Gravesend, a port and borough of Kent, on the right bank of the Thames, 24 miles ESE. of London. It consists of the old town, with narrow, irregular streets, and of the handsome new town on the high ground. In the vicinity are extensive market-gardens ; and many of the inhabitants are employed in fishing. Gravesend forms the limit of the port of London; and here pilots and custom-house officers are taken aboard vessels going up the river. The salubrious air and beautiful scenery at Gravesend render it a favourite watering-place with Londoners. It carries on some shipbuilding, iron-founding, soap-making, and brewing, and a considerable trade in supplying ships' stores. Gravesend was incor-porated under Elizabeth, and since 1867 has returned one member to parliament. Pop. of the municipal borough (1901) 27,175; of the parliamentary borough, 39,766. At Gravesend the fleets of early voyagers, as that of Willoughby in 1553, and of Frobisher in 1576, assembled, and here the lord mayor, aldermen, and city companies of London were wont to receive all strangers of eminence, and to conduct them up the river in state. A great fire in 1850 did damage to the amount of £100,000. See Arden's History of Gravesend (1843).