North Coast | West: Southern England
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Posted August 27, 2004; checked and revised May 14, 2022. Lighthouses: 36, lightships: 17. Site copyright 2022 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.