Illustrations

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

‘1890’ from Osbert Lancaster, Progress at Pelvis Bay, John Murray, 1936 (by permission of Clare Hastings).

Rydal Water and Grasmere, the Lake District, 1835 (G. Pickering/W. J. Cooke).

‘The British Character. Absence of the Gift of Conversation’, by Pont, Punch, 18 September 1935 (copyright © The Cartoon Museum).

Cartoon by Nic to be an Alien, 1946. Copyright © Bella Jones and the Estate of Nicolas Bentley.

Geological map of England (copyright © Arthur Banks).

Stonehenge, 1850 (C. Reiss).

Cartoon from Ronald Searle’s Merry England, etc., Perpetua Books, 1956 (copyright © the Estate of Ronald Searle). Reproduced with kind permission of the Estate of Ronald Searle and the Sayle Literary Agency.

The principal landowners’ estates of west and north-west London.

Whitehaven, Cumbria, 1839 (G. Pickering and T. Jeavons).

The English countryside before enclosure – Laxton, Nottinghamshire, in 1635, from J. V. Beckett, A History of Laxton – England’s Last Open-Field Village, Blackwell, 1989 (copyright © J. V. Beckett).

County varieties of field gates (copyright © Richard Allen).

‘The British Character. Passion for Ruins’, by Pont, Punch, 8 September 1937 (copyright © Mark’s Club).

The execution of Charles I, Banqueting House, 1649 (copyright © German School/Getty Images).

A yearning for privacy, cartoon by H. M. Bateman, 1913 (copyright © H. M. Bateman Designs. Photo © Chris Beetles Ltd, London).

Staffordshire – the Potteries viewed from Basford, 1850 (F. W. Hulme/T. A. Prior).

A collier in Bristol harbour, 1890 (M. W. Ridley).

Sir Titus Salt’s textile mill, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, 1851 (H. Warren/W. M. Lizars).

John Nash’s Chester Terrace, Regent’s Park, London, 1828 (T. Shepherd/H. Melvelle).

Much-mocked Tudor, cartoon by Osbert Lancaster, in From Pillar to Post, John Murray, 1938 (by permission of Clare Hastings).

Extract from Peter Fleetwood-Hesketh’s ‘Street of Taste’, in John Betjeman’s Ghastly Good Taste, Anthony Blond, 1970 (copyright © the Estate of Peter Fleetwood-Hesketh).

‘Twentieth-Century Functional’, cartoon by Osbert Lancaster, in From Pillar to Post, John Murray, 1938 (by permission of Clare Hastings).

John Bull (copyright © Mary Evans Picture Library/Alamy).

‘The British Character. Keen interest in historic houses’, by Pont, Punch, 8 July 1936 (copyright © Punch).

INSET ILLUSTRATIONS

1. London Long View by Wenceslaus Hollar, 1647 (copyright © British Library Board).

2. Wren’s post-fire plan for London, engraving by Worthington G. Smith, 1875 (Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library).

3 Manor Farm Barn, Harmondsworth (copyright © English Heritage).

4. Liverpool Street Station (copyright © John Gay/English Heritage/NMR/Mary Evans Picture Library).

5. Park Village East, Regent’s Park (print, Private Collection)

6. Sussex v. Kent cricket match at Brighton, 1840s (copyright © Mary Evans Picture Library).

7. Virginia Water, poster by Frederick Pengram, 1923 (copyright © Swim Ink 2, LLC/Corbis).

8. Advert for the Savoy Hotel, c. May 1890 (copyright © Archives of the Savoy, a Fairmont Managed Hotel).

9. The Shambles, York, 1950s (copyright © Mary Evans Picture Library).

10. Workers at Carnsew Quarry, Cornwall, 1936 (copyright © Getty Images).

11. A Yorkshireman with his sheepdog, 1965 (copyright © Time and Life Pictures/Getty Images).

12. Scarborough Beach, 1952 (copyright © Getty Images).

13. Jayne Mansfield opening the Chiswick flyover, 1959 (copyright © Getty Images).

14. Caversham Road being resurfaced, 2011 (copyright © Harry Mount).

15. Queen’s Square, Bath, watercolour by Thomas Malton Jnr, 1784 (copyright © Victoria Art Gallery, Bath and North East Somerset Council/Bridgeman Art Gallery).

16. The Bull Ring, Birmingham (copyright © Chris Hepburn/Getty Images).

1. John Speed map of Wiltshire, from The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain, Phoenix House, 1953–4.

2. Mr and Mrs Andrews by Thomas Gainsborough, 1750 (copyright © National Gallery, London).

3. Hampton Court’s ornamental chimneys (copyright © Historic Royal Palaces; photo: Robin Foster).

4. Durham (copyright © David C. Tomlinson/Getty Images).

5. The Garden of Hampton House, with Mr and Mrs David Garrick Taking Tea by Johan Zoffany, 1762 (copyright © The Garrick Club, London).

6. A Gentleman and a Miner with a Specimen of Copper Ore by John Opie (1761–1807) (copyright © The Royal Cornwall Museum/Bridgeman Art Library).

7. Stockwell Garden, South London, Spring 2004 by Virginia Powell (copyright © Virginia Powell).

8. Canning Town by Henry Lamb, 1947 (copyright © The Estate of Henry Lamb, Private Collection).

9. St Mary’s, Cavendish, Suffolk (copyright © Country Life).

10. Arlington Row, Bibury, Gloucestershire (copyright © Country Life).

11. High Street, Puckeridge, Hertfordshire (copyright © Pictures of Britain: Peter Etteridge).

12. ‘The Descriptive Map of London Poverty’ by Charles Booth, 1889 (copyright © Museum of London).

13. Train Landscape by Eric Ravilious, 1939 (copyright © The Estate of Eric Ravilious/DACS).

14. ‘Ermine Street/A15’, Shell poster by David Gentleman, 1964 (copyright © Shell Brands International, image courtesy of Shell Art Collection).

15. ‘Letchworth – the First Garden City’, poster (copyright © First Garden City Heritage Museum).

16. ‘Bridlington’, LNER poster by Henry George Cawthorn, 1930 (copyright © SSPL/Getty Images).

17. Sir John Soane’s monument to his wife, 1815 (copyright © Harry Mount).

18. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s K6 phone box, designed in 1935 (copyright © Harry Mount).

19. ‘Your Britain – Fight for it now’, poster by Frank Newbould, 1942 (copyright © Imperial War Museum).

20. Still from Withnail and I (copyright © Handmade/BFI).

21. The Road Across the Wolds by David Hockney, 1997 (copyright © David Hockney).