Southfleet is a small compact village five miles SW of Gravesend in Kent; although it is a civil parish within Dartford Borough. The village is grouped around a crossroads and many of its buildings, including the Ship Inn, are extremely old. The parish church of St Nicholas has 14th century origins, although pre-Roman Christian remains have been found in the area.

Southfleet had a railway station on the Gravesend West branch line , which had been opened from Fawkham Junction near Longfield on 10 May 1886; the line was closed on 14 March 1968, although passenger traffic had ceased on 3 August 1953. The section of the trackbed south of the A2 road of that closed line has now been utilised for Phase 1 of Channel Tunnel Rail Link line to London Waterloo.