Culture of England

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Whitehall by Francis Dodd (1920) displaying the Palace of Westminster
Pages from the "Songs of Shakespeare", illustrated by H.C. Hoskyns Abrahall (19th century)
Interior of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford
Culture of England
History
People
Languages
Traditions
Folklore
Cuisine
Festivals
Religion
Art
Literature
Music and Performing arts
Media
Sport
Monuments
  • World Heritage Sites
Symbols

The culture of England is diverse, and defined by the cultural norms of England and the English people. Owing to England's influential position within the United Kingdom it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate English culture from the culture of the United Kingdom as a whole.[1] However, tracing its origins back to the early Anglo-Saxon era, England cultivated an increasingly distinct cultural heritage. This cultural development persisted throughout the subsequent Anglo-Norman era, and the reign of the Plantagenet Dynasty.

Humour, tradition, and good manners are characteristics commonly associated with being English.

secretary of state for culture, media and sport is the government minister responsible for the cultural life of England.[3]

Many scientific and technological advancements originated in England, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. The country has played an important role in engineering, democracy, shipbuilding, aircraft, motor vehicles, mathematics, science and sport.

Morris dancing

Architecture

Main article: Architecture of England

Many ancient

Roman forts, stockades and aqueducts.[4] It was the Romans who founded the first cities and towns such as London, Bath, York, Chester and St Albans. Perhaps the best-known example is Hadrian's Wall stretching right across northern England.[5] Another well-preserved example is the Roman Baths at Bath, Somerset.[5]

English architecture begins with the

architecture of the Anglo-Saxons. At least fifty surviving English churches are of Anglo-Saxon origin, although in some cases the Anglo-Saxon part is small and much-altered. All except one timber church are built of stone or brick, and in some cases show evidence of reused Roman work. The architectural character of Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical buildings ranges from Coptic-influenced architecture in the early period, through Early Christian basilica influenced architecture, to (in the later Anglo-Saxon period) an architecture characterised by pilaster-strips, blank arcading, baluster
shafts and triangular-headed openings.

Durham Cathedral, dating from 1093

Many

St. Swithun
.

All these saints brought pilgrims to their churches, but among them the most renowned was Thomas Becket, the late Archbishop of Canterbury, assassinated by henchmen of King Henry II in 1170. As a place of pilgrimage Canterbury was, in the 13th century, second only to Santiago de Compostela. In the 1170s Gothic architecture was introduced at Canterbury and Westminster Abbey. Over the next 400 years it developed in England, sometimes in parallel with and influenced by Continental forms, but generally with great local diversity and originality.

Following the

great houses, universities and parish churches
.

royal weddings,[8] Canterbury Cathedral, one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England; Salisbury Cathedral, which has the tallest church spire in the UK; and York Minster, which is the largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe.[9]

Secular

Queen Anne and Palladian.[10] Architecture during the Tudor dynasty flourished with magnificent royal palaces, such as Nonsuch Palace, Palace of Placentia, Hampton Court Palace, Hatfield House, Richmond Palace and Palace of Beaulieu
.

One of the most acclaimed English architects was

Sir Christopher Wren. He was employed by King Charles II to design and rebuild London and many of its ruined ancient churches following the Great Fire of London in 1666.[11][12] Georgian and Neoclassical architecture advanced after the Age of Enlightenment, evoking achievements in elegant architecture and city planning; the Royal Crescent at Bath is one of the best examples of this. The Regency of George IV is noted for its elegance and achievements in architecture and urban planning.[13] Regency style is also applied to interior design and decorative arts of the period, typified by elegant furniture and vertically striped wallpaper, and to styles of clothing; for men, as typified by the dandy Beau Brummell and for women the Empire silhouette. In early modern times there was an influence from Renaissance architecture until by the 18th century. Gothic forms of architecture had been abandoned and various classical styles were adopted. During the Victorian era, Gothic Revival architecture developed in England and was preferred for many types of buildings and city planning. Victorian architecture was widespread and pioneering engineering achievements (bridges, canals, railways, train stations, modern sewer systems) were constructed.[14]

The

National Trust
.

The English landscape garden at Stourhead, described as a 'living work of art' when first opened in the 1750s

Landscape gardening as developed by

public parks and gardens which appeared around the world in the 19th century.[16]

Inspired by the great

RHS Chelsea Flower Show is held every year by the Royal Horticultural Society and is said to be the largest gardening show in the world.[18]

Following the building of the world's first

West Pier and Clevedon Pier, were Grade 1 listed. The Birnbeck Pier in Weston-super-Mare is the only pier in the world linked to an island. The National Piers Society gives a figure of 55 surviving seaside piers in England.[21]

Art and design

Main article: English art
metalwork yet found
. It consists of almost 4,600 items and metal fragments.

England has Europe's earliest and northernmost ice-age

Viking invasions.[24]

As in most of Europe at the time, metalwork was the most highly regarded form of art by the

Fuller brooch), glass and enamel.[24] Medieval English painting, mainly religious, had a strong national tradition and was influential in Europe.[25]

landscape painting, such as the work of J. M. W. Turner and John Constable. Portraitists like Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds
were also significant.

In the 18th century,

watercolour painting, mostly of landscapes, became an English specialty, with both a buoyant market for professional works, and a large number of amateur painters, many following the popular systems found in the books of Alexander Cozens and others. By the beginning of the 19th century the English artists with the highest modern reputations were mostly dedicated landscape painters, showing the wide range of Romantic
interpretations of the English landscape.

Pictorial satirist

Norwich school of painters, the first provincial art movement outside of London. Its prominent members were "founding father" John Crome (1768–1821), John Sell Cotman (1782–1842), James Stark (1794–1859), and Joseph Stannard (1797–1830).[30]

Flatford Mill ('Scene on a Navigable River') by John Constable, c. 1816

During the

Sir Joshua Reynolds, who also specialised in clothing their subjects in an eye-catching manner. Gainsborough's Blue Boy is one of the most famous and recognized portraits of all time, painted with very long brushes and thin oil colour to achieve the shimmering effect of the blue costume.[31]
Gainsborough was also noted for his elaborate background settings for his subjects.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood achieved considerable influence after its foundation in 1848 with paintings that concentrated on religious, literary, and genre subjects executed in a colourful and minutely detailed style. Its artists included John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and subsequently Edward Burne-Jones. Also associated with it was the designer William Morris, whose efforts to make beautiful objects affordable for everyone led to his wallpaper and tile designs to some extent defining the Victorian aesthetic and instigating the Arts and Crafts movement. The Royal Society of Arts is an organisation committed to the arts and culture.[32]

The

National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern
(the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year).

Heritage and tourism

Main article: English Heritage
King's College in Cambridge is regarded as one of the greatest examples of late English Gothic architecture. It has the world's largest fan vault, while the chapel's stained-glass windows and wooden chancel screen are considered some of the finest from their era.[33]

A number of

umbrella organisations are devoted to the preservation and public access of both natural and cultural heritage, including English Heritage and the National Trust
. Membership with them, even on a temporary basis, gives priority free access to their properties.

English Heritage is a governmental body with a broad remit of managing the historic sites, artefacts and environments of England. It is currently sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. English Heritage manages more than 400 significant buildings and monuments in England. They also maintain a register of thousands of listed buildings,[34] those which are considered of most importance to the historic and cultural heritage of the country.[35]

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
is a charity which also maintains multiple sites. One of the largest landowners in the United Kingdom, the Trust owns almost 250,000 hectares of land and 780 miles of coast. Its properties include over 500 historic houses, castles, archaeological and industrial monuments, gardens, parks and nature reserves.

17 of the 25 United Kingdom

UNESCO World Heritage Sites fall within England.[37] Some of the best known of these include Hadrian's Wall, Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites, Tower of London, Jurassic Coast, Westminster, Roman Baths in Bath, Saltaire, Ironbridge Gorge, and Studley Royal Park. The northernmost point of the Roman Empire, Hadrian's Wall, is the largest Roman artefact anywhere: it runs a total of 73 miles in northern England.[38]

Jack In the Green, a traditional English folk custom being celebrated in Hastings Old Town, known for its many pre-Victorian buildings.[39]

London's British Museum hosts a collection of more than seven million objects[40] is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world, sourced from every continent, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present.[41] The library has two of the four remaining copies of the original Magna Carta (the other two copies are held in Lincoln Castle and Salisbury Cathedral) and has a room devoted solely to them. The British Library Sound Archive has over six million recordings, many from the BBC Sound Archive, including Winston Churchill's wartime speeches.

The British Library in London is the national library and is one of the world's largest research libraries, holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats; including around 25 million books.[42] The most senior art gallery is the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, which houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900.[43] The Tate galleries house the national collections of British and international modern art; they also host the famously controversial Turner Prize.[44] The Ashmolean Museum was founded in 1677 from the personal collection of Elias Ashmole, was set up in the University of Oxford to be open to the public and is considered by some to be the first modern public museum.[45] In 2011 there were more than 1,600 museums in England.[46] Most museums and art galleries are free of charge.[47]

The Roman Baths in Bath; a temple was constructed on the site between 60–70CE in the first few decades of Roman Britain.

A

historical marker scheme in the world, is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the UK to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event.[48] The scheme was the brainchild of politician William Ewart in 1863 and was initiated in 1866.[48] It was formally established by the Royal Society of Arts in 1867, and since 1986 has been run by English Heritage.[48]

Tourism plays a significant part in the economic life of England. In 2018, the United Kingdom as a whole was the world's 10th most visited country for tourists,

UNESCO World Heritage Sites fall within England.[50] VisitEngland is the official tourist board for England. VisitEngland's stated mission is to build England's tourism product, raise its profile worldwide, increase the volume and value of tourism exports and develop England and Britain's visitor economy.[51] In 2020, the Lonely Planet travel guide rated England as the second best country to visit that year, after Bhutan.[52]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Arts and Heritage is the minister with responsibility over tourism in England, including museums, art galleries, public libraries and the National Archives.[53]

Literature

Main article: English literature
William Hogarth's depiction of a scene from Shakespeare's The Tempest is an example of how English literature influenced English painting in the 18th century.

Early authors such as

Dream of the Rood, The Order of the World, and the secular prose of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,[55] along with Christian writings such as Judith, Cædmon's Hymn and hagiographies.[54] Following the Norman conquest Latin continued amongst the educated classes, as well as an Anglo-Norman literature
.

Pearl Poet and Langland. William of Ockham and Roger Bacon, who were Franciscans, were major philosophers of the Middle Ages. Julian of Norwich, who wrote Revelations of Divine Love, was a prominent Christian mystic. With the English Renaissance literature in the Early Modern English style appeared. William Shakespeare, whose works include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, remains one of the most championed authors in English literature.[56]

Divine Right of Kings. Marvell was the best-known poet of the Commonwealth,[58] while John Milton authored Paradise Lost during the Restoration
.

Some of the most prominent philosophers of the Enlightenment were John Locke, Thomas Paine, Samuel Johnson and Jeremy Bentham. More radical elements were later countered by Edmund Burke, who is regarded as the founder of conservatism.[59] The poet Alexander Pope with his satirical verse became well regarded. The English played a significant role in romanticism: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, John Keats, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Jane Austen, William Blake and William Wordsworth were major figures.[60]

In response to the

Brontë sisters, George Eliot, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, H. G. Wells and Lewis Carroll.[62] Since then England has continued to produce novelists such as George Orwell, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, C. S. Lewis, Enid Blyton, Aldous Huxley, Agatha Christie, Terry Pratchett, J. R. R. Tolkien, and J. K. Rowling.[63]

Due to the expansion of English into a

history plays about the English kings), Jane Austen, Arnold Bennett, and Rupert Brooke (whose poem "Grantchester" is often considered quintessentially English). Other writers are associated with specific regions of England; these include Charles Dickens (London), Thomas Hardy (Wessex), A. E. Housman (Shropshire), and the Lake Poets (the Lake District). The English playwright and poet William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist of all time.[64][65]

The 20th-century English crime writer Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time.[66] Agatha Christie's mystery novels are outsold only by Shakespeare and The Bible. Described as "perhaps the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture", the non-fiction works of George Orwell include The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working class life in the north of England.[67] Orwell's eleven rules for making tea appear in his essay "A Nice Cup of Tea", which was published in the London Evening Standard on 12 January 1946.[68]

In 2003 the

King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The society is a cultural tenant at London's Somerset House.[71]

Music

See also:
Folk music of England and Music of the United Kingdom
Edward Elgar is one of England's most celebrated classical composers.

England has a long and rich musical history, and more English people attend live music performances than football matches.

sea shanties, jigs, hornpipes and dance music. It has its own distinct variations and regional peculiarities. Ballads featuring Robin Hood, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in the 16th century, are an important artefact, as are John Playford's The Dancing Master and Robert Harley's Roxburghe Ballads
collections.

Some of the best-known songs are

Jack and Jill, London Bridge Is Falling Down, The Grand Old Duke of York, Hey Diddle Diddle and Humpty Dumpty. Traditional English Christmas carols include We Wish You a Merry Christmas, The First Noel, I Saw Three Ships and God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
.

England, like most European countries, has undergone a roots revival in the last half of the 20th century. English music has been an instrumental and leading part of this phenomenon, which peaked at the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s. The English Musical Renaissance was a hypothetical development in the late 19th and early 20th century, when English composers, often those lecturing or trained at the Royal College of Music, were said to have freed themselves from foreign musical influences, to have begun writing in a distinctively national idiom.[73]

The achievements of the

King George IV. Famous academy alumni include Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Sir Elton John and Annie Lennox
.

The Royal College of Music is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, established by royal charter in 1882.[74]

The emergence of figures such as

Last Night of the Proms features patriotic music.[76]

A new trend emerged from

shoegazing, acid house, garage, trip hop, drum and bass and dubstep.[77] The Sex Pistols and The Clash were pioneers of punk rock. Some of England's leading contemporary artists include George Michael, Sting, Seal, Rod Stewart, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Oasis, Blur, Radiohead, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Coldplay, Def Leppard, Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Adele and Ed Sheeran
.

Cinema

See also: Cinema of the United Kingdom
Alfred Hitchcock is often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker,[78] and was described as "a straightforward middle-class Englishman who just happened to be an artistic genius."[79]

England has had a considerable influence on the history of the cinema, producing some of the greatest actors, directors and motion pictures of all time, including Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, David Lean, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, John Gielgud, Peter Sellers, Julie Andrews, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet and Daniel Day-Lewis. Hitchcock and Lean are among the most critically acclaimed directors of all time.[80] Hitchcock's first thriller, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1926), helped shape the thriller genre in film, while his 1929 film, Blackmail, is often regarded as the first British sound feature film.[81]

Major film studios in England include

film scores, the London Symphony Orchestra first performed film music in 1935.[84]

Christopher Lee (seen here as Dracula in 1958) starred in many of Hammer's British horror films.

The

international co-productions and English actors, directors and crew feature regularly in Hollywood films. Ridley Scott was among a group of English filmmakers, including Tony Scott, Alan Parker, Hugh Hudson and Adrian Lyne, who emerged from making 1970s UK television commercials.[86] The UK film council ranked David Yates, Christopher Nolan, Mike Newell, Ridley Scott and Paul Greengrass the five most commercially successful English directors since 2001.[87] Other contemporary directors from England include Sam Mendes, Guy Ritchie and Steve McQueen. Current actors include Tom Hardy, Daniel Craig, Benedict Cumberbatch and Emma Watson. Acclaimed for his motion capture work, Andy Serkis opened The Imaginarium Studios in London in 2011.[88] The visual effects company Framestore in London has produced some of the most critically acclaimed special effects in modern film.[89] Many successful Hollywood films have been based on English people, stories or events. The 'English Cycle' of Disney animated films include Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, Robin Hood and Winnie the Pooh.[90]

Theatre

Main articles:
Elizabethan theatre and Restoration comedy

The peak of English drama and theatre is said to be the age of

Mummers Play, performed during the Christmas season. Court masques were particularly popular during the reign of Henry VIII. The first permanent English theatre, the Red Lion, opened in 1567.[91] The first successful theatres, such as The Theatre, opened in 1576. The establishment of large and profitable public theatres was an essential enabling factor in the success of English Renaissance
drama.

Archaeological excavations on the foundations of the Rose and the Globe in the late 20th century showed that all the London theatres had individual differences, but their common function necessitated a similar general plan.[92] The public theatres were three stories high, and built around an open space at the centre. Usually polygonal in plan to give an overall rounded effect, although the Red Bull and the first Fortune were square. The three levels of inward-facing galleries overlooked the open centre, into which jutted the stage: essentially a platform surrounded on three sides by the audience. The rear side was restricted for the entrances and exits of the actors and seating for the musicians. The upper level behind the stage could be used as a balcony, as in Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra, or as a position from which an actor could harangue a crowd, as in Julius Caesar.[93]

Procession of characters from Shakespeare's plays

The growing population of England, the growing wealth of its people, and their fondness for spectacle produced a dramatic literature of remarkable variety, quality, and extent. Genres of the period included the

Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First. History plays dealt with more recent events, like A Larum for London which dramatizes the sack of Antwerp in 1576. Tragedy was a very popular genre. Marlowe's tragedies were exceptionally successful, such as Dr. Faustus and The Jew of Malta. The audiences particularly liked revenge dramas, such as Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. The four tragedies considered to be Shakespeare's greatest (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth
) were composed during this period.

James I and Charles I
.

The re-opening of the theatres in 1660 after the Restoration of

Greek and Roman
classical comedies, combining the various plotlines in adventurous ways.

Restoration audiences liked to see good triumph in their tragedies and rightful government restored. In comedy they liked to see the love-lives of the young and fashionable, with a central couple bringing their courtship to a successful conclusion (often overcoming the opposition of the elders to do so). Heroines had to be chaste, but were independent-minded and outspoken; now that they were played by women, there was more mileage for the playwright in disguising them in men's clothes or giving them narrow escape from rape. These playgoers were attracted to the comedies by up-to-the-minute topical writing, by crowded and bustling plots, by the introduction of the first professional actresses, and by the rise of the first celebrity actors. This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn. In the mid-1690s, a brief second Restoration comedy renaissance arose, aimed at a wider audience.

The unsentimental or "hard" comedies of

Restoration rake (actually never a very common character in Restoration comedy). The single play that does most to support the charge of obscenity levelled then and now at Restoration comedy is probably Wycherley's masterpiece The Country Wife (1675), whose title contains a lewd pun and whose notorious "china scene" is a series of sustained double entendres.[94]

During the second wave of Restoration comedy in the 1690s, the "softer" comedies of

William Congreve and John Vanbrugh set out to appeal to more socially diverse audience with a strong middle-class element, as well as to female spectators. The comic focus shifts from young lovers outwitting the older generation to the vicissitudes of marital relations. In Congreve's Love for Love (1695) and The Way of the World (1700), the give-and-take set pieces of couples testing their attraction for one another have mutated into witty prenuptial debates on the eve of marriage, as in the latter's "Proviso" scene. Vanbrugh's The Provoked Wife (1697) has a light touch and more humanly recognisable characters, while The Relapse (1696) has been admired for its throwaway wit and the characterisation of Lord Foppington, an extravagant and affected burlesque fop with a dark side.[95]

As a reaction to the decadence of Charles II era productions,

baroque illusionistic painting, gorgeous costumes, and special effects such as trapdoor tricks, "flying" actors, and fireworks
.

Today there are a variety of theaters in London's West End. Andrew Lloyd Webber dominated the West End for many years; his musicals also conquered Broadway and were made into films. The prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company operates out of Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon and performs primarily, but not exclusively, his works. Important modern playwrights are Alan Ayckbourn, John Osborne, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard and Arnold Wesker.

Performing arts

The Proms
during the summer.

Large outdoor

orchestral classical music concerts held at the Royal Albert Hall, is a major cultural event held annually.[99] The season is a significant event in English culture and in classical music. Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek described the Proms as "the world's largest and most democratic musical festival".[100]

The Proms concerts, which have been held there every summer since 1941. It is host to more than 390 shows in the main auditorium annually, including classical, rock and pop concerts, ballet, opera, film screenings with live orchestral accompaniment.[101] England is home to numerous major orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra.[102]

A staple of English easide culture, the quarrelsome couple

jugglers, performing dogs, and a clown to fill time between his own demonstrations – the modern circus was born.[107][108] The Hughes Royal Circus was popular in London in the 1780s. Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal, among the most popular circuses of Victorian England, showcased William Kite. Joseph Grimaldi, the most celebrated of clowns from England is considered the father of modern clowning.[109]

topical humour with a story loosely based on a well-known fairy tale.[110] It is a participatory form of theatre, in which the audience sing along with parts of the music and shout out phrases to the performers, such as "It's behind you".[111]

Music hall is a type of theatrical leisure popular from the early Victorian era to the mid 20th century. The precursor to variety shows of today, music hall involved a mixture of popular songs, comedy, speciality acts and variety entertainment. English performers who honed their skills at pantomime and music hall sketches include Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, George Formby, Gracie Fields, Dan Leno, Gertrude Lawrence and Harry Champion.[112][113] English music hall comedian and theatre impresario Fred Karno developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue in the 1890s, and Chaplin and Laurel were among the music hall comedians who worked for him.[114] A leading film producer stated; "Fred Karno is not only a genius, he is the man who originated slapstick comedy. We in Hollywood owe much to him."[115]

The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual event that has taken place on the streets of Notting Hill, London since 1966.[116] Led by the British African-Caribbean community, the carnival has attracted around one million people, making it Britain's biggest street festival and one of the largest in the world.[116] Also of note is the extensive impact of Irish culture for St. Patrick's Day. The largest St Patrick's Day Parade takes place in Digbeth, Birmingham, where there is a strong Irish community.

Cuisine

Main article: English cuisine
Ploughman's lunch with bread, cheese, salad, butter, a pork pie, and chutney
Pork pie
Sunday roast with roast beef and yorkshire pudding

Since the

Roman Catholic Continental affiliations.[118]

The cuisine of England has, however, recently undergone a revival, which has been recognised by food critics with some good ratings in

Forme of Cury from the royal court of Richard II.[120] Traditional meals have ancient origins, such as bread, vegetables, cheese and onions,[121] popular today as the Ploughman's lunch (usually accompanied by butter, pickles, chutney, ham, fresh green salad, boiled eggs, and apples), pottage and frumenty; roasted and stewed meats; meat and game pies; and freshwater and saltwater fish.[122][123]

The last half century has seen significant changes in food manufacturing, retailing and consumption;[124] an interest in different international cuisines; and the establishment of large restaurants, food outlets, coffee shops and supermarkets. However, distinctively English dishes,[125] artisanal production, delicatessens, home cooking and traditional establishments such as pubs, cafes and tearooms remain widespread. The 1990s saw the rise of the gastropub, serving traditional English dishes, and farmers' markets, where English cheeses, breads, vegetables and other items are sold.[126] Food culture in England has been taken more seriously since the 1960s due to writers and broadcasters such as Derek Cooper, Matthew Fort, Jonathan Meades and Nigel Slater.[127]

a slice of the pie". Suet is an ingredient in many traditional English puddings, such as Norfolk Plough Pudding.[130] Dumplings made with flour, suet and seasonings[131] and pearl barley[132] may be cooked with casseroles and stews. Potatoes are served roasted, boiled, baked, mashed, and as chips; popular varieties in England including King Edward, Jersey Royal, Charlotte potato,[133] and Maris Piper.[134]

Typical English main courses include

sausage and mash, and toad in the hole.[145] Butchers sell artisanal sausages, which are sometimes made from the meat of pedigree breeds such as Gloucester Old Spot pigs. English sausages generally contain about 70 per cent meat, bread rusk and seasonings.[146] Cumberland, Lincolnshire, Newmarket and Oxford sausages are regional varieties.[147] The best-known types of English ham are from Wiltshire and York. Game dealers sell venison and wild game, such as pheasant, partridge and grouse.[148] Jugged rabbit and hare
are traditional dishes.

A

English mustard;[152] lamb, typically a leg, shoulder or saddle of lamb, with mint sauce or redcurrant jelly; pork, typically leg, shoulder or loin of pork, with crackling and apple sauce; honey-glazed gammon with cloves and parsley sauce; and poultry, such as chicken, duck (e.g. Aylesbury duck)[153] and goose.[154] Consumption of chicken increased from the 1950s when the introduction of poultry factories, pioneered in England by JB Eastwood Ltd. owned by John Bealby Eastwood,[155] significantly reduced the price.[156]

An

roast potatoes, chestnuts, brussels sprouts and other vegetables.[104] It is sometimes accompanied by cooked gammon and usually followed by Christmas pudding, traditionally made on stir-up Sunday, with rum or brandy butter, mince pies filled with mincemeat and Christmas cake.[3] Biscuits in the form of gingerbread men are associated with Christmas, as are oranges, which are traditionally placed in Christmas stockings
.

Chaucer
.

The most popular types of fish in England, mainly imported through seaside and coastal towns,[157] are salmon, cod, haddock, tuna and prawns.[158] Fish and chips, sometimes served with mushy peas, are sold by fish and chip shops.[159] Brixham in Devon has the highest value catch in England;[160] other domestic fisheries include Cornwall and Hastings. Dover sole is so named because it could historically be sourced from the fishing port of Dover. Potted shrimps, prawn cocktail, whitebait, scallops and slices of smoked salmon, such as London Cure,[161] are starters served with a squeeze of lemon and brown bread. Oysters are cultivated along the east coast of England, for example at Whitstable. Crabs are particularly associated with the Norfolk town of Cromer. Samphire is collected in coastal areas and served with fish.[162]

Light meals and snacks include green salads served with salad cream,[163] cauliflower cheese, macaroni cheese, Welsh rarebit,[164] fishcakes, baked potatoes, cheese on toast, beans on toast, mushrooms on toast, spare ribs, Cornish pasties,[165] Scotch eggs,[166] sausage rolls, pork pies,[167] gala pie and bacon sandwiches. The sandwich was named after the Earl of Sandwich[168] and is very common as a lunchtime and picnic item with a wide range of fillings.[169] Stotties, filled with ham and pease pudding, are eaten particularly in the north-east of England. Asparagus is served with butter alone or with other ingredients such as eggs and ham; the English asparagus season runs from late April to the end of June.

A poll in 2011 found that the most popular soups in England were

Brown Windsor soup appeared in the 1953 Ealing film comedy The Captain's Paradise and, although opinion is divided as to whether and for how long it actually existed in real life,[175] recipes for it can now be found. Worcestershire sauce[176] and brown sauce, along with ketchup, are distinctive English condiments.[177] Bovril and Marmite
are food pastes with a distinctive flavour.

English desserts include (bramley) apple pie, cherry pie, bread and butter pudding, bread pudding, fruit crumble, fruit cobbler, Eve's pudding, Dorset apple cake, baked apple, gooseberry fool, sticky toffee pudding, treacle tart, treacle sponge pudding (made with golden syrup),[178] jam roly-poly, spotted dick, bakewell tart, trifle, rice pudding, eton mess, cheesecake[179] Sussex pond pudding, summer pudding, Cabinet pudding, English custard tart and, since the 1970s, lemon meringue pie and banoffee pie.[180] Hot puddings are often served with custard.[181] Some puddings, such as jelly, blancmange and chocolate sponge with chocolate custard, are associated with school dinners. Fruit salad is a mixture of fresh fruit and canned fruits such as peaches and apricots served in syrup. Fruits grown in England include apples, pears, plums, cherries, damsons, blackberries, black currants, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries (often served with cream) and rhubarb.[182] Ice creams are sometimes sold from ice cream vans which use distinctive chimes to attract customers[183]

The

jam, marmalade or honey,[188] and a cup of coffee or tea[189] Alternative breakfast dishes include boiled eggs[190] with toast soldiers, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, poached eggs on toast, and Craster kippers.[191] Porridge has long been eaten[192] in England as a breakfast cereal. Fruit juice and yogurt
are more recent additions.

Afternoon tea

Traditionally,

Hot cross buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday.
Tea