Culture of the United Kingdom
The culture of the United Kingdom is rich and varied, and has been influential on culture on a worldwide scale.
Overview
The United Kingdom contains two of the world's most famous universities, the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, and has produced many great scientists and engineers including Isaac Newton, James Watt, Charles Darwin, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. A great number of world-changing inventions or discoveries were made by British people, including: Michael Faraday, Frank Whittle, Charles Babbage, Robert Baden-Powell, Alexander Fleming, John Logie Baird, William Caxton, Richard Trevithick, Humphry Davy, Robert Watson-Watt, Henry Bessemer, Tim Berners-Lee and others.
A great number of major sports originated in the United Kingdom, including: football, squash, golf, boxing, rugby, cricket, snooker, billiards, badminton and curling.
Playwright William Shakespeare is arguably the most famous writer in the world; other well-known writers include the Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne), Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Geoffrey Chaucer, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Mary Shelley, George Orwell and J. R. R. Tolkien. Important poets include Lord Byron, Robert Burns, Thomas Hardy, John Milton, Alfred Tennyson, Rudyard Kipling, Dylan Thomas and William Wordsworth.
Composers William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, John Blow, Henry Purcell, Edward Elgar, Arthur Sullivan, William Walton, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett have made major contributions to British music, and are known internationally. Living composers include John Tavener, Harrison Birtwistle, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Oliver Knussen.
Britain also supports a number of major orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Because of its location and other economic factors, London is one of the most important cities for music in the world: it has several important concert halls and is also home to the Royal Opera House, one of the world's leading opera houses. British traditional music has also been very influential abroad.
The UK was, with the US, one of the two main countries in the development of rock and roll, and has provided bands including The Beatles, Queen, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd, Status Quo, the Sex Pistols, the Manic Street Preachers, Oasis, and Radiohead. Since then it has also pioneered in various forms of electronic dance music including acid house, drum and bass and trip hop, all of which were in whole or part developed in the United Kingdom. Acclaimed British dance acts include Underworld, Massive Attack, The Chemical Brothers and Portishead. (see main article: Music of the United Kingdom).
Notable visual artists from the United Kingdom include John Constable, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, William Blake and J.M.W. Turner. In the 20th century, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Bridget Riley, and the pop artists Richard Hamilton and Peter Blake were of note. More recently still, the so-called Young British Artists have gained some notoriety, particularly Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.
The United Kingdom also has a vibrant tradition of theatre. The West End of London has a large number of theatres.Film and television production has also been both pioneering and prolific, with the two most important television networks being the BBC and ITV.
Public Holidays (known as Bank Holidays)
| Date | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 January | New Year's Day, (known as Hogmanay in Scotland) |
| 2 January | Hogmanay (Scotland only) |
| 17 March | St Patrick's Day (Northern Ireland only) |
| The Friday before Easter Sunday | Good Friday |
| The day after Easter Sunday | Easter Monday (not Scotland) |
| First Monday in May | May Day |
| Last Monday in May | Spring Bank Holiday |
| 12 July | Battle of the Boyne - Orangemen's Day (Northern Ireland only) |
| First Monday in August | Summer Bank Holiday (Scotland only) |
| Last Monday in August | Summer Bank Holiday (not Scotland) |
| 30 November | St Andrew's Day (Scotland only) |
| 25 December | Christmas Day |
| 26 December or 27 December* | Boxing Day |
| 31 December | Hogmanay (Scotland only) |
* Strictly, Boxing Day is the first weekday after Christmas, so it cannot fall on a Sunday. If Christmas Day is a Saturday, then Boxing Day is the following Monday, although in practice, this nicety is often ignored since both the Monday and the Tuesday will be public holidays in addition to the normal weekend.
Religion
Gallup International reports that 10 percent of UK citizens regularly attend religious services, compared to 15 percent of French citizens and 57 percent of American citizens.
Individual country articles
Literature
Music
Main article: Music of the United Kingdom
- Britpop
- List of Britpop musicians
- List of British blues musicians
- List of British pop musicians of the 1980s