Broadstairs Castle, formerly part of the estate of Lord Holland but now converted into private residences. Broadstairs has a very mild maritime climate. The town is situated from both Dover and Canterbury, and about from the M25, London's orbital motorway. The town is also served by Southeastern train services to/from London, via either North Kent and Medway or Canterbury and High Speed 1. It is unusual in that trains to London can run either way through the station. As a seaside resort, the economy is mainly based around tourism; there are hotels and guest houses on and near the seafront to
Bleak House, Broadstairs the house held a special attraction for Dickens, and was the residence he "most desired" in his most favourite of watering places, Broadstairs. In the novel "Sophy Laurie", published in 1865, William Carew Hazlitt writes: "It is at Broadstairs they are staying; in the big, bleak house that stands alone on a peak of the chalk cliff, as if it were some sentinel set over the rovers up and down the sea." For much of the 20th century, Bleak House was in two quite distinct parts, serving as both a private residence and a Dickens memorial museum. In 2012 the