Travel Essay: British Identity and the Class System

So far, I have spent a month in the United Kingdom. I’ve travelled around London, been to Cardiff, Bath, Dover, Canterbury, Stonehenge, and Newcastle. Each area has its own identity, even within the boroughs of London. Everyone that I’ve met who are from here seems to consider themselves to be British, but then you have the subgroups of English, Scottish, and Welsh (apparently there are more but I haven’t talked to them yet). Each person I’ve talked to is fiercely proud to be from their region and will defend their homes with much enthusiasm. I have noticed that people see each other based on economic class. London itself is a good example of this ideology. Each borough is associated with a certain class, with Kensington and Chelsea being very posh, at the high end of the economic and social classes. Going out from there, you get into the more working-class areas (as both areas are very, very wealthy), and locals here seem quick to judge each other based on the borough they live in. I have noticed that people are very preoccupied about who has what amount of wealth here, and I was wondering, how has social class shaped the British identity?

Social class, since medieval England, has been a few powerful ruling families at the top (headed by the monarch), then lawyers and lawmakers, businessmen/business owners, middle class workers, and so on. This trend, I think has roughly stayed the same. People judge one another, by their accents, by the way, they dress, by their jobs, by where they shop, and by where they live. For generations, social class has been based on occupation, wealth, and education. Those at the top who have the most wealth and the best occupations can give their children the better education opportunities who then restart the cycle.

North America is also preoccupied with status, but that stems from the idea of the American Dream, where a poor man can become rich and famous. In the UK, it seems to be tied to heritage. I would argue that this affinity with the class system goes along with the long-standing monarchy, as they are at the top of the pyramid. Britain has a longstanding interest in the past, in terms of stuffy traditions that have been around for centuries. The idea of having one ruler for the whole of the UK has been around since the Norman invasion of 1066. The monarch is the highest elite in the land, with other titleholders just below them, then the wealthy and famous, to business executive and so on and so forth.

The class system and wealth differences are apparent as you walk around London. In Kensington, near where the royals live both in Buckingham and Kensington Palace, you have the beautifully built homes that cost millions of pounds. In Camden you have the more rough and tough, New York Bronx feels where you can tell the people have a different kind of arduous work that the people do. This favour, arguably given to by the Royals to Kensington, has made this area high class just by association. Anything the royals use, touch or mention quickly become the ideal. In the old days, corsets came into fashion because the royals and the elite society deemed it fashionable. Tea, which is probably the most British thing there is, was introduced by Charles II in the 1660s, and from the highest class, it trickled down to all ways of life. Back in the day, I think part of the reason it was important that what the monarchs liked was what was in fashion was due to their ultimate power, but even in the modern day they still have quite the pull. Queen Elizabeth the Second is quite the advocate for ladies to wear stockings. Many of the women I see here, of all walks of life, will wear stocking even with short shorts. I’ve noticed anything to do with Meghan Markel’s fashion choice, and before her, Kate Middleton is all the rage. Their style is on shop mannequins, and many women from all areas can be seen copying their style. It is favourable to be like the elites yet at the same time so many people that I’ve talked to dislike them for what they stand for.

 When we went to Wales, I found that the people there cared less about social class than those people in England. There was a sense, though, that the south of England, especially in Westminster, holds a lot of power and wealth that isn't being shared. I found that rather interesting as one of the things that were discussed in our visit to the Welsh National Assembly was the push of Welsh modernisation, whereas Westminster is seen as old and stuffy, stuck in the ways of the past. When I went North with a friend, some of the people that I talked to there disliked the central power as well, seeing the lawmakers as "snobby elites" who didn't understand the plight of the working class. Unlike in North America, there isn't a real sense that if you want to climb the ladder to become a "snobby elite" to change things, you could.

From an outsider perspective, the British identity is closely tied to that of a class-based system. With the talk of economic inequality in North America, and there a feeling of a class system as well, I can't help but reflect on the way that social class used to be in the UK. The modern day is very different than the old Victorian times when a person's financial and social status was all a person needed to know. Though there is still much division among the different levels of society in the United Kingdom, it is far better than it used to be. Because British identity, for centuries, has been constructed around the idea that groups of people are somehow higher or lower than someone else based on their occupation, education, and heritage, there is still going to be traces left in modern society. Monarchs have been, and continue to be instrumental in creating what is British, be it by trends, or simply by existing and being at the head of the class system. National monuments such as the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, and St Pauls Cathedral exist because of a long line of kings and queens. I think until there is no more monarchy, the class system in the UK will remain very much a part of the society and the culture.