South Foreland Lighthouse stands on the White Cliffs of Dover, Kent. For centuries, lighthouses have guided ships through the treacherous Goodwin Sands, a ten-mile sandbank off the coast of Kent. The current lighthouse was one of a pair constructed between 1841-3. Designed by the Scottish engineer James Walker for Trinity House, the building is significant for its architecture, its history of technological advancement and the social history of the keepers and their families who lived on site. It was the first lighthouse in the world to shine an electric light, and the site of the first ship-to-shore and international radio transmissions. In 1969 the light was fully automated, and the last keeper relocated. Trinity House decommissioned the lighthouse in 1988 and it was acquired by the National Trust the following year.
