IV.

Culture and the Arts of the United Kingdom

Britain’s rich cultural heritage and traditions are the main reasons why it has millions of overseas visitors each year. The attractions include the many theaters, museums, art galleries, and historical buildings to be found in all parts of the United Kingdom, as well as the numerous annual arts festivals and the pageantry associated with the British royal family. The expansion of tourism, combined with the collapse of many traditional economic activities, has helped encourage the growth since the 1980s of the so-called heritage industry, seen in the explosion of “living” museums illustrating Britain’s rural and industrial past.

A.

Historical Context of the Arts

The United Kingdom has a long history of excellence in the arts. British contributions to literature are remarkable in their richness, variety, and consistency. For many centuries in Britain and elsewhere, art and music were the domain of the nobility, who patronized the arts and set the tone and style into the Victorian era. Britain’s artistic output was focused on literature in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the country came late to Renaissance influences in art and architecture that had been prevalent on the Continent since the 15th century. As a Protestant nation, Britain did not experience the full flowering of the baroque era that followed the Renaissance in Roman Catholic countries, such as Italy and Spain, during the 17th and 18th centuries (see Baroque Art and Architecture). English style during the late 18th century was more reminiscent of the classical world of the Greeks and Romans. In the 19th century, a movement called romanticism sought to make art more emotional. Exotic places, the beauty of nature, and fascination with the Middle Ages were themes that became the hallmarks of romantic artists and writers.

During the Victorian era Britain became the world’s first urban, industrialized society, and a vast middle class developed. More people had the time, education, and inclination to appreciate the arts, and the middle class developed an interest in literature, art, and music. A close relationship evolved between this large audience and the creators of art and literature because authors wrote about and painters depicted characters, situations, and scenes either familiar or interesting to large numbers of middle-class people. Although some of the works created were trite and ordinary, such as sweet paintings of dogs and children, many others were not.

The time and money spent on the arts continued to increase during the 20th century, particularly after World War II ended in 1945. Popular music and film have had the widest audiences, although classical music and ballet still attract significant numbers of people. In the postwar era, serious musical compositions came from modern composers such as Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle. Britain attained prominence in modern sculpture through the work of Sir Jacob Epstein, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, and others.

B.

Cultural Traditions Today

London has the greatest concentration of theaters, orchestras, and galleries, and is also the main home of the print and broadcast media, and of the fashion, recording, motion picture, and publishing industries—as such, it often seems to dominate modern British culture. However, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the regions of England all have vigorous cultural traditions that have contributed to and still enrich all aspects of British life. The traditions and abilities of the various ethnic minorities are also reflected in modern British culture, notably in music and literature, and are celebrated in events like the annual Notting Hill Carnival in west London.

The traditional music, song, and dance of Scotland, much of it derived from the country’s Gaelic heritage, thrives in the ceilidh, the (bag)pipe band, and the Highland games. In the contemporary arts, Scotland has noted museums, galleries, and orchestras, and national ballet and opera companies. It also hosts the world’s premier arts festival, the annual Edinburgh International Festival; Britain’s second-largest arts festival, the Mayfest, is held in Glasgow. The choral and bardic traditions of Wales are seen most notably in the country’s male-voice choirs and in the eisteddfod. These annual festivals celebrating Welsh music, poetry, and customs are held throughout Wales, culminating in the Royal National Eisteddfod, which has developed into an international festival of the arts. Cardiff is home to the Welsh National Opera, one of Britain’s leading symphony orchestras, and several museums. In Northern Ireland, the ancient Celtic traditions of the whole island coexist with those of the descendants of the English and Scottish settlers. Opera Northern Ireland, the Ulster Symphony Orchestra, and the national Ulster Museum are based in Belfast.

In England, ancient folk traditions are maintained in all parts of the country. Many are unique to particular areas; some, like the morris dance, are more widespread. All English cities and many towns have art galleries and museums. Many contain notable collections.

British society is overwhelmingly urban, but it has retained distinct links with its rural past. These links are reflected in the popularity of gardening, and in the working-class tradition of growing vegetables on allotments. Sport is important in Britain, and the British originated or developed the modern forms and rules of a number of sports—notably soccer (known as football in Britain), rugby, cricket, tennis, polo, horse racing, field hockey, and croquet. Angling (fishing) is the most popular British sport or pastime, attracting more active participants than soccer.

C.

Literature

By the end of the 20th century, English had become a true world language, and English literature is taught today in secondary schools and universities everywhere. Famous English poets, playwrights, and novelists are quoted, translated, and loved throughout the world. Welsh, Scottish, and Irish writers who write in English rather than in their native Celtic tongues are customarily included as contributors to English literature. For the development of literature in the British Isles, see Cornish Literature, English Literature, Gaelic Literature, Irish Literature, Scottish Literature, and Welsh Literature.

The earliest celebrated example of English literature is the bloody Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, written sometime between the 8th century and the late 10th century. After the Norman conquest in 1066, French was the language of the ruling elite, but native Britons still spoke English. The greatest English writer of the Middle Ages was Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote The Canterbury Tales in the late 14th century. This work displayed not only the vigor and vitality of the English language, but also shaped the future of the language for centuries to come.

A great flowering of English writing took place in the late 16th century, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The themes of Englishness, love, violence, and the turmoil of human emotions were explored from a nonreligious standpoint. Poetry was considered the most polished form of literary expression. The Faerie Queene (Books I-III, 1590; Books IV-VI, 1596), an epic poem in six books by Edmund Spenser, is one of the masterpieces of the century. The sonnet, a poetry style that uses a formal rhyme scheme, was used by Sir Philip Sidney and William Shakespeare, who excelled at this form.

A shift to spiritual themes began in the early 17th century, as seen in the writings of John Donne, who is famous not only for his religious sermons but also for his love poetry. Donne’s complex and dramatic style made him one of the founders of metaphysical poetry. Amid the religious and civil turmoil of the English Revolution in the mid-17th century, Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Donne, wrote plays and poetry in a formal style that rejected the floweriness of 16th-century writing. This more classical style inspired a group of writers who became known as Cavalier Poets. The prose of John Milton also shared this classical style. His works, mostly pamphlets, supported the Puritan side of the revolution by stressing civil and religious liberty. Milton’s later works, the poems Paradise Lost (1667) and Paradise Regained (1671), were written in blank verse. This unrhymed poetry focused on such religious themes as the fall of Adam and human redemption. John Bunyan wrote the popular work The Pilgrim's Progress (published in two parts, 1678 and 1684), which depicts Christian salvation as a journey.

This classical writing style continued from the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 to the middle of the 18th century, a century often called the Age of Enlightenment. It was during this time that the modern novel emerged as a popular form of expression. The modern novel encompassed stories about people and their relation to society, whether they lived within society’s confines or not. Journalist Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe (1719) and a number of other popular adventure novels. Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift authored Gulliver's Travels (1726), a charming and biting social commentary. Bawdy and wild aspects of 18th-century life are reflected in the novel Tom Jones (1749), by writer and lawyer Henry Fielding. It was also during the 18th century that writer and literary critic Samuel Johnson compiled his Dictionary of the English Language (1755).

Toward the end of the 18th century, a reaction against reason, rationalism, and the physical world developed. This movement (romanticism) pervaded many aspects of society. The romantic movement in literature idealized nature and was characterized by a highly imaginative and subjective approach. Emotions and exotic places, both present and past, became central to countless lengthy novels and torrents of poetry. Poet William Wordsworth found his inspiration in nature, while Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Blake were inspired by mysticism. Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats wrote romantic poetry. Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, whose most famous work is Ivanhoe (1819), wrote more than 20 historical novels, many of them set in the Middle Ages.

Women also made their mark as writers during the romantic period. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is noted for the Gothic novel Frankenstein (1818), which took the romantic interest in emotions to the point of terror. Jane Austen wrote clever, elegant novels such as Sense and Sensibility (1811) and Pride and Prejudice (1813). Her down-to-earth main characters were reactions against the emotionalism of romantic writers.

During the last two-thirds of the 19th century, the Victorian era produced an amazing number of popular novelists and poets. This time period saw the rise of an increasingly urbanized, middle-class, and educated society that included a much larger reading audience. Many authors wrote about characters and situations well-known or easily comprehensible to their audience and became universally popular and in touch with their vast readership to a degree not matched in the 20th century. Perhaps the most famous author of this time was Charles Dickens, who portrayed the hardships of the working class while criticizing middle-class life. Writers prominent during the heart of the Victorian period include George Eliot, who, despite being a critic of Christianity, was known for her intense, moral novels; William Makepeace Thackeray, who wrote humorous portrayals of middle- and upper-class life; the Brontë sisters—Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—whose novels tended to be autobiographical; Anthony Trollope, a keen observer of politics and upper Victorian society; and Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote children’s books, adventure stories, and poetry. The most popular of the many Victorian poets was Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Other famous poets include Matthew Arnold, Christina Rossetti, and Robert Browning and his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

As the late Victorian era gave way to early modern times at the turn of the 20th century, the focus shifted away from stories of everyday Victorian life. The novels of Thomas Hardy, H. G. Wells, and Joseph Conrad possess a certain pessimism and uncertainty about life. In the early 20th century the dark, psychological novels of D. H. Lawrence were censored for their explicit language; his novel Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928) was banned as pornographic. The poetry of T. S. Eliot, especially The Waste Land (1922), expresses disillusionment with modern civilization, as do the popular novels of Aldous Huxley, who wrote Brave New World (1932). Exotic and foreign places are the settings of works by Rudyard Kipling and E. M. Forster. Forster’s novels became popular in the 1980s and 1990s as films, including A Room with a View (1908) and A Passage to India (1924). Irish writer James Joyce and English novelist Virginia Woolf were instrumental in forging the new stream-of-consciousness writing style. The rich and memorable poetry of Dylan Thomas made him the greatest Welsh poet of the 20th century.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Evelyn Waugh and P. G. Wodehouse wrote novels satirizing British upper-class life. In the mid-20th century the works of George Orwell, such as Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), focused on his fears about society. William Golding also expressed fears about the breakdown of society in his novel Lord of the Flies (1954). Works of fantasy were written during this period in response to the horrors of World War II. J. R. R. Tolkien is famous for his fantasy novels, particularly The Hobbit (1937) and its sequel, the trilogy Lord of the Rings (1954-1955). British writers whose work won attention in the late 20th century included novelists Iris Murdoch, Muriel Spark, and Ian McEwan; poets Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney; and dramatists Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, and Michael Frayn.

D.

Visual Arts

The earliest visual arts in Britain were most likely ornamentations on ordinary objects. Scandinavian wood carvings date from the 8th century, after Scandinavians came to Britain in considerable numbers. Decorative arts were particularly notable in early Christian Ireland, especially from the 6th to the 9th century. Irish missionaries, who were preaching Catholicism in Europe during this time period, brought Celtic metalworking techniques and stone carvings to Britain. Huge stone crosses, exquisitely decorated, still stand in northern Britain and Ireland. Painting was confined to illuminated manuscripts—bright and exactingly detailed miniature paintings in prayer books that were produced by monks. This art continued through the Middle Ages because books were still illustrated by hand, even after printing was invented in the mid-15th century. During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the chief patron of artists and sculptors, who were hired to decorate the massive cathedrals as well as local churches.

In early modern times portrait painting became important, particularly for monarchs interested in marriage opportunities abroad, and paintings of prospective spouses were often sent before making marital arrangements. Noted artists who produced paintings in early modern England were foreigners, such as German artist Hans Holbein the Younger in the 16th century and Flemish painter Sir Anthony van Dyck in the 17th century. English artists came to excel at miniature painting in the 17th century.

By the 18th century a distinctive British style began to emerge that tended to be brighter and livelier than the darker European canvases. British artists also stayed within the confines of neoclassical rationalism; that is, their art exhibited the values of order, logic, and proportion (see Neoclassical Art and Architecture). The etchings and paintings of William Hogarth show satirical scenes from ordinary life and were enormously popular. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and George Romney became famous for their polished and elegant portraits. Gainsborough and others painted natural landscapes and seascapes. The artworks of Gavin Hamilton and John Flaxman depict Greek and Roman themes.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries romantic painters appeared who emphasized the beauties and forces of nature (see Romanticism). This is seen in the landscapes of John Constable and J. M. W. Turner, whose paintings directly influenced French impressionism. Noted poet William Blake was also a painter, and he illustrated his poems and stories with imaginative drawings.

Scores of artists in the Victorian era painted specifically for middle-class tastes. Sir Edwin Henry Landseer was noted for paintings that often feature animals, such as dogs or wildlife. Frederick Leighton painted mythological and historical subjects and illustrated popular magazines. William Powell Frith painted large, busy canvases in the popular style known as genre painting, which realistically depicted scenes from everyday life. Sophie Anderson painted sweet children.

In reaction to Victorian art styles and middle-class materialism, with its concern for worldly objects, several painters came together in 1848 and founded a movement called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. They sought to return to an earlier, simpler time, and their works exhibited the brightness, color, and purity of medieval and Renaissance painting done before the time of Italian artist Raphael. These painters included William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and Sir John Everett Millais. This return to earlier traditions affected other aspects of the arts as well. Artist and poet William Morris sought to return to medieval traditions in craftsmanship. He is credited with founding the Arts and Crafts movement, which became influential in furniture, decorative items, and textile designs.

Toward the end of the Victorian era, art nouveau (literally, “new art”) developed out of the Arts and Crafts movement. Art nouveau is a decorative style with strong elements of fantasy. It borrowed motifs from sources as varied as Japanese prints, Gothic architecture, and the symbolic paintings of William Blake. This style, which became popular in Europe, influenced many art forms as well as architecture and interior design. The art nouveau illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley, in particular, are still popular. Artists and architects from the Glasgow School, notably Charles Rennie Mackintosh, were noted for their work in both the Arts and Crafts and art nouveau styles.

Britain has produced many artists in the 20th century. They include sculptors Jacob Epstein, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, and Anthony Caro. Painters include Paul Nash, a war artist who painted scenes of landscapes and battles during both world wars; Sir Stanley Spencer, whose works often used biblical themes; and Graham Sutherland, who developed a unique style of landscape painting. Noted painters after World War II include Francis Bacon, whose paintings are steeped in the horrific; David Hockney, who also designed opera sets; and portrait painter Lucian Freud.

E.

Architecture

Some of the oldest examples of British architecture include a few small, squarish Anglo-Saxon buildings. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, Norman architecture became prevalent in the British Isles. The Normans built monumental castles and churches with enormous arches and huge columns. Their style was called Romanesque on the Continent. The greatest structures built by the Normans are the White Tower, which is part of the Tower of London, and the castle, cathedral, and monastery complex at Durham. From the 12th to the 15th century gracefully soaring spires and arches marked the development of the great Gothic cathedrals; two of these, Westminster Abbey in London and Lincoln Cathedral, still dominate the skylines of their cities. Between 1485 and 1625, the English started to incorporate some classic Roman and ornate elements of the Italian Renaissance into Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean styles. During the Tudor era, brick became a popular building material for English country houses.

The architecture of the late Italian Renaissance was introduced in England by Inigo Jones in the 17th century. Jones was the first of the great British architects to be influenced by the ideas of Italian architects. Jones in turn influenced Sir Christopher Wren, Britain’s greatest architect, who studied the baroque style popular in Europe in the mid-17th century. After the devastating Great Fire of London in 1666, Wren helped in the rebuilding of the city. As the premier architect of the time, he designed 52 new churches in London. Many of his churches still stand. The grandest of them, Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, is an example of Wren’s distinctively graceful and monumental British style.

In the 18th century few English buildings followed the ornate patterns of the baroque and rococo architectures used in Europe. Rather, a more restrained, neoclassical style was introduced in Britain by Scottish architect Robert Adam. This style was based on the ancient ruins of Greece and Rome and incorporated such elements as colonnades and stone domes. English furniture and ceramics also became renowned in the 18th century. Thomas Chippendale and Thomas Sheraton were noted for their elegant furniture styles, and the ceramic designs produced by Josiah Wedgwood are still made.

Victorian architecture borrowed from a variety of styles, including classical, Gothic, and Renaissance, and was characterized by ornate decoration. The most famous Victorian neo-Gothic building is Parliament, built between 1840 and 1870. The only truly original building of the Victorian era was the Crystal Palace, which housed the Great Exhibition of 1851. It was made of metal and glass, materials architects would come to use in constructing office buildings in the 20th century.

In the early 20th century, Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh rejected elaborate Victorian architecture styles for a more modern, functional design. His work influenced 20th-century architects and interior designers. After World War II many new buildings were needed to replace the ones destroyed during the war. Because London’s subsoil is not suitable as a foundation for tall skyscrapers, many of the new buildings erected were big and boxy with geometric designs. One of the largest examples of this style is the National Theatre in London. These cold and impersonal buildings have been criticized because they clash with the graceful London architecture that survived the war. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries architects Norman Foster and Richard Rogers designed buildings in a high-tech style, with their construction and functional aspects fully exposed. The most notable building in this style is Rogers’s Lloyd’s Building in London.

F.

Performing Arts

F.1.

History of Performing Arts

Throughout the world the name Shakespeare is associated with the greatest achievements of England in the performing arts. William Shakespeare emerged in the colorful Elizabethan era of the 16th century, and his works are still played and quoted throughout the world. The 16th century was a time of immense creativity, when it was said that the full flower of the Renaissance had finally come to England. It was during this era that commercial theater began. The most famous was the Globe Theatre in London. Destroyed by Puritans in the mid-17th century, the Globe was replaced in the 1990s with an authentic replica. Dozens of other playwrights, including Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson, had their works staged at the Globe and at other theaters built during this time. Marlowe was noted for writing tragedies in a period when comedies were more common, and his most famous work is The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus (1604?). Jonson was a gifted satirist who wrote for both the royal court and commercial theaters. The words to the famous song “Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes” are from a play he published in 1616.

The foundations of choral music, which became an important musical tradition in England, were laid during the Elizabethan era. Its development was encouraged at this time by the Protestant Reformation in England, which changed the language used in church services and music from Latin to English. Thomas Tallis and his student William Byrd are noted composers who worked in the royal chapel of Queen Elizabeth I. There were also many secular composers in Britain. The English madrigal, a song for two or more voices, developed during the Elizabethan era as well.

The Puritans banned theater as immoral when they controlled England in the mid-17th century. Theater was revived, along with the monarchy, in the Restoration of 1660. Restoration theater featured witty and often acerbic comedies about social manners, a contrast to the great dramatic themes of Shakespeare’s era. William Wycherley and William Congreve were noted Restoration dramatists. England’s first operas were written in the late 17th century, and Henry Purcell is a noted British composer of the era.

George Frideric Handel, a German who settled in London, wrote many operas and oratorios in the early 18th century. He is most famous for his Messiah oratorio, first sung in 1742. During the 18th century the number of theaters grew and the plays performed became more satirical. Oliver Goldsmith, born in Ireland, wrote comedies as well as novels, poems, and essays. Another noted comic playwright was Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

The 19th century saw the development of a uniquely British form of amusement, the music hall, which is related to early-20th-century vaudeville. Music halls provided variety shows with comic acts and songs, many of them risqué. The pantomime also emerged in the Victorian era as elaborately costumed retellings of fairy tales, staged during the Christmas season. Pantomime performances involved song, dance, slapstick comedy, and audience participation. The comic operas of Sir William Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan were also an important part of Victorian music; the works of Gilbert and Sullivan are still produced around the world.

F.2.

Performing Arts in the 20th Century

In the 20th century, Britain remained one of the world’s greatest centers for drama. Britain’s many theaters attract crowds from all over the world. This is due in large measure to the high caliber of 20th-century British actors, including Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir Michael Redgrave, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Rex Harrison, Richard Burton, Glenda Jackson, Vanessa Redgrave, Dame Maggie Smith, Ian McKellen, Dame Judi Dench, and Emma Thompson. The quality of the plays is another important factor. In the early 20th century, noted playwrights included John Galsworthy and Noel Coward. Post-World War II Britain saw a renaissance of drama with the avant-garde works of Irish-born Samuel Beckett and the plays and screenplays of Harold Pinter, Alan Bennett, and Tom Stoppard. Playwright and screenwriter John Osborne presented stark social realism in his play Look Back in Anger (1956), which was made into a film in 1959. Caryl Churchill continued the tradition of stark realism, while Alan Ayckbourn provided witty, complex comedies.

Britain has several hundred professional theaters and about as many professional theater companies. Some companies are associated with specific theaters and some are touring companies. The world-famous Royal Shakespeare Company performs in London and in Stratford-upon-Avon. Famous theaters in London also include the Royal National Theatre, the Old Vic Theatre, and the Royal Court Theatre. Countless amateur theatrical groups also perform throughout Britain.

Music was enormously important in Britain in the 20th century, and London is regarded as one of the great music capitals of the world. Appreciation of music is extremely widespread, and the kinds of music regularly performed are diverse, ranging from early music to modern. Britain boasts thousands of amateur opera societies, choirs, and musical groups, including orchestras; dance, brass, and steel bands; and rock and jazz groups.

Important composers in the early 20th century included Sir Edward Elgar, who wrote choral and orchestral music, and Frederick Delius, who composed the opera A Village Romeo and Juliet (1900-1901). Later in the century, Ralph Vaughan Williams established himself as Britain’s foremost composer, and Sir William Walton composed many important classical works, including the opera Troilus and Cressida (1954). In opera, Benjamin Britten and Sir Michael Tippett created several important works. Britten adapted Henry James’s story “The Turn of the Screw” and Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream into operas in 1954 and 1960, respectively. Tippett combined classical music with popular music—his Fourth Symphony (1977) contained elements of jazz. Thomas Adès was a rising star in the early 2000s, with operas such as The Tempest (2004), commissioned by the Royal Opera House. Andrew Lloyd Webber has composed musicals for the theater since the 1970s, producing such smash hits as Jesus Christ Superstar (1971), Phantom of the Opera (1986), and Bombay Dreams (2002).

Britain has many professional orchestras, the most famous of which are the London Philharmonic and the London Symphony. The BBC maintains six orchestras and since 1927 has sponsored the popular annual Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. Britain has several major opera companies, the best known of which are the Royal Opera at Covent Garden and the English National Opera in London, and the Glyndebourne Opera in southeastern England. Glyndebourne presents an annual summer opera season that later tours the country.

Britain’s worldwide impact in music in the second half of the 20th century, especially in the realm of popular music, was enormous. The Beatles appeared in the 1960s and were followed by other successful rock groups and singers, including names such as The Rolling Stones, The Who, Elton John, Sting, and the Spice Girls. A high-spirited kind of rock music known as Britpop became popular in the 1990s. Pop and rock music remain the most popular kinds of music in Britain, although jazz also has a large following.

Britain also has famous dance companies that rank among the world’s leading troupes. These include the Royal Ballet and the English National Ballet, located in London; the Birmingham Royal Ballet, a division of the Royal Ballet; and the Northern Ballet Theatre, a touring company based in Leeds. The leading contemporary groups are the Rambert Dance Company and the Siobhan Davies Dance Company. London hosts two contemporary dance festivals every year. Also popular are traditional dances of the British Isles, including English morris dancing and the Scottish Highland fling, and social gatherings featuring Celtic music and dancing that are known as céilidhs (pronounced kay-lees).

Britain hosts more than 600 professional arts festivals each year, attracting more than 4 million visitors. The two largest arts festivals in Britain are held in Scotland: The Edinburgh International Festival is a mixture of six arts festivals that takes place every August and September, and the Mayfest is held every May in Glasgow. Festivals focusing on music include the Three Choirs Festival, so-called because it takes place in three separate English cities; the Cheltenham Festival; and the Aldeburgh Festival, founded in the 1940s by composer Benjamin Britten and English tenor Sir Peter Pears.

G.

Films

The British film industry has a long history and is noted for many critically acclaimed productions and actors. In recent decades it has become largely international. The great pull of the American box office has always lured British actors, directors, and producers to Hollywood, and conversely, British studios and locations have been used in international productions.

The film industry in Britain developed during the 1930s after the government established a quota requiring that a certain percentage of films shown in British cinemas be made in Britain. Hungarian-born director and producer Alexander Korda came to Britain during this time and was instrumental in the production and international distribution of many British films. The industry received another boost from the influx of German writers, producers, and directors escaping the Nazi government in the 1930s. During World War II, many people working in the British film industry immigrated to the United States. One of these was London-born director Alfred Hitchcock, who moved to the United States in 1939 and continued to produce popular films.

British film output after World War II tended to be literary, drawing upon classics from Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare. A number of witty comedies that appealed to the more educated and culturally conservative segment of society appeared in the late 1940s and early 1950s. These included such films as Genevieve (1953) and The Belles of St. Trinian’s (1954). By the mid-1950s the Free Cinema Movement had begun, shooting low-budget films that illuminated the problems of contemporary life. Simultaneously, so-called new cinema films began to present antiestablishment and anti-middle class views with social realism using working-class themes and characters. Notable examples of new cinema films include Look Back in Anger (1959), based on the John Osborne play; Karel Reisz’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960); and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962). Director David Lean, who had produced many popular films in the 1940s, became noted for big, lavish epics during the 1950s, particularly The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1959), both of which won Academy Awards.

For a brief time London became the film production capital of the world when a number of important films were made there. These included Tom Jones (1963), with an award-winning screenplay by John Osborne, and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and A Clockwork Orange (1971), directed by Stanley Kubrick. Richard Attenborough gained fame not only for his acting but also for directing such biographical films as Gandhi (1982), which won multiple Academy Awards; Chaplin (1992), about English actor and director Charlie Chaplin; and Shadowlands (1993), about British author C. S. Lewis. Anthony Minghella adapted and directed the 1996 film version of Michael Ondaatje’s novel The English Patient and the 2003 film of Charles Frazer’s novel Cold Mountain. Mike Leigh became known for his collaborations with actors on films such as High Hopes (1988) and Vera Drake (2004).

H.

Museums, Galleries, and Libraries

Britain is world famous for its outstanding libraries and museums, most of which are located in London. The British Museum, one of the most spectacular museums in the world, is renowned for its extensive and diverse collections, from Egyptian mummies to important historical documents. The National Gallery houses a vast collection of British and European paintings dating from the 13th century to modern times. Next door to the National Gallery is the National Portrait Gallery with about 10,000 portraits of famous figures from British history, some dating from the 14th century. The Tate Gallery houses a vast collection of British art, as well as European works from the past two centuries. The Victoria and Albert Museum features one of the world’s largest collections of fine and applied arts, from jewelry, clocks, and pottery to fabrics, furniture, and musical instruments. The National Museum of Science and Industry contains five floors of exhibits on medicine, photography, engineering, transportation, and communications. Plant, animal, and mineral specimens from all over the world are part of the collection at the Natural History Museum, London. The Imperial War Museum features exhibits on the wars of the 20th century, and the modern Museum of London illustrates the history of the capital from its earliest times. Particularly popular with tourists is Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks (see Marie Tussaud), a unique collection of lifelike wax figures of famous people, both living and dead.

Several museums and galleries of note are located outside London. The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at Oxford University contains a diverse collection of rare art and relics, as does the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University. One of the world’s finest collections of Pre-Raphaelite art is at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. The National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh houses a collection of fine European paintings dating from the Renaissance, including many Scottish paintings. The Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum has an excellent collection that ranges from ancient weapons and objects to 17th-century Dutch paintings and works by French masters. The National Museum of Wales in Cardiff focuses on Welsh life, history, and culture. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Ulster Museum has a diverse collection that mixes the arts, history, and sciences. The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Holywood concentrates on the traditional life of Northern Ireland’s people.

Britain has several specialized museums, including the National Railway Museum in York, with its large collection of locomotives, many from the 19th century. In recent years some museums have taken on the lively aspects of theme parks. Examples are the Jorvik Viking Centre in York, which recreates a Viking village, and the exhibits at Warwick Castle, which include wax figures, collections of weapons and torture devices, and jousting reenactments.

Britain’s premier library, the British Library in London, contains a copy of nearly all significant works published in English. It was housed in the British Museum until 1997, when it moved to a new building. The famous Bodleian Library at Oxford University also contains one of the most extensive collections of English publications in the country.

I.

Science and Technology

Britain has been a world leader in science and technology, and since the Industrial Revolution the nation has been a pioneer in the use of machinery. The profession of modern engineering emerged from the work of the skilled craftsmen of the 18th and 19th centuries. The British have appreciated and encouraged inventors and scientists, and in pure science, the country has produced a steady stream of solid research. More than 70 British citizens have been awarded the Nobel Prize in science, second only to the United States.

Modern science owes much to 16th-century philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon, whose theories of inductive reasoning and experimentation laid the foundation of the scientific method. Sir Isaac Newton, a scientific genius in physics and mathematics, formulated the laws of motion and gravity that were not surpassed until Albert Einstein’s theories in the early 20th century. Michael Faraday, another outstanding figure in British science during the 19th century, made important discoveries in chemistry and electricity, specifically electromagnetic induction. His work led to the creation of the electric generator. Biologist Charles Darwin, who developed the theory of evolution through natural selection, radically influenced modern science and thought.

British scientists have also made striking contributions to the field of medicine. Surgeon Joseph Lister introduced antiseptic surgery in the 1860s, and in 1928 Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the first of the antibiotic medicines. In physics, several British scientists carried on atomic research, most notably Ernest Rutherford, Sir Joseph John Thomson, and Sir John Douglas Cockcroft.

The technology of the Industrial Revolution was not developed by scientists but by practical craftsmen—locksmiths, carpenters, and blacksmiths who pioneered innovations on the earliest machines. A key invention was a practical steam engine, which Scottish inventor James Watt was pivotal in developing in the late 18th century. Steam power was then used to run various other machines, including the spinning jenny, invented by James Hargreaves in the 1760s; the spinning frame, invented by Sir Richard Arkwright; the spinning mule of Samuel Crompton, which combined the best of the jenny and water frame; and the power loom invented by Edmund Cartwright. All of these early inventions of the Industrial Revolution were first used in the textile industry, where the mass production of cotton cloth by machine was revolutionary.

In the 20th century, British science and technology continued on the cutting edge. British technology pioneered in the development of radar and jet engines. British scientists contributed to the 1953 discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as well as subsequent breakthroughs in medicine and genetics, including DNA fingerprinting, gene therapy, in vitro fertilization, and cloning. Other contributions include the discovery of cholesterol and vitamin D. In chemistry, British scientists have developed a biodegradable plastic and are working on substitutes for chlorofluorocarbons, which destroy the Earth’s ozone layer. British scientists in Antarctica first discovered a hole in the ozone layer in 1985. British scientists have also made advances in the fields of astrophysics and superconductivity. They also are at the forefront in developing semiconductors and fiber-optic cables.

One contemporary British scientist has gained worldwide attention not only for his accomplishments but because he has surmounted severe disabilities. Stephen Hawking, a theoretical physicist, suffers from an incurable disease of the nervous system. He regained his power of speech only through a computerized voice synthesizer. Hawking has made major contributions to the study of the origin of the universe and black holes, and his work has supported the big bang theory of the creation of the universe. As a professor of mathematics at Cambridge, Hawking wrote A Brief History of Time (1988).