Yes, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s design classic usually smelled of piss and often contained a dangling wire with no handset, but by God they look great from the outside don’t they? The design itself was the result of a competition held in 1924. Scott himself wanted the boxes painted silver with greeny-blue interiors, and after several wooden prototypes the final cast-iron box was stadardised in 1929. The ‘K6’ version designed in 1936 is the one seen most often today. There were 73,000 in 1980: after privatization the Post Office’s successor, BT, got rid of most of them. Just 2,000 remain today.

Walk around any town, village or city in Britain and there, gently swaying in the breeze, is 2,000 years of history hanging over your head. Pub signs, those mini-masterpieces that beckon us through their doors into that magical place, have more intrigue, history and style than any Damian Hirst dot painting. Pub signs are little stories about a place – history, scandal, characters. Romans hanged the first pub signs in the branches of evergreen plants – hence the Hollybushes you still find today. The Red Bulls, Kings Arms, Bricklayers and Cross Keys, all are symbols of our past. Don’t let them die. Go and have a pint today!

We still call the BT Tower the Post Office Tower round here. Re-branding doesn’t touch your soul. Located at 60 Cleveland Street, W1, just a short hop from the Maxim offices, the building is simply the most beautiful skyscraper in Britain. Designed for a purpose rather than an ego, the cylindrical style shifts no more than 10 inches in 95mph winds, so the communication aerials it holds are unaffected. Construction started in 1961 and the Tower topped out on July 15, 1964, finally opening to the public just before the 1966 World Cup. The Top of the Tower revolving restaurant was closed in 1980, but may re-open next year.

Many cars tried to handbrake-turn into our list – The E-type and the Morris Minor made strong claims. But the Mini eventually left them sucking exhaust. Designed as a response to the fuel shortage caused by the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Mini is now a global icon. Britain needed a small car to stop the huge influx of German ‘bubble cars’. And the British Motor Corporation stepped up to the challenge. Designed by Alec Issigonis the Mini was initially sold as the Austin Seven and the Morris Mini-Minor, the name Mini eventually coming into popular use as sales grew. A total of 1,581,887 Minis were sold in the UK after its launch in 1959 and up to the last new one sold in 2004 – four years after production ceased.

The first recorded pier in England was Ryde Pier, opened in 1814 on the Isle of Wight, as a landing stage to allow ferries to and from the mainland to berth. In their heyday, there were over 100 pleasure piers across England and Wales, though this number has dwindled to 55. You buy some cockles, you look down through the boards at the sea as you stroll past the rock shop, you have a flutter in the arcade and you have a beer at the end of the pier. That’s what you do. It’s good. It’s part of our unique legacy. They stick out into the sea like little tent pegs, holding this marvellous island in place. Beautiful.

The red postbox with which we are all so familiar was introduced in the mid 1800s. Until then it was customary for people to take their outgoing post to their nearest ‘receiving house’, which was usually an inn or turnpike house. The first mainland boxes were introduced in 1853. There were variety of designs, including many with vertical slots, but by 1861 JW Penfold had designed the cast-iron boxes we know today. Dangermouse lived inside a post box – and his sidekick’s name was Penfold, as you may recall.

The correct name for the familiar high hat still worn by many forces in England and Wales is the custodian or centurion helmet. Policemen in Northern Ireland have never worn it, and officers on patrol in mobile patrol cars don’t wear it. They wear the peaked cap. The Metropolitan Police adopted the custodian helmet in 1863 to replace the top hat. They are traditionally made of cork and covered on the outside by felt, and topped off with either a comb-and-crest, a ball, or a simple ‘boss’, like a small disc on the crown. All forces apart from City of London, Hampshire and West Mercia use the Brunswick star as the basis for their front plate.

The lawn has moved from the exclusive domain of the wealthy landowner and become the little slice of England available to everyman in the space of 150 years. How? Because of lawn mowers, that’s how. Before the invention of mowing machines in 1830 lawns were labour intensive affairs: huge teams of labourers working with scythes and shears kept grass short, and they even used rabbits and sheep to graze lawns down. Lawns don’t have to be grass: there have been chamomile and thyme lawns, and some lawns have wild areas to attract bees (which often live underground). Don’t concrete or deck over your lawn if you have one: concrete causes flooding (lawns are natural flood preventors) and rats live under decking. Keep the grass.

Hop on! Oh, you can’t any more unless you catch one of the heritage route buses that run for a few hours each day in London on two tourist routes. The shame! Developed in 1954 and produced from 1958 to 1968 the open-backed Routemaster was as quintessentially British as it gets. Yes, wheelchair users can use the new bendy buses and fat, ugly replacement double-deckers, and yes, money is saved getting rid of conductors. But what of history and style and social intercourse? What of the fabric of society? What of keeping things going that are simply good?

We laugh at muesli munchers. We openly mock the crisps-and-can-of-coke brigade and their filthy ways. We deliberately bump into the croissant and take-away coffee crowd. Why? Because we support the Full English Breakfast as a design classic, and we know we’re right. It’s not just stylish - it’s bloody healthy. Bacon and sausage, that’s going to build you up for the day ahead. Baked beans – superb carbs. Fried egg contains essential ‘good’ cholesterol. Toast and friend bread absorb dangerous ‘free radicals’. Mushrooms are one of your five-a-day. Black pudding has blood in it, which is iron, which is good for anemia. What the hell is wrong with any of that?