#british-culture — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #british-culture, aggregated by home.social.
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The Most British Office in London
Someone chose to put two Union Jack armchairs and an exercise ball in their office window for all of London to see. I spotted this walking past an office block and the arrangement stopped me mid-stride. The chairs are properwingbacks, upholstered in full flag regal...
https://inphotos.org/2026/04/08/the-most-british-office-in-london/
#Architecture #BritishCulture #London #minimal #office #Photo #Photography #StreetPhotography #UnionJack #UnitedKingdom #Urban #window
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The Most British Office in London
Someone chose to put two Union Jack armchairs and an exercise ball in their office window for all of London to see. I spotted this walking past an office block and the arrangement stopped me mid-stride. The chairs are proper wingbacks, upholstered in full flag regalia, flanking a slightly deflated-looking exercise ball that's doing its best to fit in. Someone in that office has a sense of humour, and I'm grateful they put it by the window.https://inphotos.org/2026/04/08/the-most-british-office-in-london/
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https://observer.co.uk/culture/books/article/who-will-care-for-harry-and-meghan
>>The Windsor B-list is accustomed to a luxury and deference that everyone resents, but without the wherewithal or expertise to pursue successful lives beyond the palace.<<
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MADEIN -- Nagomi
I know she was only three when she left London, but I like to imagine Nagomi coming back to her place at the end of a hard day, making herself a nice cup of tea, listening to the BBC, and eating a bag of Walker's cheese and onion crisps.
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According to British #folklore ghost activities are heightened at #wintersolstice & #Christmas 👻
This new book in our collection by @delythbadder & @thefolklorepodcast presents & categorises some #Welsh #ghoststories now available in English for the 1st time!
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https://www.themirror.com/news/weird-news/aristocrat-searching-wife-good-breeder-1525428
Of course this horrible old man is not typical of England today, yet the fact of Britain having spawned him pains this Brit.
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Woodstock Dreams in the Hall of Bones
Two visitors to the Natural History Museum in London admire the huge skeleton in the main hall.
The Natural History Museum’s most famous skeleton used to be “Dippy,” a diplodocus that dominated that main hall for 112 years. In 2017, it was replaced with a blue whale skeleton (which is what you see here). Dippy wasn’t actually a real skeleton though; it was a composite cast made from plaster and steel. The irony? For over a century, visitors thought they were seeing an actual dinosaur when they were really looking at a rather elaborate replica.
Apertureƒ/1.8CameraSM-G998BFocal length6.7mmISO50Shutter speed1/100s#architecture #bandMerchandise #blueWhaleSkeleton #britishCulture #counterculture #denimJackets #familyVisit #festivalCulture #generationalConnection #glassCeiling #gothicArchitecture #heritageTourism #londonLandmarks #museumPhotography #musicHeritage #naturalHistoryMuseumLondon #photo #photography #streetPhotography #vintageAesthetic #woodstock
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Global Advertising in Piccadilly Square
I visited London briefly during the summer with some friends and Piccadilly Square was one of our destinations. There were so many people from all walks of life gathered there it was a rich representation of life in the city.
Tonight at Blarney Photography Club I gave a talk there about the trip with my fellow traveller, Annette. Over the course of an hour we dove through 156 images between us. A grand snapshot of the city.
Apertureƒ/8CameraILCE-7RM5Focal length82mmISO400Shutter speed1/400s#advertisingScreens #britishCulture #cityLife #culturalDiversity #iconicLondon #illuminatedAdvertising #london #londonDiversity #londonLandmarks #londonStreets #londonTourism #multiculturalLondon #photo #photography #piccadillyCircus #sikhCommunity #streetPhotography #unitedKingdom #urbanPhotography #westEndLondon
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The rhythm & calm authority of the #ShippingForecast; for 100 years on the #BBC, it’s guided sailors & soothed listeners across the #BritishIsles. 🌧️🌊
My paintings #AttentionAllShipping & #SailingBy capture a little of that magic, the #poetry of weather, sea & sound.
See my paintings here 💙
👉 https://bit.ly/ShipFore#MaritimeArt #BBC #SeaAreas #Cartography #BritishCulture #UKHeritage #NauticalArt #Painting #Seascape #MetOffice #NationalTreasure #bbcradio4
#wordsofwisdomwednesday #wednesdaywisdom -
The fact that people from the USA say 'Bounce house' and Brits say 'Bouncy castle' EITHER illustrates British fondness for aristocracy OR Americans' deficiency in whimsy. Or both.
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How are Little Mix regarded in Britain these days? National treasure? Largely forgotten? Beloved by mum and dad?
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I just read and reviewed Sweet Home Alabarden Park by T.J. O’Shea 📚
https://womenusingwords.wordpress.com/2025/03/30/sweet-home-alabarden-park/
#divorce #newbeginnings #royalty #friendships #family #BritishCulture #SouthernCulture #tradition #grief #loss #love #wlw #relationships @tjoshea.bsky.social @bellabooks.bsky.social
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One pleasant surprise of being on Mastodon is my reading of and interaction with Australians here.
As a consequence, I've started to think more about Australia and what it does and does not have in common with the UK and other English speaking countries with a settler colonial history.
I've also been prompted to think more about the influence of Australians on British culture. Three names that come to mind are Clive James, Richard Neville, and Germaine Greer.
Clive James exercised a formative influence on critical writing about television in the UK. I'm not sure that influence was entirely benign, but it was certainly important.
Richard Neville is largely forgotten these days, but he was an important figure in the British counterculture of the late sixties and early seventies. I will be posting more about him in the near future.
Germaine Greer must count as the most important of the three. Her 1970 "The Female Eunuch" set the agenda for much of the debate about feminism in Britain in the years that followed.
Image: A composed satellite image of Australia -- Wikimedia Commons -- Public domain.
#Australia #CliveJames #RichardNeville #GermaineGreer #AustralianCulture #BritishCulture #Television #Counterculture #Feminism
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On the Cusp: Days of ’62 by David Kynaston
According to the Big 60s Sort Out podcast, the Sixties began in 1960. According to me, a pedant, they began in 1961 because we don’t count from zero (and they ended in 1970). According to Phillip Larkin, they began in 1963, while proponents of “the Long Sixties” argue that they began in 1956 and ended in 1973. My current read, by Christopher Bray, makes the case for 1965 as “the year modern Britain began”, but my previous read, by David Kynaston (him again) zooms in on the summer of 1962.
Here we are. I declare my interest: this is the year I was born, though in December, so after the events of this book. What is this book? It has the feel of a lockdown project. It’s part of Kynaston’s history of modern Britain series, which begins with Austerity Britain and then moves on through Family Britain (1951-57), Modernity Britain (57-62), and A Northern Wind (62-65). So what is this? Both Modernity Britain and A Northern Wind cover 1962, so why publish a book in the middle called On the Cusp?
Well, I suppose there’s a clue in the title. The series as a whole is called ‘Tales of a New Jerusalem’, but in my mind it has the same title as that Moody Blues album Days of Future Passed. On the Cusp implies that we’ve reached a tipping point and that the author has decided to take stock around that tipping point before proceeding. He is, in effect, arguing that 1962 is the year that modern Britain began.
I’m interested in the publication dates, and convinced that lockdown had something to do with this. The previous volume, Modernity Britain, came out in 2015. This appeared in 2022, and A Northern Wind was published in 2024. So, he’s working on A Northern Wind for nearly 10 years, and possibly finds himself wrestling with its length. (I wonder how Mark Lewisohn is getting on with the second volume of he ‘All These Years’ series?) Presumably, the publishers want the book to be around 7-800 pages, so what is he to do with this 200-page section about the summer of 1962? And what would the reader make of a book that promised to take you up to 1965, but spends its first 200 pages leading up to the Beatles first single? Oh, and that first James Bond film, a coincidence John Higgs already wrote about in Love and Let Die.
And then lockdown happens, and the solution must have presented itself. I’ll just do a separate book, which can be published sooner, and give me a bit more time to work on the rest.
Here we are. That’s what this book is: an almost day-by-day account of the events of summer 1962. The cricket season, the last Gentlemen v. Players games, Steptoe and Son on the telly, the BBC hesitating over the pilot episodes of That Was The Week That Was, The Beatles on the radio, playing gigs around the country, the Rolling Stones presenting themselves as a blues band. It’s written in the style of one of those newspaper gossip columns, or the NME’s back-page “Teazers” column, with its anthropomorphised three little dots. Sometimes events get just a sentence, or a clause. And then sometimes Kynaston pauses and spends some time discussing what the politicians were up to, or how people reacted to an event. There’s very little mention of Harold Wilson, which is fascinating – because he is months away from becoming Labour leader when Hugh Gaitskell suddenly dies. A weird parallel to the way Tony Blair succeeded John Smith.
I remember my mum talking about certain cricketers as ‘gentlemen’ or ‘players’ and I remember thinking, what are you on about? And of course the reason I didn’t know was because that whole silly thing died its death a few months before I was born.
The book finishes, in true “Teazers” style, with several lists. There are 10 establishment figures whose day is done; and then 10 “new establishment” figures whose day is to come. And then a long old list, a record-breaking sentence, telling us all about the significant characters who will impact the next few years, and what they are doing on that fateful day when “Love Me Do” hit the shops.
Why did I pick this up when I haven’t read the previous two books yet. I plan to, but then this was only 200 pages, and I picked it up with British Summer Time Begins and 1965. I think I wanted to read about the world I vaguely knew but barely remember, the world of paraffin heaters and black and white telly. Interestingly (for me, I mean) 1965 begins with Winston Churchill’s funeral, which I do remember even though I had only just turned 2 when it took over the television and was on instead of Watch with Mother.
Anyway, it’s good, this. But you should probably, unlike me, read the books in the correct chronological order.
#1960s #1962 #60s #Beatles #BritishCulture #BritishHistory #history #Kynaston #Sixties
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I know what you will say - "Of course, we're well aware of the news of the #conkers world, who isn't?!" But maybe there are some enthusiasts of #BritishCulture out there who haven't heard the latest scandals.
Also, first time an American won overall! -
Big Ben in London, England.
#bigben #london #england #travel #explore #adventure #history #architecture #londontravel #visitbigben #londonarchitecture #londonlove #londonexplore #londonphotography #londonvacation #londontourism #britishculture #europe #cityscape #britishdesign #britishnature #britishlifestyle #londoncity #landmark #londonsunset
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The Salt Cellar in Peak District, England.
#saltcellar #peakdistrict #england #travel #explore #adventure #nature #landscape #saltcellartravel #visitsaltcellar #saltcellarlove #saltcellarexplore #saltcellarphotography #saltcellarvacation #saltcellartourism #britishculture #europe #mountains #outdoors #hiking #britishlife #britishtravel #saltcellarpeakdistrict #britishnature #saltcellartrip #saltcellarsunset
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Tower of London, England.
#toweroflondon #london #england #travel #explore #adventure #history #architecture #toweroflondontravel #visittoweroflondon #toweroflondonarchitecture #londonlove #londonexplore #londonphotography #londonvacation #londontourism #britishculture #europe #cityscape #britishdesign #britishnature #britishlifestyle #londoncity #thames #toweroflondonsunset
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Tower Bridge in London, England.
#towerbridge #london #england #travel #explore #adventure #history #architecture #towerbridgetravel #visittowerbridge #towerbridgearchitecture #londonlove #londonexplore #londonphotography #londonvacation #londontourism #britishculture #europe #cityscape #britishdesign #britishnature #britishlifestyle #londoncity #thames #towerbridgesunset
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Windsor Castle, England
#windsorcastle #england #travel #explore #adventure #history #architecture #windsorcastletravel #visitwindsorcastle #windsorcastlearchitecture #windsorcastlelove #windsorcastleexplore #windsorcastlephotography #windsorcastlevacation #windsorcastletourism #britishculture #europe #cityscape #britishdesign #britishnature #britishlifestyle #windsorcastlecity #royalfamily #uk #castle
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Went to a antiques fair and one lad had a bust of Hitler sat next to some faded (but matted) photographic prints of women in bondage. Both of these things were for sale next to a set of commemorative Only Fools and Horses pint glasses. #britishculture
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British comedian Michael McIntyre has a bit in which he claims that any English word can be used to describe being drunk. Now, two German linguists have tested the claim. "It is highly surprising that drunkonyms are still under-researched from a linguistic perspective," the authors wrote in their new paper, which was published in the Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association. @arstechnica's @JenLucPiquant has the TL;DR.
The original research paper lists 546 synonyms for drunkenness. We want to know which of these four did NOT appear.
#Culture #BritishCulture #Drinking #Food #Alcohol #Research #Comedy
