Garlinge · Margate · Isle of Thanet

The History of
Dent de Lion Gatehouse

Daundelyon · Daundeleon · Daundelion · Dandelion · Dent-de-Lyon — the many names of Thanet’s only medieval fortified seat.

A Grade II*-listed scheduled ancient monument and one of fewer than 200 fortified-house gatehouses surviving in England. The towered gateway — built of alternating red and yellow brick with knapped flint — is all that now remains of a once-great manor. Below, eight centuries of its story, illustrated, from Norman landholders to the Turner who painted it. Tap any card to read more; tap any image to enlarge it.

Drawn from the local history kindly researched and written by M White

J.M.W. Turner's watercolour Dent de Lion, near Margate, c.1791
“Dent de Lion, near Margate”, c.1791 — J.M.W. Turner.
(Image offline — Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1975.3.227.)
“Dent de Lion, near Margate” — Joseph Mallord William Turner, c.1791. Watercolour, graphite, pen & brown ink.
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection (Public Domain), via Wikimedia Commons.