<P> Sir Morien Morgan led research into supersonic transport in 1948 that culminated in the Concorde passenger aircraft . In November 1956 he became Chairman of the newly formed Supersonic Transport Aircraft Committee which funded research into supersonic transport at several UK aviation firms though the 1950s . By the late 1950s the Committee had started the process of selecting specific designs for development, and after the forced merger of most UK aviation firms in 1960, selected the Bristol Type 223, designed by Archibald Russell, as the basis for a transatlantic design . </P> <P> The Brit Awards statuette for the BPI's annual music awards, which depicts Britannia, the female personification of Britain, is regularly redesigned by some of the best known British designers, stylists and artists, including Dame Vivienne Westwood, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Sir Peter Blake, Zaha Hadid and Sir Anish Kapoor . </P> <P> Large outdoor music festivals in the summer and autumn are popular, such as Glastonbury (the largest greenfield festival in the world), V Festival, Reading and Leeds Festivals . The UK was at the forefront of the illegal, free rave movement from the late 1980s, which led to pan-European culture of teknivals mirrored on the UK free festival movement and associated travelling lifestyle . The most prominent opera house in England is the Royal Opera House at Covent Gardens . The Proms, a season of orchestral classical music concerts held at the Royal Albert Hall, is a major cultural event held annually . The Royal Ballet is one of the world's foremost classical ballet companies, its reputation built on two prominent figures of 20th - century dance, prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn and choreographer Frederick Ashton . Irish dancing is popular in Northern Ireland and among the Irish diaspora throughout the UK; its costumes feature patterns taken from the medieval Book of Kells . </P> <P> A staple of British seaside culture, the quarrelsome couple Punch and Judy made their first recorded appearance in Covent Garden, London in 1662 . The various episodes of Punch and Judy are performed in the spirit of outrageous comedy--often provoking shocked laughter--and are dominated by the anarchic clowning of Mr. Punch . Regarded as British cultural icons, they appeared at a significant period in British history, with Glyn Edwards stating: "(Pulcinella) went down particularly well with Restoration British audiences, fun - starved after years of Puritanism . We soon changed Punch's name, transformed him from a marionette to a hand puppet, and he became, really, a spirit of Britain - a subversive maverick who defies authority, a kind of puppet equivalent to our political cartoons ." </P>

The influence of different cultures on british literature