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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a population of over 69 million in 2024. The UK includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of the smaller islands within the British Isles, covering 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2). It shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea, while maintaining sovereignty over the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. The capital and largest city of England and the UK is London; Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively.
The British Isles have been continuously inhabited since the Neolithic. In AD 43 the Roman conquest of Britain began. The Roman departure between 383 and 410 was followed by Anglo-Saxon settlement beginning around 450. In 1066 the Normans conquered England. Over the 17th century the role of the British monarchy was reduced, particularly as a result of the English Civil War. In 1707 the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland united under the Treaty of Union to create the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Acts of Union 1800 incorporated the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. Most of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922 as the Irish Free State, and the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 created the present United Kingdom.
The UK became the first industrialised country and was the world's foremost power for the majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly during the Pax Britannica between 1815 and 1914. The British Empire was the leading economic power for most of the 19th century, a position supported by its agricultural prosperity, its role as a dominant trading nation, a massive industrial capacity, significant technological achievements, and the rise of 19th-century London as the world's principal financial centre. At its height in the 1920s, the empire encompassed around a quarter of the world's landmass and population, and was the largest in history. However, its involvement in the First World War and in the Second World War damaged Britain's economic power, and a global wave of decolonisation led to the independence of most British colonies. (Full article...)
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The 1956 FA Cup Final was the final match of the 1955–56 staging of English football's primary cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, better known as the FA Cup. The showpiece event was contested between Manchester City and Birmingham City at Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday 5 May 1956. Manchester City's victories were close affairs, each settled by the odd goal, and they needed a replay to defeat fifth-round opponents Liverpool. Birmingham City made more comfortable progress: they scored eighteen goals while conceding only two, and won each match at the first attempt despite being drawn to play on their opponents' ground in every round. They became the first team to reach an FA Cup final without playing at home. Birmingham entered the match as favourites, in a contest billed as a contrast of styles. Watched by a crowd of 100,000 and a television audience of five million, Manchester City took an early lead through Joe Hayes, but Noel Kinsey equalised midway through the first half. Second half goals from Jack Dyson and Bobby Johnstone gave Manchester City a 3–1 victory. The match is best remembered for the heroics of Manchester City goalkeeper, Bert Trautmann, who continued playing despite breaking a bone in his neck in a collision with Birmingham's Peter Murphy. (Full article...)
Featured biography
Edmund Evans (1826–1905) was a prominent English wood engraver and colour printer during the Victorian era. Evans specialized in full-colour printing, which became popular in the mid-19th century. He employed and collaborated with illustrators such as Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott, Kate Greenaway, and Richard Doyle to produce what are now considered to be classic children's books. Although little is known about his life, he wrote a short autobiography before his death in 1905 in which he described his life as a printer in Victorian London. After finishing an apprenticeship, Evans went into business for himself. By the early 1850s, he had made a reputation as a printer of covers for cheap novels known as yellow-backs. In the early 1860s, Evans began to print children's toy books and picture books in association with the printing house Routledge and Warne. His intention was to produce books for children that were beautiful and inexpensive. For three decades he produced multiple volumes each year, first illustrated by Crane, and later by Caldecott and Greenaway. (Full article...)
General images -
One of the UK's many stately homes, Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, surrounded by an English garden. The house is one of the settings of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Centre Court at Wimbledon. The world's oldest tennis tournament, it has the longest sponsorship in sport with Slazenger supplying tennis balls to the event since 1902. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
John Speed's Genealogies Recorded in the Sacred Scriptures (1611), bound into first King James Bible in quarto size (1612) (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
The first colour photograph in 1861. Produced by the three-colour method suggested by James Clerk Maxwell in 1855, it is the foundation of all colour photographic processes. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales prior to a Wales vs England Six Nations Championship game. The annual rugby union tournament (which includes Scotland and Ireland) takes place over six weeks from late January/early February to mid March. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
King Alfred the Great statue in Winchester, Hampshire. The 9th-century English king encouraged education in his kingdom, and proposed that primary education be taught in English, with those wishing to advance to holy orders to continue their studies in Latin. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Scouts, Brownies, and Cubs with the local community in Tiverton, Devon on Remembrance Sunday (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Welsh native Roald Dahl is frequently ranked the best children's author in British polls.
Tea, biscuits, jam and cakes. Tea is the most popular beverage in the UK. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Hadrian's Wall was built in the 2nd century AD. It is a lasting monument from Roman Britain. It is the largest Roman artefact in existence. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
The Forth Railway Bridge is a cantilever bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland. It was opened in 1890, and is designated as a Category A listed building. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Physicist Stephen Hawking set forth a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. His 1988 book A Brief History of Time appeared on The Sunday Times best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Cricketer W. G. Grace, with his long beard and MCC cap, was the most famous British sportsman in the Victorian era. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
The Christmas Pantomime 1890. Pantomime plays a prominent role in British culture during the Christmas and New Year season. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Two of the current Ravens of the Tower of London. The ravens' presence is traditionally believed to protect the Crown and the tower; a superstition holds that "if the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it". (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Caricature of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in Vanity Fair, 30 January 1869 (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Peter O'Toole as T. E. Lawrence in David Lean's 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
English Heritage blue plaque commemorating Sir Alfred Hitchcock at 153 Cromwell Road, London (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
The red telephone box and Royal Mail red post box appear throughout the UK. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
The Beatles are the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed band in popular music, with estimated sales of over one billion.
The Old English heroic poem Beowulf is located in the British Library. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Old Bushmills Distillery, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1608, it is the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Smeaton's Eddystone Lighthouse, 9 miles out to sea. John Smeaton pioneered hydraulic lime in concrete which led to the development of Portland cement in England and thus modern concrete. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
The Grenadier Guards band playing "The British Grenadiers" at Trooping the Colour. Formed in 1685 the band performs at British ceremonial events. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Sunday league football (a form of amateur football). Amateur matches throughout the UK often take place in public parks. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Featherweight champion "Prince" Naseem Hamed was a major name in boxing and 1990s British pop culture. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Charles Darwin established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
The wizard Merlin features as a character in many works of fiction, including the BBC series Merlin. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Westminster Abbey is an example of English Gothic architecture. Since 1066, when William the Conqueror was crowned, the coronations of British monarchs have been held here. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
The Proms are held annually at the Royal Albert Hall during the summer. Regular performers at the Albert Hall include Eric Clapton who has played at the venue over 200 times. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
R. White's soft drinks sold in London. Selling carbonated lemonade in 1845, by 1887 they sold strawberry soda, raspberry soda and cherryade. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Typical 20th-century, three-bedroom semi-detached houses in England (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Ice dancers Torvill and Dean in 2011. Their historic gold medal-winning performance at the 1984 Winter Olympics was watched by a British television audience of more than 24 million people. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Music hall evolved into variety shows. First performed in 1912, the Royal Variety Performance was first held at the London Palladium (pictured) in 1941. Performed in front of members of the Royal Family, it is held annually in December and broadcast on television. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Jack in the Green, a traditional English folk custom being celebrated in Hastings Old Town, known for its many historic buildings. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
McVitie's chocolate digestive is routinely ranked the UK's favourite snack, and No. 1 biscuit to dunk in tea. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
A 21st-century detached Mock Tudor house in Scotland. Its timber framing is typical of English Tudor architecture. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
A Christmas dinner plate in Scotland, featuring roast turkey, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
William III and Mary II Presenting the Cap of Liberty to Europe, 1716, Sir James Thornhill. Enthroned in heaven with the Virtues behind them are the royals William and Mary who had taken the throne after the Glorious Revolution and signed the English Bill of Rights of 1689. William tramples on arbitrary power and hands the red cap of liberty to Europe where, unlike Britain, absolute monarchy stayed the normal form of power execution. Below William is the French king Louis XIV. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
The Examination and Trial of Father Christmas (1686), published after Christmas was reinstated as a holy day in England (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
William Shakespeare has had a significant impact on British theatre and drama. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
The British Heart Foundation is the biggest funder of cardiovascular research in the UK. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Mo Farah is the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history, winning the 5000 m and 10,000 m events at two Olympic Games. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
Union Flag being flown on The Mall, London looking towards Buckingham Palace (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
An award-winning Victoria sponge from an English village fête. Competitive baking is part of the traditional village fête, inspiring The Great British Bake Off television series. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
The full breakfast is among the best known British dishes, consisting of fried egg, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, baked beans, toast, fried tomatoes, and sometimes white or black pudding. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
One of Britain's oldest indigenous breeds, the Bulldog is known as the national dog of Great Britain. (from Culture of the United Kingdom)
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Featured pictures
Photo credit: DiliffThe Tower Bridge, a bascule bridge that crosses the River Thames in London, England, at twilight. It is close to the Tower of London, which gives it its name. It has become an iconic symbol of London and is sometimes mistakenly called London Bridge, which is the next bridge upstream. The bridge replaced the Tower Subway for carrying pedestrian traffic across the river.
Painting: John Everett MillaisOphelia is an oil painting on canvas completed by Sir John Everett Millais between 1851 and 1852. It depicts the character Ophelia, from Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark; this death scene is not seen onstage, but is instead described in a speech by Queen Gertrude. The painting was completed in two stages: first, the setting (drawn from the Hogsmill River in Surrey) then Ophelia (portrayed by Elizabeth Siddal). The painting is now owned by Tate Britain and valued at more than £30 million.
Artist: Steven van der MeulenThe "Hampden" portrait of Elizabeth I was painted by the Flemish artist Steven van der Meulen in the mid to late 1560s. Art historian Sir Roy Strong has suggested that this is "one of a group produced in response to a crisis over the production of the royal image" as a number of old-fashioned and unflattering portraits of the queen were then in circulation. This is the earliest full-length (2 m or 7 ft tall) portrait of the young queen, and depicts her in red satin trimmed with pearls and jewels. It represents a phase in the portraiture of Elizabeth I before the emergence of allegorical images representing the iconography of the "Virgin Queen". In November 2007 it was auctioned by Sotheby's for ₤2.6 million, more than twice the maximum predicted.
Photo credit: Jürgen MaternPanoramic view of the geodesic dome structures of the Eden Project, a large-scale environmental complex near St Austell, Cornwall, England. The project was conceived by Tim Smit and is made out of hundreds of hexagons (transparent biomes made of ETFE cushions) that interconnect the whole construction together. The project took 2½ years to construct and opened to the public in March 2001.
Photo: Saffron BlazeArlington Row, a row of Cotswold stone cottages in Bibury, Gloucestershire, England. Built in 1380 as a monastic wool store, the buildings were converted into weavers' cottages in the 17th century. William Morris declared the village to be the most beautiful in England.
Illustration: William BlakeThe Song of Los is an epic poem by William Blake first published in 1795 and considered part of his prophetic books. The poem consists of two sections, "Africa" and "Asia": in the first section Blake catalogues the decline of morality in Europe, which he blames on both the African slave trade and enlightenment philosophers, whereas in the second section he describes a worldwide revolution, urged by the eponymous Los.
The illustration here is from the book's frontispiece and shows Urizen presiding over the decline of morality.
Photo: David IliffThe castle on Eilean Donan, a small island in Loch Duich in the western Scottish Highlands. The castle, which was built in the 13th century and destroyed in the 18th century, is widely familiar from many photographs and appearances in film and television. The present buildings are a 20th-century reconstruction.
Photograph credit: Tony JinCanary Wharf is an area of London on the Isle of Dogs. It is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central London. Along with the City of London, Canary Wharf is one of the main financial centres of the United Kingdom and the world, containing many high-rise buildings including the fourth-tallest in the UK, One Canada Square, which opened on 26 August 1991.
Image: Detroit Publishing Co.; Restoration: Lise BroerA photochrom print of Royal Avenue in Belfast, Northern Ireland, from the 1890s. In the 19th century, Belfast became Ireland's pre-eminent industrial city, and saw an influx of immigration, made up of mostly Catholics into a predominantly Protestant city. Sectarian tensions remained high throughout the years, with no major incidents having taken place since 1998's Belfast Agreement.
Photo credit: Michael ReeveThe National Gallery at night, illuminated for an event to promote the launch of a Pepsi commercial.
The National Gallery in London is an art gallery designed by William Wilkins. It holds part of the National Collection, particularly Western European art from 1250 to 1900. The collection of 2300 paintings belongs to the British public.
Photograph credit: David IliffThe Roman Baths complex is a site of historical interest in the English city of Bath, Somerset. It is a well-preserved site dating from Roman Britain once used for public bathing. The Roman baths themselves are below the modern street level. There are four main features: the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House, and the museum which holds finds from the Roman town. The buildings above street level date from the 19th century. The Baths are a major tourist attraction and, together with the Grand Pump Room, received more than 1.3 million visitors in 2018. Visitors can tour the baths and museum but cannot enter the water.
This picture shows the Great Bath of the Roman Baths complex, with Bath Abbey visible in the background. The entire structure above the level of the pillar bases is of later construction.
Photo credit: Diliff30 St Mary Axe, otherwise known as "The Gherkin" or the Swiss Re building, at 180 m (590 ft) is the 6th tallest in London, England. Designed by Foster and Partners, the architectural design of the tower contrasts sharply against more traditional buildings in London. Its design won the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize for the best new building by a RIBA architect in 2004 and the 2003 Emporis Skyscraper Award for the best skyscraper in the world completed that year. The building is visible from a long distance from Central London: from the north for instance, it can be seen on the M11 motorway some 32 km (20 mi) away.
Photo credit: YFBA view of the Second Severn Crossing, as seen from Severn Beach, England. This bridge carries the M4 motorway across the River Severn between Severn Beach and Caldicot in south Wales. It has a total span of 5.1 km and includes a cable-stayed section called the Shoots Bridge which spans the shipping channel between the two towers. The River Severn has a vast tidal range—the point from which this photograph was taken is covered at high tide.
Artist: Attributed to John TaylorThe Chandos portrait is a famous painting believed to depict William Shakespeare, and is named after James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, who owned the portrait. It has not been possible to solve the question of who painted the portrait or whether it really depicts Shakespeare. However, in 2006 the National Portrait Gallery in London concluded that the Chandos portrait was the most likely to be a representation of Shakespeare.
The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania is an oil painting on canvas by the Scottish artist Joseph Noel Paton. Painted in 1849, it depicts the scene from William Shakespeare's comedy play A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which the fairy queen Titania and fairy king Oberon quarrel. When exhibited in Edinburgh in 1850, it was declared the "painting of the season". The painting was acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland in 1897, having initially been bought by the Royal Association for Promoting the Fine Arts.
Did you know -
- ... that Elizabeth II's childhood toys at 145 Piccadilly included 30 toy horses and a farm set collected from Woolworths?
- ... that before Fred Thomas became an MP, he was the Royal Marines' light heavyweight boxing champion?
- ... that the size of the entrance hall at the British legation in Uruguay was increased after a diplomat complained that there was not enough room to hold dances?
- ... that the Kensington Treaty was the first bilateral Germany–United Kingdom treaty since World War II?
- ... that the prime ministers of the United Kingdom and Australia took sides on a 2023 controversy involving their countries' cricket teams?
- ... that the Labour Party received their highest share of the vote to date in the 1951 UK general election but still lost to the Conservatives, who received fewer votes?
In the news
- 1 October 2026 – 2026 RAF Fairford arrests
- British counter-terrorism police arrest a 25-year-old British-Iranian dual national in Westminster, London, England, on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts linked to the RAF Fairford investigation. Officers also search two properties in the area. (CNN)
- 1 October 2026 – Sentencing Act 2026
- Hundreds of prisoners begin leaving prison in England and Wales under an early release scheme by the British government to avoid overcapacity in prisons. More than 4,500 "low-risk" prisoners are expected to be released in the coming weeks. (BBC News) (Firstpost)
- 29 September 2026 –
- Seventeen people are arrested during a security operation involving 800 police officers against a "suspected organised crime group" in five cities in the United Kingdom, including London. A police officer is stabbed and wounded during one of the raids. (Sky News)
- 23 September 2026 –
- The United Kingdom establishes a National Centre for Information Defence to detect and counter foreign disinformation, including AI-generated content. Prime Minister Andy Burnham says the centre will address disinformation attacks to states such as Russia. (AFP via France 24)
- 21 September 2026 – Yemeni civil war
- Saudi Arabia–United Kingdom relations
- British prime minister Andy Burnham says that the United Kingdom will offer Saudi Arabia aerial refueling in its ongoing conflict with the Houthis. (The Hill)
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