St Margaret's Old Lighthouse is a Grade II listed building in the Dover local planning authority area, England. First listed on 22 August 1966. Lighthouse.

St Margaret's Old Lighthouse

WRENN ID
fallen-step-yew
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Dover
Constituency
Dover and Deal MP: Mike Tapp (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
22 August 1966
Type
Lighthouse
Address
St Margaret's Old Lighthouse, the Front, St. Margaret's at Cliffe
OS grid reference
TR 362 433
Coordinates
51.14096, 1.37613
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

St Margaret's Old Lighthouse is a lighthouse built in 1795 and rebuilt in 1843. It features red brick rendered with Roman cement and has a cast iron lantern. The lighthouse has an octagonal plan and stands two storeys high, topped with machicolated battlements. The lantern has latticed windows, and there are two four-centred arched doorways; one leads to the basement and the other, to the right, leads to the main staircase, with a niche between them. Inside, the staircase winds within the main chamber, which has cast iron floors. The walls were originally panelled and some of this panelling survives. The cast iron lantern once had a light that floated on a bed of mercury to maintain balance, although the glazing has been lost. A single-storey outbuilding mentioned in a previous survey has been lost due to the receding cliffline. The lighthouse was sold by Trinity House when the Goodwin Lightship was established.

Local climate

St Margaret's Old Lighthouse receives an average of 780 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 59% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 84% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 8 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 94% of listed buildings. Of these, 4 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • No related consent applications matched
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. St Margaret's Bay Windmill Grade II 130 m
  2. High Gaut Grade II 257 m
  3. South Foreland Lighthouse Grade II 352 m
  4. Coastguard Cottages Grade II 1.0 km
  5. Curfew Cottage Grade II 1.3 km
  6. Hope Inn Grade II 1.4 km
  7. Church of St Margaret Grade I 1.4 km
  8. Cliffe Tavern Hotel Grade II 1.4 km
  9. Cliffe House Grade II 1.5 km
  10. Cliffe Cottage Grade II 1.5 km