129 listed buildings, 1 of them Grade II*

Parish Church of St Peter the ApostleGrade II* listedThe North Foreland Lighthouse Including Attached Lighthouse Keepers HousesGrade II listedThe York GateGrade II listedThe Tartar Frigate Public HouseGrade II listedYarrow Building at Thanet CollegeGrade II listed+6See all photos

Photos from Wikimedia Commons and Geograph, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its licence; names open the building’s page or its official list entry.

c. 1890

1890

c. 1890

1899

1919

Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server. Each credit opens the image’s page with its full description and history.

Historic England lists buildings in three grades: Grade I for buildings of exceptional interest (about 2.5% of all listed buildings), Grade II* for particularly important buildings of more than special interest (about 5.8%), and Grade II for buildings of special interest (about 91.7%). Listing protects the whole building, inside and out.

Every entry on the National Heritage List for England whose point lies inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary. One list entry can cover a terrace or a group of buildings. Neighbourhood dots: the population-weighted centre of each Census 2021 output area, coloured by its neighbourhood’s (LSOA’s) share of homes built before 1919 (Valuation Office Agency, March 2025).

Of the 129 entries, 33 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

Historic England’s conservation areas layer, supplied by councils (incomplete in places, so a page fact, never graded). Hectares are the part of each area inside the built-up area.

The first 10 entries were listed in 1950. 75 came in 1974, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 7 have been added in the last 15 years.

Two measures, each ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more, with protected heritage counting twice as much as the age of homes. Protected heritage counts each listed building by its grade (Grade I three points, II* two, II one), each scheduled monument and battlefield two, and each registered park or garden by its grade; it is ranked both per 10,000 residents and as a total, so a village with one fine church doesn’t outrank a historic city. The second measure is the share of homes built before 1919, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records. History is a character grade: it describes the town and isn’t part of the overall grade.

17% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was 1955–64, which added 13% of today’s homes.

Valuation Office Agency, council tax stock of properties by build period, 31 March 2025, for the neighbourhoods (LSOAs) that make up the town, split by where their residents live. Homes with no recorded build period (92 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.

Thomas Russell Crampton

Henry Frederick Stephenson

Lionel Pigot Johnson

1800182518501875190019251950

Thomas Russell Crampton1816–1888 · British engineer (1816–1888)

LJ

Lionel Pigot Johnson1867–1902 · British poet (1867-1902)

Henry Frederick Stephenson1842–1919 · Royal Navy officer, courtier, and Arctic explorer (1842-1919)

Everyone born in Broadstairs → Birthplaces from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons.

Old houses are part of Broadstairs’s character: 24% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. All told, the list holds 129 listed buildings, including Parish Church of St Peter the Apostle. Its older streets lie in 3 conservation areas, the first designated in 1970. Of the whole list, 72% are houses, terraces and villas.

Thomas Russell Crampton (1816), Lionel Pigot Johnson (1867) and Henry Frederick Stephenson (1842) were all born here before 1900. More than half went on the list in a single year, 1974: 75 of 129. The rest is about typical: like most towns its size, it has no Grade I building; and per resident it sits near the middle of UK towns.