Culture UK
Who are the British? Do they really drink tea, eat roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and never leave home without an umbrella? Find out more about true Brits; past and present, myth and legend, fact and fiction.
Gun Law
In July 1901 a heatwave coincided with the end of six months’ official mourning for the death of Queen Victoria. Temperatures rocketed beyond 90 degrees Fahrenheit, causing deaths and a harvest crisis. Cycling was suddenly a cultural phenomenon. Hundreds of thousands of wheelers poured out from the suburbs and into the sun-burned English countryside, taking with them the latest essential accessory, ‘The Cyclist’s Friend’ – a scaled-down handgun…
Hysterical Victorian Women
Mad women have been a subject of scientific curiosity for centuries. But the legitimacy of the diagnoses Victorian women, in particular, received from the most celebrated psychiatric minds of the time is certainly questionable by today’s standards. What were these women being admitted for? There were several diseases native to the period that were attributed to both sexes, but the most significant that pertained only to females was hysteria. Were these women truly insane? Or were they simply the undesirables of society where incarceration was a convenient option?
The Mods
Mods and Rockers are synonymous with the 1960s gang culture. Whilst the Rockers wore leather jackets and jeans, the Mods wore Fred Perry and Ben Sherman shirts, with a Parka coat over. They rode European scooters like Lambrettas and Vespas and listened to a mix of Motown, Northern Soul and bands such as The Who…
Inigo Jones
The Father of the English Palladian style, Inigo Jones was a legendary architect, bringing a taste of the Italian Renaissance to some of the most notable buildings in England.
Air Clubs of World War Two
‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much been owed by so many to so few’. – Winston Churchill. It’s not immediately obvious what a caterpillar, a goldfish, a guinea pig and a boot with wings all have in common. However, these are all names of air clubs that were formed before or during World War Two…
The Winged Boot Club
The ‘Late Arrivals Club’ or Winged Boot Club was born during the Western Desert Campaign in 1941. During this conflict many airmen were shot down, bailed out of aircraft, or crash landed deep in the desert. They then had to make their way back to safety, often from behind enemy lines…
The Goldfish Club
The main aim of the unique Goldfish Club is ‘to keep alive the spirit of comradeship arising from the mutual experience of members surviving, “coming down in the drink”…
