Broadstairs the 1930s by A.H. Simison (the photographic chemist) entitled "Ramsgate (The Kent Coast at its best) Pictorially Presented", describes Broadstairs town as having approached modernisation and urban development "always with a consistent policy of retaining those characteristics for which it has for so long been renowned". The town has retained many aspects of historical interest, besides its maritime history. Amongst these is its notable religious history, evoked by places such as the Shrine of Our Lady, Bradstowe. Lifeboats arrived in Broadstairs in 1851. News of the loss of the Irish packet with 250 lives, on the sands off Margate on
Bleak House, Broadstairs in which it is situated. Charles Dickens spent summer holidays at Fort House in the 1850s and 1860s and it was there in that "airy nest" above the harbour that he wrote "David Copperfield". Fort House was dubbed Bleak House in the early part of the 20th century. Somebody asserted that it was the Bleak House referred to in Dickens' 1853 novel, and the name stuck. There has been much dispute over the truth of the claim. Some people believe that the house from which Dickens took his inspiration is far distant from Broadstairs. What can be certain is that