parish (town), Thanet district, administrative and historic county of Kent, southeastern England. The parish lies east of Canterbury, on the east coast of the Isle of Thanet (Thanet, Isle of). Hengist and Horsa, brothers who were legendary leaders of the first Anglo-Saxons in Britain, landed nearby in the 5th century. Kingsgate, previously St. Bartholomew's Gate, commemorates the landing of Charles II in 1683 on his way from London to Dover. In the 1840s the town was frequented by Charles Dickens, and tablets mark the houses associated with him, notably Bleak House, atop a cliff near the pier. Pop. (2001) 22,712.