Gravesend to Broadstairs

John Sergeant follows in the footsteps of pioneer photographer Francis Frith and his team who, from the 1860s, took thousands of photographs documenting the rapidly changing cityscapes and landscapes of Victorian Britain.

In this episode, John travels along the North Kent coast from Gravesend to Broadstairs and finds out how much it has changed since Frith was there over a century ago; he also takes his own modern-day photographs. He hitches a ride on a Thames sailing barge, finding out what people used to do in their leisure time in the 19th century, and drops in on the new owners of Charles Dickens's favourite holiday home.