Britain's Cultural Firsts

Below is a list of British ' Firsts' (in alphabetical order) which have gone on to influence both British, and in some cases world culture, to this day.

AIR MAIL LETTER.

The world's first airmail letter was carried across the English Channel from England to France by a hot air balloon back in 1785.  

BANK.

The first British bank was the Bank of England located in the City of London. The bank was founded by Scotsman William Paterson who implemented it in order to finance King William III's war against the French.  

BANK NOTES.

The first printed bank notes in the UK were introduced in 1855. Before this they had been written by hand.  

CASH DISPENSER.

Britain's first ' Hole in the Wall'  cash dispenser was introduced by Barclays Bank at Enfield in London in 1967. 

CATS EYES.

Britain's Percy Shaw from Halifax in West Yorkshire invented the reflective road safety device  known as the 'catseye' in 1933.  

CHAIN STORE.

W.H Smith was Britain's first ever chain store. It’s first book stores opened at large railway stations around the country in 1848 although it's High Street stores did not appear until 1905.  

CHINESE TAKEAWAY.

Britain's first Chinese takeaway was opened on London's Queensway in 1958 by restaurant owner John Koon. 

CHIP SHOP.

The first British 'chippie'  was opened in Oldham, Lancashire in 1860 by Jewish immigrant Joseph Malin, who wanted to introduce his favourite Jewish meal of battered fish served with Belgian fried, chipped potatoes to the British public as a way of thanking them for making him so welcome in their country. 

CHRISTMAS CARD.

The tradition of sending Christmas Cards was implemented by civil servant Sir Henry Cole in 1843. 

COMIC STRIP.

Britain's first newspaper comic strip was Teddy Tail published in the Daily Mail in 1915. 

CROSSWORD.

The first 'crossword published in a British newspaper was published in the Daily Express on the 2nd of November 1924. 

CREDIT CARD.

Britain's first credit card was introduced by Barclays Bank in 1966. 

ESCALATOR.

Britain's first escalator, also the world's first escalator, was introduced at the Harrods Store in Knightsbridge in London in 1898. So frightened of it were the store's customers that Harrods staff had to supply them with shots of brandy as they exited. 

HOLIDAY CAMP.

Britain's first holiday camp was the Cunningham Camp for Men, opened in 1894, on the Isle of Man. 

INCOME TAX. 

Income tax was introduced into the UK by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger in 1799, in order to help finance the Napoleonic Wars.  

INDIAN RESTAURANT.

The U.K's first Indian Restaurant was opened in Portman Square in London in 1773 by Dean Mahomet and was called the Hindoostanee Coffee House. 

LIBRARY.

The U.K's first lending library was housed in a former city jail in Winchester, Hampshire and opened in 1850. 

MACDONALDS.

Fast food phenomena Macdonalds opened it's first retaurant in the UK in Woolwich in London on the twelth of October 1974. 

 

MOBILE PHONE.

Britain's first mobile phone call was made by British comedian Ernie Wise on the first of January 1985 when he placed a call to the Vodaphone HQ. 

NEWSPAPER.

Britain's first newspaper was the London Gazette, published on the third of September 1666. The papaer featured a report of the Great Fire of London on it's front cover. 

NINE NINE NINE CALL.

The British emergency telephone number of 999 was implemented in 1937 after the previously used single digit '1' was taken out of service due to too many people mis-dialling it and calling the emergency services by mistake. 

 

PATENT.

The first ever British patent, British Patent Number One, was issued to Rathbun and Burgess in 1617 for their engraved maps. 

POSTAGE STAMP.

The postage stamp was introduced in Britain in May of 1840, where it was known both as the 'Penny Post' and the 'Pony Post'. Britain's first stamp was the Penny Black which showed a silhouette of a young Queen Victoria. 

POSTCARD.

The tradition of sending picture postcards to friends and family from their holidays began in 1894 with the first post card having been manufactured by E.T.W Dennis of Scarborough in Lincolnshire.
Today those who collect old postcards are known as deitiologists.  

POST BOX.

Britain's iconic red post boxes, also known as pillar boxes, were first introduced in St Helier, on the island of Jersey in November 1852. They were then incorporated on to the mainland in 1853, the first of which was located in the Cumbrian town of Carlisle, where they were originally green in colour. 

 

PUBLIC TOILET. 

Public toilets were introduced to Britain in February 1852. The first men's convieniences were located on Fleet Street in London and the first ladies toilets were located at Bedford Street in London. 

RADIO MESSAGE.

The first radio mesage in Britain was made by Gugliemo Marconi on the eleventh of May 1897 when he sent a message from the Welsh coastal town of Lavernock Point to the Welsh offshore island of Flatholm three miles away.

  

RADIO NEWS BROADCAST.

The first time the British public heard the words “ And here is the news” was when BBC radio made it's first news broadcast on the thirty first of August 1920.

  

RADIO PIPS.

Britain's familiar six radio 'pips'  or to be precise the Greenwich Time Signal, were introduced by the BBC on the fifth of February 1924 to mark the precise start of each hour. 

SPEAKING CLOCK.

The speaking clock was introduced on the twenty fourth of July 1936 in London and became a nationwide service in 1942. Britain's 'voice' of the speaking clock was that of telephonist Ethel Jane Caine whose voice was used from 1936 until 1963. 

STARBUCKS.

Britain's first Starbucks coffee house first appeared on London's King's Road in 1998. 

STATE PENSION.

Britain's state pension was introduced in 1909 and was eligible only to people over seventy years of age who had never been in prison, never been convicted of drunkeness and had never been out of work. 

SURNAME.

The Normans introduced surnames to the British public after realising every one of them were only known by a first name, hence the reason many British surnames derive from occupations such as Baker or as being 'someone's son' such as the surname Johnson, Jackson or Robertson.  

TELEPHONE BOX.

Britain's first standard public telephone boxes were constructed from concrete and were introduced by the Post Office in 1920. Britain’s iconic, red, cast iron telephone boxes, or kiosks as they were originally called, came about after a competition held in 1924. The winner of the competition was architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott who won with his steele, silver box design. 

The phone boxes were originally deployed in and around London during 1926 after the Post Office changed their colour to red and made them from the much stronger cast iron before becoming common place all over the country and in various British colonies around the world.  

THE MINI COOPER.

Britain's iconic 'Mini Cooper' car was designed by Sir Alec Issigonis in 1956. It was originally manufactured for the British Motor Corporation (BMC)  and production lasted  over forty years from 1959 until 2000.  

THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE (NHS).

Britain's much envied National Health Service (NHS) was implemented during Clement Attlee's post war government in 1948 by Welsh, Labour Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan. 

TRADEMARK.

Britain's first trademark was used by brewing company Bass and Co who implemented it's use on their bottled beers in January 1876. 

TRAFFIC LIGHTS. 

Britain's first traffic lights appeared outside London's Houses of Parliament on December the tenth 1868. They resembled railway signals with semaphore arms in green and red which were lit by a gas lamp and operated by a policeman. 

Unfortunately these type of traffic lights were short lived as the gas exploded in August 1869 killing the operating policeman.

The country's first automated traffic lights were installed on Prince's Square in Wolverhampton in 1927.