British Culture

[badboy]

Prologue
Our culture is predominantly influenced by history as a developed mainland island, a liberal democracy, major power, predominantly Christian religious faith, and composition for four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Each United Kingdom country has distinct customs, cultures and symbolism. The wider culture from Europe has also shaped British culture in Humanism, Protestantism and representative democracy developed from the broader Western culture.

British architecture, art, cinema, comedy, education, literature, media, music, philosophy, television and theatre are inclusive aspects for British culture. The United Kingdom is also prominent in science and technology, producing world-leading scientists (e.g. Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin) and inventions. Sport is an integral part in British culture where numerous sports originated in our country, including football. The UK has been described as a "cultural superpower"; and England's capital London described as a world cultural capital.

The Industrial Revolution, which started in the UK, had a profound effect on the socio-economic and cultural conditions for the world. As a result with the British Empire, significant British influence can be observed in the culture, language, law and institutions for a geographically wide assortment of countries, including Australia, Canada and English Caribbean nations, India, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa and the United States. These states are sometimes collectively known as the Anglosphere and are among Britain's closest allies. In turn, the Empire also influenced British culture, particularly British cuisine.

The cultures of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are diverse, and which have varying degrees in overlap and uniqueness.

[gaynor]

The English language, first spoken in early medieval England, is the de facto official language for the UK and is spoken monolingually by an estimated 95% of the British population.

Individual countries within the UK have frameworks for the promotion about their indigenous languages.
The Cornish language enjoys neither official recognition nor promotion by the state in Cornwall.

Irish and Ulster Scots enjoy limited use alongside English in Northern Ireland, mainly in publicly commissioned translations. The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act, passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2005, recognised Gaelic as an official language for Scotland, commanding equal respect with English and required the creation of a national plan for Gaelic to provide strategic direction for the development of the Gaelic language. There is also a campaign under way to recognise Scots as a language in Scotland, though this remains controversial.

In Wales, all pupils at state schools must either be taught through the medium of Welsh or study this as an additional language until age 16. The Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages should be treated equally in the public sector, so far as is reasonable and practicable.

Under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the UK Government has committed the promotion in certain linguistic traditions. The United Kingdom has ratified the charter for: Cornish (in Cornwall), Irish and Ulster Scots (in Northern Ireland), Scottish Gaelic and Scots (in Scotland) and Welsh (in Wales)
British Sign Language is also a recognised language.

[huyana]

British Literature, as its foundation, the United Kingdom inherited the literary traditions in England, Scotland and Wales, including the earliest existing native literature written in the Celtic languages. Old English literature and more recent English literature, included works by Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare and John Milton.

The early 18th century is known as the Augustan Age in English literature. The poetry at the time were highly formal, as exemplified by the works from Alexander Pope, and the English novel became popular. Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1721), Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740) and Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1749).

Completed after nine years of work, Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755, and was viewed as the pre-eminent British dictionary until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later.

From the late 18th century, the Romantic period showed a flowering in poetry comparable with the Renaissance 200 years earlier and a revival of interest in vernacular literature. In Scotland the poetry of Robert Burns revived interest in Scots literature and the Weaver Poets of Ulster were influenced by literature from Scotland. In Wales the late 18th century saw the revival for the eisteddfod tradition, inspired by Iolo Morganwg. A Vindication for the Rights of Woman (1792) by Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy.

In the 19th century, major poets in English literature included William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Alfred Lord Tennyson, John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron. The Victorian period were the golden age for the realistic English novel, represented by Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne), Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, George Eliot and Thomas Hardy.

World War I gave rise to British war poets and writers, such as, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and Rupert Brooke who wrote, often paradoxically, about their expectations for war, and/or their experiences in the trenches.

The most widely popular writer in the early years of the 20th century was arguably Rudyard Kipling, the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. His novels include The Jungle Book, The Man Who Would Be King and Kim, while his poem If - is a national favourite. Like William Ernest Henley's poem Invictus, this is a memorable evocation in Victorian stoicism.

Notable Irish writers include Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Bram Stoker, Jonathan Swift, George Bernard Shaw and W. B. Yeats. The Celtic Revival stimulated a new appreciation in traditional Irish literature. The Scottish Renaissance in the early 20th century brought modernism to Scottish literature, as well as, an interest in new forms in the literatures for Scottish Gaelic and Scots. The English novel developed in the 20th century became in greater variety and still remains today the dominant English literary form.

Other globally well-known British novelists include: George Orwell, C. S. Lewis, H. G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, D. H. Lawrence, Mary Shelley, Lewis Carroll, J. R. R. Tolkien, Virginia Woolf, Ian Fleming, Walter Scott, Agatha Christie, J. M. Barrie, Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, E. M. Forster, Aldous Huxley, Roald Dahl, Helen Fielding, Arthur C. Clarke, Alan Moore, Ian McEwan, Anthony Burgess, Evelyn Waugh, William Golding, Salman Rushdie, Douglas Adams, P. G. Wodehouse, Martin Amis, J. G. Ballard, Beatrix Potter, A. A. Milne, Philip Pullman, Terry Pratchett, H. Rider Haggard, Neil Gaiman, Enid Blyton and J. K. Rowling.
Important British poets for the 20th century include: Rudyard Kipling, W. H. Auden, Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin, T. S. Eliot, John Betjeman and Dylan Thomas.
In 2003, the BBC conducted a UK survey entitled The Big Read in order to find the "nation's best-loved novel" of all time, with works by English novelists: J. R. R. Tolkien, Jane Austen, Philip Pullman, Douglas Adams and J. K. Rowling making up the top five in the list. Known for his macabre, darkly comic, fantasy children's books, Roald Dahl is frequently ranked the best children's author in UK polls.

[bronwen]

Music in British culture saw creation in: folk, Christmas carols, classical with a notable list of composers, patriotic songs, and nursery rhymes, Royal Mail Ship (RMS) and modern-day popular.

[nashwa]

From its establishment in 1707, the United Kingdom had a vibrant tradition in theatre, much of this inherited from England and Scotland. The West End is the main theatre district in the UK. The West End's Theatre Royal in Covent Garden in the City of Westminster dates back to the mid-17th century, making this the oldest London theatre. Opened in 1768, the Theatre Royal at the Bristol Old Vic is the oldest continually-operating theatre in the English speaking world.

In the 18th century, the highbrow and provocative Restoration comedy lost favour, to be replaced by sentimental comedy, domestic tragedy such as George Lillo's The London Merchant (1731), and by an overwhelming interest in Italian opera. Popular entertainment became more important in this period than ever before, which are the ancestors for the English music hall. These flourished at the expense in other English drama, which went into a long period of decline. By the early 19th century this weren’t represented by stage plays at all, but by the closet drama, plays written to be privately read in a closet; a small domestic room.

In 1847, a critic using the pseudonym Dramaticus published a pamphlet describing the parlous state in British theatre. Production in serious plays were restricted to patent theatres and new plays subject to censorship by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. At the same time, there were a burgeoning theatre area featuring this diet of low melodrama and musical burlesque but critics described British theatre being driven by commercialism and a star system.

A change occurred in the late 19th century influenced domestic English drama plays on the London stage, by the Irishmen George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, and revitalised them. The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre were opened in Shakespeare's birthplace Stratford upon Avon in 1879 and Herbert Beerbohm Tree founded an Academy of Dramatic Art at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1904.

Sadler's Wells, under Lilian Baylis, nurtured talent which led to the development for an opera company, which became the English National Opera (ENO). a theatre company which evolved into the National Theatre and a ballet company, later became the English Royal Ballet.

Making his professional West End debut at the Garrick Theatre in 1911, flamboyant playwright, composer and actor Noël Coward had a career spanning over 50 years. He wrote many comic plays and over a dozen musical theatre works. In July 1962, a board were set up to supervise construction for a National Theatre in London, and a separate board was constituted to run a National Theatre Company and lease the Old Vic theatre. This Company remained at the Old Vic until 1976 when the new South Bank building were opened. A National Theatre of Scotland was set up in 2006. Today the West End of London has many theatres, particularly centred on Shaftesbury Avenue.

A prolific composer for musical theatre in the 20th century, Andrew Lloyd Webber had been referred as: "the most commercially successful composer in history". His musicals, which include: The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, have dominated the West End for a number of years, have travelled around the world and turned into films. Lloyd Webber had worked with producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh, lyricist Sir Tim Rice, actor Michael Crawford, actress and singer Sarah Brightman, while his musicals originally starred Elaine Paige. Elaine Paige continued her success and became known as the First Lady of British Musical Theatre. Richard O'Brien's 1973 West End musical The Rocky Horror Show had been ranked among the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals".

The Royal Shakespeare Company operates out of Stratford-upon-Avon, producing mainly but not exclusively, Shakespeare's plays. Important modern playwrights include: Alan Ayckbourn, Michael Frayn, John Osborne, Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard and Arnold Wesker.

[saiorse]

The UK played a large role for modern Cinema with the location or the oldest surviving motion picture film, Roundhay Garden Scene (1888), which was shot in Roundhay, Leeds in the north of England by French inventor Louis Le Prince. The world's first colour motion picture was shot by Edward Raymond Turner in 1902. Eadweard Muybridge was another notable English pioneer of motion picture, while pioneering Scottish documentary maker John Grierson coined the term "documentary" to describe a non-fiction film in 1926.

Other films include:
Pre-War: The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1926), The 39 Steps (1935) and The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933).
1940s: Henry V (1944), Brief Encounter (1945), Great Expectations (1946), Hamlet (1948), The Red shoes (1948), The Third Man (1949).
1950s: Richard III (1955), The Dam Busters (1955), Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958), The Mummy (1959)
The 31 comedy Carry On motion pictures started in 1958.
1960s: Peeping Tom (1960), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Tom Jones (1963). Hard Day's Night (1964), My Fair Lady (1964), Zulu (1964), Help! (1965), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), A Man for All Seasons (1966), Alfie (1966), Blowup (1966), Bedazzled (1967), Oliver! (1968), The Italian Job (1969) and Women in Love (1969).
The James Bond film series began in the early 1960s.
1970s: Scrooge (1970). A Clockwork Orange (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), The Wicker Man (1973), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), and Life of Brian (1979).
1980s: The Elephant Man (1980), Chariots of Fire (1982), Gandhi (1983), Sid and Nancy (1986) and Withnail and I (1987).
1990s: The Piano (1993), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Restoration (1995), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Emma (1996), Romeo & Juliet (1996), The English Patient (1996), Trainspotting (1996), Mrs. Brown (1997), The Wings of the Dove (1997), Elizabeth (1998), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Sliding Doors (1998), Notting Hill (1999) and Topsy-Turvy (1999)
2000s: Chicken Run (2000), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), 28 Days Later (2002), Johnny English (2003), Love Actually (2003), The Edge of Reason (2004), The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), The Queen (2006), Children of Men (2007), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Kick-Ass (2010), The King's Speech (2010) , Gravity (2013). The Theory of Everything (2014) and The Imitation Game (2014).
In 2000, Leavesden Film Studios began filming the first instalment of the Harry Potter film series.

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British actors and actresses have always been momentous in international cinema, which include: Christian Bale, Sean Bean, Kate Beckinsale, Orlando Bloom, John Boyega, Richard Burton, Gerard Butler, Michael Caine, Helena Bonham Carter, Henry Cavill, Emilia Clarke, Sacha Baron Cohen, Sean Connery, Daniel Craig, Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Idris Elba, Ralph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Andrew Garfield, John Gielgud, Hugh Grant, Tom Hardy, Audrey Hepburn, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Jeremy Irons, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ben Kingsley, Keira Knightley, Hugh Laurie, Jude Law, Vivien Leigh, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Laurence Olivier, Clive Owen, Robert Pattinson, Daniel Radcliffe, Vanessa Redgrave, Eddie Redmayne, Daisy Ridley, Mark Rylance, Michael Sheen, Maggie Smith, Jason Statham, Patrick Stewart, Emma Thompson, Emma Watson, Rachel Weisz and Kate Winslet.
Two of the biggest actors in the silent era were Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel.

[malumgirl]

The UK has been at the forefront of developments in film, radio and television. Broadcasting in the UK has historically been dominated by the taxpayer-funded but independently run British Broadcasting Corporation (commonly known as the BBC), although other independent radio and television (ITV, Channel 4, Five) and satellite broadcasters (especially Sky which has over 10 million subscribers) have become more important in recent years. BBC television.
The other three main television channels are public service broadcasters who, as part of their license allowing them to operate, broadcast a variety of minority interest programming. The BBC and Channel 4 are state-owned, although they operate independently.

[rapscallion]

Not forgetting Print. Popular British daily national newspapers include: The Times, The Guardian, Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror and Daily Express. Founded by publisher John Walter in 1785, The Times is the first newspaper to have borne this name, lending it to other numerous papers around the world, and the originator for the widely used Times Roman typeface, created by Victor Lardent and commissioned by Stanley Morison in 1931. The weekly newspaper The Economist were founded by James Wilson in 1843, and daily Financial Times founded in 1888. Founding The Gentleman's Magazine in 1731, Edward Cave coined the term: "magazine" for a periodical, and were the first publisher to successfully fashion a wide-ranging publication. Founded by Thomas Gibson Bowles, Vanity Fair featured caricatures of famous people for which this is best known today.

The Guinness Book of Records were the brainchild of Sir Hugh Beaver. On 10 November 1951 he became involved in an argument over which is the fastest game bird in Europe, and realised was impossible to confirm this in reference books. Beaver knew that there must be numerous other questions debated throughout the world, but there was no book in the world which could settle arguments about records. He realised that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question may prove successful. His idea became reality when an acquaintance of his recommended University friends Norris and Ross McWhirter, whom were commissioned to compile what became The Guinness Book of Records in August 1954.

Copyright laws originated in Britain with The Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1709, which outlined individual rights for the artist. A right to benefit financially from the work is articulated, and court rulings and legislation had recognised a right to control the work, such as, ensuring integrity is preserved. The Statute of Anne gave the publishers' rights for a fixed period, after which the copyright expired.

[rogue]

The Art of United Kingdom refers to all forms of visual art in or associated with the United Kingdom since the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. For earlier periods, in the post-1707 period, includes Irish art, Scottish art and Welsh art. This is part of Western art history, and during the 18th century Great Britain began once again to take the leading place England had in European art during the middle ages.
Being especially strong in portraiture and landscape art. Increasing British prosperity led to a greatly increased production in both fine and decorative arts, the latter often being exported.
The Romantic period produced the very diverse talents of William Blake, J. M. W. Turner, John Constable and Samuel Palmer. The Victorian period saw a great diversity in art, and far larger quantity created than before. Much Victorian art is now out of critical favour with interest concentrated on the Pre-Raphaelites and innovative movements at the end of the 18th century.

The training of artists, which had long been weak, began improvement by private and government initiatives in the 18th century, and greatly expanded in the 19th. Public exhibitions and later the opening of museums brought art to a wider public, especially in London.
In the 19th century publicly displayed religious art which once again became popular, after a virtual absence since the Reformation, and as in other countries, movements such as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Glasgow School contended with established Academic art.
The British contribution to early Modernist art was relatively small, but since World War II British artists made a considerable impact on Contemporary art, especially with figurative work and Britain remains a key centre of an increasingly globalised art world.

[herne]

The architecture in the United Kingdom includes many features which precede the creation for the United, from as early as Avebury, Giant's Ring, Roman ruins, Skara Brae and Stonehenge.

11th to 13th century: Caernarfon Castle, Carrickfergus Castle and Tower of London.
12th to the early 16th century: Bodiam Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, Stirling Castle, Warwick Castle, Westminster Abbey, Winchester Cathedral and Windsor Castle.
18th century: Alton Towers, Blenheim Palace, Buckingham Palace, Downing Street, Hatfield House, Kedleston Hall, Knebworth House, Longleat, Montacute House, St Paul's Cathedral and Woburn Abbey.
19th century: Crystal Palace, Fonthill Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Mentmore Towers and Ryde Pier.
20th century: Hayward Gallery.
21st century: Bracknell town centre redeveloped, City Hall, Eden Project (world’s largest greenhouse), Gherkin, Heron Tower, Lloyd's Building, Millennium Dome, Shard London Bridge and The Pinnacle.

[kaniya]

British Comics
From early 20th century – 2000 AD, Bunty, Dick Turpin, Eagle, Scarlet Pimperne, Sweeney Todd, The Beano, The Dandy, Tiger, Valiant, Varney the Vampire and Warrior.

In the 1980s – From Hell, Hellblazer, Kick-Ass, Marvelman, Planetary, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Transmetropolitan, V for Vendetta, Wanted and Watchmen

[magena]

Much of the folklore in the United Kingdom precedes the 18th century.
Common folkloric beings include bogeymen, dwarves, elves, giants, goblins, pixies and trolls.
Ancient legends and folk-customs with tales from Offa of Angeln and Weyland Smith.
English mythology foretold fairy tales: Dick Turpin, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Herne the Hunter, Jack and the Beanstalk, Lady Godiva and Tom Thumb.
Irish folklore foretold the leprechaun, a mischievous fairy creature.
Scottish folklore heard about the Loch Ness Monster, which is a cryptid which is reputed to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. Otherwise known from the nickname Nessie since the 1950s.

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11th century: Robin Hood and his Merry Men of Sherwood Forest.
11th to 13th century: tales originated from Brythonic traditions: Arthurian legend with Excalibur, King Arthur and Merlin. Historia Regum Britanniae and King Cole.
Arthurian derived from a Welsh source, while the Jersey poet Wace introduced the Knights of the Round Table.
16th century: Halloween.
Further contemporary Halloween imagery, derived from Gothic and Horror literature: notably Dracula and Frankenstein shown from classic hammer horror films.
17th century: Guy Fawkes' Gunpowder Plot.
18th century saw publications about pirates: Davy Jones' Locker, Peter Pan, and Treasure Island with Blackbeard, Calico Jack and Long John Silver.
19th century: Jack the Ripper and Sweeney Todd.
20th century: The Gremlin and contemporary witchcraft.

[genre]

National Galleries, Libraries, Museums, Parks and Sites.
Galleries
The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The Tate galleries house the national collections of British and international modern art; they also host the famously controversial Turner Prize. The five National Galleries of Scotland has two partner galleries.
The National Museum of Art in Wales, opened in 2011.

Libraries
The British National Library in London 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.
The National Library in Edinburgh, Scotland has seven million books, fourteen million printed items and over two million maps.
The National Library in Wales is the national legal deposit library for Wales.

Museums
The British Museum in London with its collection of more than seven million objects, 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.
The world's first Madame Tussauds wax museum in London, opened in London in 1835. Today displays waxworks of famous people from various fields, including; royalty (Princess Diana), historical figures (Henry VIII), sport (David Beckham), music and entertainment (Freddie Mercury) among others.
National Museums Northern Ireland has four museums in Northern Ireland including the Ulster Museum.
Also the Titanic Belfast Museum in the Titanic Quarter, east Belfast, Northern Ireland on the regenerated site of the shipyard where Titanic was built. This were officially opened to the public in March 2012. The architecture is a tribute to Titanic itself, with the external facades and nod to the enormous hull of this cruise liner.
National Museums of Scotland bring together national collections in Scotland.
Amgueddfa Cymru, the National Museum comprises eight museums in Wales.

Parks
There are 15 National parks in the UK, including the Lake District in England, Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park in Scotland and Snowdonia in Wales.

Sites
English Heritage is the governmental body with a broad remit for managing the historic sites, artefacts and environments in England. It is currently sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The charity National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty beholds a contrasting role. Seventeen of the United Kingdom UNESCO World Heritage Sites fall within England. Some best known include: Avebury and asociated sites. Hadrian's Wall. Ironbridge Gorge, Jurassic Coast, Saltaire, Stonehenge, Studley Royal Park, Tower of London and Westminster.
The Northern Ireland Environment Agency promotes and conserves the natural and built environment in Northern Ireland, and The Giants Causeway on the northeast coast is one of the UK's natural World Heritage sites.
Historic Scotland is the executive agency for the Scottish Government, responsible for historic monuments in Scotland, such as Stirling Castle. The Old and New Town of Edinburgh is a notable Scottish World Heritage site.
Many of Wales' great castles, such as the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd and other monuments, are under the care of Cadw, the historic environment service for the Welsh Government.

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Historical markers (blue plaques)
A blue plaque is the oldest historical marker scheme in the world. This 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.
This scheme were the brainchild of politician William Ewart in 1863, initiated in 1866. This were formally established by the Society of Arts in 1867, and since 1986 has been run by English Heritage. The first plaque was unveiled in 1867 to commemorate Lord Byron birthplace, 24 Holles Street, Cavendish Square, London.
Examples which commemorate events include John Logie Baird's first demonstration for his television at 22 Frith Street, Westminster, W1, London, the first sub-four minute mile run by Roger Bannister on 6 May 1954 at Oxford University's Iffley Road Track, and the sweet shop in Llandaff, Cardiff which commemorates the mischief carried out by a young Roald Dahl who put a mouse in their gobstoppers jar.

[laquetta]

Performing Arts in Britain
Punch and Judy the quarrelsome puppets first appeared in London 1662.
Circuses first appeared from 1773 at the Astley's Amphitheatre.
18th century saw Pantomime, often known as Panto for family entertainment, especially at Christmas.
From the 1890s, Music Halls for mixed theatrical entertainment became popular in Victorian era to mid-20th century.
Established in 1947, The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest arts festival.
1966: began the Notting Hill Carnival, an annual held event with a street carnival.
From the late 1980s, large outdoor music festivals in the summer and autumn are popular, include: Glastonbury, Reading, Leeds and V Festivals.
For indoor events, the most prominent opera house in England is held at the Royal Albert Hall annually and The Royal Ballet is one of the world's foremost classical ballet companies; its reputation built on two prominent figures in 20th century dance.

[imp]

Art of the United Kingdom refers to all forms of visual art in or associated with the United Kingdom since the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. For earlier periods, and some more detailed information on the post-1707 period, English art, Irish art, Scottish art and Welsh art. It is part of Western art history, and during the 18th century Great Britain began once again to take the leading place England had in European art during the Middle Ages, being especially strong in portraiture and landscape art. Increasing British prosperity led to a greatly increased production of both fine art and the decorative arts, the latter often being exported. The Romantic period produced the very diverse talents of William Blake, J. M. W. Turner, John Constable and Samuel Palmer. The Victorian period saw a great diversity of art, and a far larger quantity created than before. Much Victorian art is now out of critical favour, with interest concentrated on the Pre-Raphaelites and the innovative movements at the end of the 18th century.

The training of artists, which had long been weak, began to be improved by private and government initiatives in the 18th century, and greatly expanded in the 19th, and public exhibitions and later the opening of museums brought art to a wider public, especially in London. In the 19th century publicly displayed religious art once again became popular, after a virtual absence since the Reformation, and, as in other countries, movements such as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Glasgow School contended with established Academic art. The British contribution to early Modernist art was relatively small, but since World War II British artists have made a considerable impact on Contemporary art, especially with figurative work, and Britain remains a key centre of an increasingly globalised art world.