Culture

Photo by Jonathan Farber on Unsplash Ask ten Londoners what belongs on a “proper” plate and you will start an argument before the kettle boils: bacon and eggs are never in doubt, but the status of baked beans, black pudding, fried bread and the humble grilled tomato is debated with real feeling. Those beans, now

Our recipe for plain English scones with clotted cream and jam: exact weights and US cups, oven settings in °C and °F, step-by-step method, and the Devon vs Cornwall question.

Photo by Jacob Diehl on Unsplash Listen to the platform announcements on the Transport for London network and you will hear the same three words thousands of times a day: “Mind the gap.” The phrase was first recorded for the Underground in 1968, when automated warnings replaced station staff, and it has since escaped the

Photo by Andrew Ebrahim on Unsplash In 1986 a raven named George was formally dismissed from service at the Tower of London for “conduct unsatisfactory” — he had developed an appetite for television aerials on the houses across the moat. The detail is telling, because the Tower’s ravens are not merely resident birds but enlisted

Photo by Amit Daruka on Unsplash The name itself is a measure of time: a true bespoke Savile Row suit is cut from a paper pattern drafted for one body alone, sewn largely by hand, and typically built across three or more fittings over many weeks. The street in Mayfair has dressed admirals, prime ministers

Photo by Hatem Boukhit on Unsplash The phrase “London Dry” on a gin bottle tells you almost nothing about where the gin was made — it is a method, not a map, and a London Dry can legally be distilled in Spain, India or Kentucky. What it does promise is discipline: every flavour must go

Photo: Photo by The Good Funeral Guide on Unsplash In September 2022, a line of mourners stretched some ten miles along the south bank of the Thames, moved through the night at a shuffle, generated its own livestream, and was promptly nicknamed “The Queue” with a capital Q — a piece of national theatre that

Photo by Loujane Alasi on Unsplash There is no legal definition of a “pub,” yet the word governs a set of customs so specific that a newcomer can breach half a dozen without noticing: you order and pay at the bar rather than waiting for table service, you generally hold no reservation, and when it’s

Photo by Mel Gardner on Unsplash Britain drinks its tea with milk largely by accident of chemistry and thrift: adding milk first once protected delicate porcelain cups from cracking under boiling water, and the habit stuck long after bone china grew tougher. Today the country gets through roughly 100 million cups a day, most of

Photo by Max van den Oetelaar on Unsplash The colour has a name and a number: it is Currant Red, British Standard 381C shade 539, and it was chosen so a box could be spotted from a distance across a grey street. The design most people picture — the domed one with the crown pierced