The Church of All Saints in Birchington is a large impressive building overlooking The Square where two ancient roads meet. Originally the North/South road led from the port of Gore-end to Minster Abbey and the second was the main road from Canterbury to Margate. In recent times, the Canterbury Road also takes the traffic that comes from the Thanet Way which creates chaos during the Summer months as cars and coaches queue up to make their way to their holiday destinations of Westgate, Margate and Cliftonville.

This is a large Church with a nave which is 94 feet in length but which started life as a Chapel to the Manor of Monkton and the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. In fact, the Church only had a curate assigned to it until the later part of the 19th Century when the Thanet towns gained in importance mainly due to the new Victorian interest of seas bathing.

The exterior of the Church is of Kentish cobbles and in excellent repair although there are one or two strange features in the present construction. On the Southwest corner three are some larger blocks of Kentish ragstone showing that the South aisle was a later addition to the Church and that these blocks which were probably scavanged from the original South wall.

Just outside the porchway to the Church is a place of pilgrimage for many for here lies the grave of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, b. Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, May 12, 1828,
d. Apr. 9, 1882 who was a cofounder of the pre-raphaelite movement. Elizabeth Siddal, whom he married in 1860, was a model for many of Rossetti's pictures and and his memory of her after she committed suicide by taking an overdose of laudanum in 1862,two years after a child was stillborn. Toward the end of his life, Rossetti sank into a morbid state, possibly induced by his disinterment (1869) of the manuscript poems he had buried with his wife and by savage critical attacks on his poetry. He spent his last years as an invalid recluse. On June 8, 1872 Rossetti attempted suicide by drinking an overdose of laudanum but was nursed back to health by his friends. In December of 1881 Rossetti suffered stroke which left him largely paralyzed and his already waning health deteriorated rapidly. Dante Gabriel Rossetti died on April 9, Easter Sunday, 1882. Rossetti had made clear that he did not wish to be buried next to Lizzie in London so he was laid to rest here in Birchington-on-Sea.

The Celtic Cross which stands over his grave was commssioned by his sister and poet, Christina Rossetti, and was designed by Rossetti's friend and fellow painter, Ford Maddox Brown.