(This Glossary of Terms was assembled for my course on Britain since 1945, but I have tried to broaden it.)
English Money
Political Terms (including Political History)
Social Terms
Education
American Translation of English Words, Phrases and Abbreviation (not included in the categories above)
Prior to 1972, British money was measured as follows:
Pound: the basic unit, consisted of 20 shillings; abbreviation £
Shilling: consisted of 12 pence; abbreviation s.
Penny (plural pence); abbreviation d.
Ten pounds, six shillings and four pence would be written £10 6s.4d. Six shillings and four pence might be spoken as "six and four", and might be written 6/4. In 1972 the British introduced decimalization. The shilling was eliminated (and with it the guinea and the crown, see below). Now one pounds consists of 100 pence.
Other measures were:
Guinea: 21 shillings; to pay in guineas was considered a sign of wealth, an indifference to the extra shilling above a pound
Crown: 5 shillings
Farthing: not used as a unit of currency by the 19th century; historically, a quarter of a penny
Slang terms are:
Bob (plural, slang): shillings
Quid (plural, slang): pounds (as a money term, not weight)
Exchange Rate with the Dollar (rounded)
1900 £1 = $5.00
1925 (after the return to the gold standard) £1 = $4.80
1945 £1 = $4.00
1949 (after devaluation) £1 = $2.80
1967 (after devaluation) £1 = $2.40
After 1971, fixed exchange rates ceased, so the exchange rate between the dollar and the pound fluctuated. In the inflation of 1974-75, the pound fell below $2.00, and I think it never reached that level again, except briefly during the Gulf War of 1989. At one point (I forget which year) it fell to about $1.05, but never reached $1 = £1. Mostly, it has fluctuated between about £1 = $1.40 and £1 = $1.75. Remember that the value of both the pound and the dollar fell substantially between 1970 and 1982 because of inflation.
The terms included here are not necessarily British. While some are, others are terms that are used by economists when describing and evaluating the economy. I have made an attempt to explain the relationship of such terms to economic policy.
Balance of Payments: the net (i.e., balance) of all imports and exports of goods and services. It will be all earnings from overseas exchange, both invisible from services and visible from manufactured, mining, agricultural, etc., products. (See below for invisible and visible earnings.) A prolonged balance of payments deficit (i.e., a negative balance) will eventually have an adverse effect on the value of the pound and people's confidence in the economy.
Bank Rate: the interest rate charged by the Bank of England to commercial banks that have to borrow money from it; raising or lowering it is a way of tightening or easing credit and so should slow down or speed up economic growth
British Gas: the nationalized gas company, privatized in the 1980s
British Leyland: British vehicle manufacturer, formed by the merging of the British Motor Corp. with Leyland Motors in the late 1960s; nationalized in 1975 to save it from bankruptcy; broken up in the 1980s, with the profitable divisions being privatized
British Telecom: the nationalized telephone company, privatized in the 1980s
Death Duties: estate or inheritance taxes
FT Index: the Financial Times Index; the British stock exchange's version of the Dow Jones or Standard and Poors Indexes
Hire Purchase: buying on credit; government regulated the terms; raising or lowering the interest rate or size of the down payment will discourage or encourage consumer demand, and should slow down or speed up economic growth
Incomes Policy: government policy to limit wage and price increases; it could be either voluntary (urging business and labor to show restraint) or statutory (giving government legal power to impose restraint)
Inland Revenue: British equivalent of the IRS (Internal Revenue Service)
Invisible Earnings: the net earnings (or losses, if negative) in a year from services such as shipping and banking, from income on foreign investments, and from tourism and other forms of spending outside one's own country (such as the spending at foreign defense bases). Visible earnings are the earnings from the sale of tangible goods; invisible earnings are the earnings from services.
Leyland (see British Leyland)
Labor Productivity: the output of the economy in a year per unit of labor input; measured by dividing Gross Domestic Product (GDP, the total value of all goods and services produced in a year) by the employed workforce
Merchant Bank: investment bank; lends money to corporations for investment, and organizes stock issues
Mixed Economy: an economy in which some industry is publicly owned and some is privately owned; the term used to describe the British economy after the nationalizations of 1945-50
National Insurance Contributions: the contributions that businesses and workers pay into the national insurance fund; an increase, by taking money out of people's pockets, should slow down economic growth, a cut should encourage it
Pay Pause: a government sponsored policy for a voluntary halt in wage increases, as a way of controlling inflation
Public Sector Borrowing Requirement (PSBR): the budget deficit
Purchase Tax: a sales tax on consumer durable goods (like cars, refrigerators, etc.); raising or lowering it will discourage or encourage consumer spending and so should slow down or speed up economic growth
Rates: local property taxes
Sterling: the formal name for Britain's currency (the pound sterling)
Surtax: a tax above the standard rates of income tax on the very rich
Terms of Trade: the prices of imports relative to the prices of exports; thus, an improvement in the terms of trade means that the price of imports has fallen, so that more imports can be bought with the same amount of exports (in terms of value)
VAT (value added tax): a kind of sales tax, but the tax is assessed at each stage of the production process based on the value added at that stage of the process
These terms are a bit random; however, I have tried to define the principal regions of England, Scotland, and Wales, and I have included many (though not all) of the counties of England in one of those regions. It does not include the new county names created in 1972.
Aberdeen: city on the east coast of the Scottish Highlands, the center of the North Sea oil industry
Belfast: the principal city of Ulster, and the principal industrial city of Ireland; home of shipbuilding and linen industries since the Industrial Revolution
Birmingham: principal city of the West Midlands; home of the metals industries since before the Industrial Revolution and the automobile industry in the 20th century
Bond Street: one of the fanciest shopping streets in London
Blackpool: the major working-class beach resort, in Lancashire
Brighten: popular resort on the Sussex coast in the South; site of the University of Sussex
Bristol: principal port of southwest England; in Somerset
Chelsea: artsy area in West London
City (or City of London): the financial district of London; the English equivalent of Wall Street
Clapham: middle-class neighborhood of south London
Clydeside: the area around Glasgow, on the Clyde River, in southwestern Scotland
Connaught: one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the northeast; it has no principal city, in itself a good indication of its poverty
Dales: a scenic area of North Yorkshire, above the industrial region of the West Riding of Yorkshire
Dorset: county on the south coast, below Bristol; Thomas Hardy country; Dorchester is the principal market town (Hardy's Casterbridge)
Dublin: the capital of Ireland, on the east coast
East Anglia: counties immediately northeast of London: Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingtonshire; its principal cities are Norwich, Ipswich, and Cambridge (hardly a city)
East End/West End: the working-class (East End) and upper-class (West End) areas of London; West End is also a term for the London theater district
Edinburgh: the capital of Scotland, in the East on the Firth of Forth; home of the new Scottish Parliament
Fenland: once a swampy area encompassing parts of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire; mostly drained in the 17th century
Garden City: a planned town, supposedly allowing for sufficient green space
Glasgow: the principal industrial city of Scotland, in the west on the River Clyde; home of cotton textiles, shipbuilding, and iron and steel
Hampstead: an area of North London, home to theater and arts people, intellectuals, and Americans; well-to-do, currently represented in the House of Commons by the actress Glenda Jackson, for Labour
Harrogate: Yorkshire spa, near Leeds
Highlands: the region of Scotland above a line drawn from Edinburgh in the east to Glasgow in the west
Home Counties: the counties surrounding London; now the London suburbs, although the terms precedes the word suburb; Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Essex, and Hertforshire
Isle of Wight: island just off the southern coast, west of Southampton
Kensington: stylish area just west of the West End; home of Kensington Palace
Kilburn: a middle/lower-middle-class area of Northwest London; a downscale version of Hampstead
Lake District: scenic area in northwest England, between Lancashire and the Scottish border; famous as the home of Wordsworth and the Romantic poets; includes the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland (now Cumbria)
Lancashire: principal county of northwest England; home of the cotton industry, Liverpool and Manchester
Leeds: principal city of the West Riding of Yorkshire at the northern edge of the Yorkshire coalfield; with Bradford, home of the woolen industry, and later one home of the armaments industry
Leinster: one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of the island; the principal city is Dublin
Liverpool: principal port of northwest England, in Lancashire; home of the slave trade in the 18th century, and importer of American cotton in the 19th century; Britain's most important port after London; synonymous with the Northern working class; home of the Beatles
Lowlands: the region of Scotland below a line drawn from Edinburgh in the east to Glasgow in the west
Macclesfield: in Cheshire (the southern shore of the Mersey), home of the silk industry
Manchester: with Liverpool, the principal city of Lancashire; the commercial center of the cotton industry; home of Manchester United football team
Margate: a beach resort town in Kent, east of London
Mayfair: the fanciest residential area of the West End of London
Merseyside: the area around Liverpool in northwest England, on the Mersey River
Midlands: the area of England above a line drawn roughly from the Severn River in the west (above Bristol) to the Wash in the east (at King's Lynn in Norfolk), and below Yorkshire and Lancashire (which begin the North); home of the automobile and metals industries, and Birmingham. It is divided between the West Midlands (which includes Shropshire, Cheshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, and Herefordshire) and the East Midlands (which includes Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire).
Munster: one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast; the principal city is Cork
Newcastle-upon-Tyne (see Tyneside)
North: area of England north of a line running roughly from the Mersey River (at Liverpool) in the west to the Humber River (at Hull) in the east; includes the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire
North Wales: the northern half of Wales; the more rural and more predominantly Welsh-speaking part of the country; home of Snowdonia National Park and some spectacular scenery, and location of many of the castles of Edward I; birthplace of David Lloyd George
Northeast: the counties of Northumberland and Durham, one of the coal producing centers of England; the principal city is Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Notting Hill: a somewhat trendy middle-class area west of Central London, above Kensington; suddenly made more fashionable and better known by a recent movie of the same name
Oxfordshire: on the line between the South and the Midlands, though still considered southern England and within London's orbit
Pennines: mountain range that runs along both sides of the Yorkshire-Lancashire border in northern England
Post Office Tower: the tallest building in Central London (it's not very tall, by New York or Chicago standards)
Regent Street: one of London's major shopping streets
St. John's Wood: a fairly fancy residential area of northwest London; home of EMI record studios at Abbey Road; an area where Americans live, and home of the American School in London
Scarborough: a beach resort town in northeast Yorkshire
Severn: river in the southwest, running from Bristol into the West Midlands
Sheffield: in the West Riding of Yorkshire at the southern edge of the Yorkshire coalfield; home of the steel industry; location of The Full Monty
Soho: home of London's red-light district, but also interesting restaurants and an area where theater people hang out
South: roughly, the area of England south of a line from the Severn River (at Bristol) in the west to the Wash (at King's Lynn in Norfolk) in the east; it includes the Home Counties, East Anglia, and the Southwest, plus the counties of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Northamptonshire
South Wales: the southern half of Wales, somewhat more Anglicized (especially along the English-Welsh border) than North Wales; home of the Industrial Revolution in Wales, including the coal and iron industries; principal ports are Swansea and Cardiff
Southwest: the southwest English counties of Cornwall, Devonshire (Devon), Dorsetshire (Dorset), and Somerset; its principal cities are Bristol, Plymouth, and Exeter
Stonehenge: prehistoric site in Wiltshire (South of England) consisting of enormous stones; thought to be a religious site
Stratford-upon-Avon: birthplace of Shakespeare, and home (with London) of the Royal Shakespeare Company (of actors)
Thames: the principal river of southeast England, running from London west into Berkshire and then north into Oxfordshire
Tyneside: the area around Newcastle, on the Tyne River, in northeast England; one home of the coal industry
Ulster: one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the northwest; its principal city is Belfast. The present Northern Ireland is not Ulster, for it does not include three of the nine counties; nonetheless, the term Ulster is often used as a synonym for Northern Ireland.
Whitechapel: working-class area of East End of London; home of Cockneys (see below)
Yorkshire: the largest county in England; with Lancashire, the embodiment of Northern England and the England of the 19th-century Industrial Revolution; home of the woolen industry (Leeds, Bradford) and steel industry (Sheffield). Yorkshire was historically divided into three Ridings: the East, West, and North. The West Riding had all the industry; the North Riding was the most rural, with the Dales (see above) and the Yorkshire Moors. The Ridings have been abolished.
(includes abbreviations)
There will be some overlap between these political terms and the Parliamentary Glossary composed by The Guardian, which is included as a separate item that can be accessed from this website. However, there will be a number of terms in The Guardian's glossary that are not here.
Backbenchers: those MPs who are not part of the government or the opposition leadership; the party leaders sit on the front benches in the House of Commons, the rest sit on the backbenches
Borough: historically, a local unit that had the right to return two MPs; it might be a city or town, but by the 19th century many were villages, and a rotten borough had virtually no population, but still could return two MPs
By-election: an election for a seat in the House of Commons that has been vacated due to the death or resignation of the sitting MP; by-election results are often taken as a signal of how a government stands with the public
CND: Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; an organization formed in the late 1950s to promote Britain's unilateral renunciation of its nuclear weapons.
Commission of the EEC/EC/EU: the bureaucracy of the European Community; each administrative department (e.g., agriculture, environment, finance) is headed by a commissioner; the President of the Commission is chosen every four years by the heads of government of the EEC/EC/EU countries
Common Market (see EEC)
Conquest (the): the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066
Corporation: town that has been "incorporated"; the terms usually refers to the local government of that town or city
County Borough: a borough (city) whose local government is organized on the same principle as a county; for local government purposes, it is treated as a county
Crimean War: fought by Britain and France in support of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) against Russia, 1854-56; the only European war Britain fought between 1815 and 1914
Democratic Unionist Party: the radical Unionist party in Northern Ireland, which opposes any kind of concessions at all to the Republicans and any kind of association with the Irish Republic; its current leader is Rev. Ian Paisley
Diggers: the Diggers were an early socialist group from the period of the English Civil War, in the 1640s and 1650s
EC: European Community (see EEC)
EEC: European Economic Community, or Common Market, founded in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome; the name was later changed to European Community (EC) and in 1992 to the European Union (EU)
EFTA: European Free Trade Association; a free trade area organized by West European states that were not part of the original Common Market (EEC)
EU: European Union (see EEC)
Fabian Society: an intellectual organization within the Labour party, founded in the 1880s; it's history was elitist, and as the party's "ideas" organization
General Election: an election that occurs when Parliament is dissolved, so that all the seats in the House of Commons are contested simultaneously; since 1911, must occur at least every five years, but one can occur earlier
Greenham Common: protest of early and mid 1980s against the siting of cruise missiles in Britain; it was near one of the bases where they were to be placed
HMG: Her (His) Majesty's Government (the government of the day)
ILP: Independent Labour Party, founded in 1893; once a left-wing political organization within the Labour party, it no longer exists
IRA: Irish Republican Army; the principal paramilitary organization of the Republicans in Northern Ireland; now split into several different branches, but the dominant one is the Provisionals
Lib-Lab: a pre-First World War term for labor supporters of the Liberal party
Loyalists (see Unionists)
MacDonald, Ramsay: first Labour Prime Minister (1924, 1929-31), a moderate, who in Labour mythology betrayed the party in 1931 by heading a National Government dominated by the Conservatives
Militant (Tendency): an extremist socialist group within the Labour Party of the late 1970s and 1980s, which ultimately was expelled from the party on the grounds that it acted as a party within the party
MoD: Ministry of Defense
Mountbatten, Lord (Louis): admiral and cousin of the Queen; commander-in-chief of British forces in Asia during the Second World War, who oversaw the independence of India and Pakistan; he was assassinated by the IRA
MP: Member of Parliament; elected member of the House of Commons
NALGO: National and Local Government Officers' Association (the largest trade union of government employees)
Nationalist: (1) synonym for Republican in Northern Ireland (see below); (2) historically, a supporter of the party founded by Charles Stewart Parnell in the 1880s to promote Home Rule for Ireland within the United Kingdom; the party that embodied Irish nationalism until its collapse after the Easter Rebellion of 1916
NEC: National Executive Committee; the organization that runs the Labour party, elected annually by party members
Orange Order: one of the principal Protestant/Loyalist organizations in Northern Ireland
Peer: noble, lord; member of the House of Lords
Private Member's Bill: a legislative bill that is sponsored by a backbencher (see above) rather than the government; such bills tend to be non-party, so that the whips (see below) do not impose party discipline in the votes on them
Quango: "A semi-public administrative body outside the Civil Service but with financial support from and senior members appointed by the Government." (Oxford English Dictionary)
Queen's Speech: the speech given by the monarch to open each session of Parliament; it is written by the government and outlines its policy plans for the year; called the King's Speech when the monarch is a king
Republicans (also Nationalists): Irish supporters of the reunification of Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic; mostly Roman Catholics
SDLP: Social Democratic and Labour Party; the constitutional Republican party in Northern Ireland; it supports Irish unification, but opposes the use of force; its principal leader is John Hume
SDP: Social Democratic Party; a group which broke away from the Labour party in the early 1980s and then merged with the Liberal party to form the Liberal Democrats in the late 1980s
Shadow Cabinet/Minister: the opposition party leadership; specific leaders are assigned to "shadow" specific ministers (e.g., the Shadow Foreign Secretary is the opposition spokesman on foreign affairs)
Sinn Fein: the radical Republican party in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, founded in the early 20th century; it became the party of Irish nationalism after the Easter Rebellion of 1916; considered the political voice of the IRA; its current leader is Gerry Adams
Stormont (Castle): the site of the government of Northern Ireland in Belfast, when Northern Ireland was self-governing; so the Stormont government was the government of Northern Ireland
Tory: member of the Conservative party
UDC: Urban District Council (a level of local government)
Ulster Defense Association (UDA): the principal paramilitary organization of the Unionists in Northern Ireland; however, other organizations, such as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) are not clearly separate organizations in terms of personel
Ulster Unionist Party: the principal Unionist party in Northern Ireland; its current leader is David Trimble
Unionists (also Loyalists): (1) an Irish supporter of Northern Ireland's continued place in the United Kingdom; i.e., a supporter of the union between Britain and Northern Ireland; primarily Protestants; (2) between the introduction of the first Irish Home Rule Bill in 1886 and the treaty recognizing Irish independence in 1921, another word for a member of the British Conservative party, because they supported the union between Britain and the whole of Ireland
Wellsian Paradise: a socialist Utopia, so-called for H. G. Wells, an early 20th-century author
Whip: (1) one of several people on both the government and opposition sides who are responsible for turning out the party's MPs for votes in the House of Commons; (2) the notice of a vote sent out to party MPs by the party's Chief Whip; a "three-line whip" indicates it is underlined three times, which means it is a key party vote and the MP is expected to vote with the party
White Paper: a formal policy statement on a subject by the government, usually stating proposals that are then embodied in a bill for legislation
A-levels: exams in specific subjects for students planning to go to university; they come after O-levels (see below)
AUT: Association of University Teachers (a trade union)
Board Schools: state elementary schools provided by the school boards that existed between 1871 and 1902
Balliol: one of the elite Oxford colleges (see below); has prided itself on being a nursery for politicians, including H. H. Asquith and Roy Jenkins (Asquith's biographer)
College: (1) a synonym for secondary school; in particular, some of the public schools (see below) call themselves colleges (e.g., Eton College); (2) a sub-unit of Oxford or Cambridge for undergraduates, with affiliated faculty, rooms and board; students apply to specific colleges (e.g., Merton College, Oxford)
Comprehensive Schools: state schools that do not track students according to their ability; they include general and vocational education
Don: a member of a university faculty (not necessarily as professor, as British universities have many fewer professors than we have)
Eleven-plus Exam: after the Education Act of 1944, the exam all students took at the age of 11 to determine what track they would follow: university preparation degree, secondary school terminal degree, or vocational degree; abolished by Labour in the 1970s
GCE: General Certificate of Education (meaning you have passed your O-levels -- see below)
Grammar Schools: state schools offering a university-preparatory education, admitting students according to ability
Lecturer: academic rank below professor; a senior lecturer will be the highest rank at this level
LSE: London School of Economics; a school in the University of London, specializing in the Social Sciences, founded by Fabian Socialists (see above), and so historically left-leaning, though that is not the case any more
Modern Greats: a literature degree program at Oxford
Nuffield: an Oxford College founded in 1937 by William Morris, later Viscount Nuffield, who founded Morris Motors; so it does not have elite status
O-levels: general exams for students seeking a terminal secondary school degree; students must also pass the O-levels before they can prepare for the A-levels (see above)
Old Boy: alumnus
Open Day: day when prospective students visit a university campus
Open University: vehicle through which people can take correspondence courses, including courses which use television; offers degrees, and degree programs involve a week or two of intensive summer courses at a campus; founded by Harold Wilson's Labour government in the 1960s
Oxbridge: term for Oxford and Cambridge together, symbols of privileged higher education (like the Ivy League)
Polytechnics: roughly the equivalent of American community colleges, with general arts courses but an emphasis on vocational courses; they were converted into degree-granting universities under Thatcher, and so have lost that vocational association
PPE: politics, philosophy and economics (an Oxford degree program)
Public Schools: elite all-boys boarding schools, the most famous of which are Eton, Harrow, Winchester, & Rugby; those schools whose headmasters were members of the Headmasters' Conference; there are now all-girls schools equivalents
Reader: in some universities, a lecturer of the highest rank below professor
Robbins Report: report of a 1960s committee on higher education, which recommended university expansion
Senior Common Room: the lounge for the faculty of a college of a university (in Robyn's case in Nice Work, it will be for the Arts faculty)
Senior Lecturer (see lecturer)
Sixth Form: the period between O-levels and A-levels for students who are preparing to go on to university; what we would think of as senior year, though it usually will be more than a year. A Sixth Form College is a school that only teaches a university preparatory program.
Student Union: student activities center
Technical Schools: vocational schools
Technical Colleges: an earlier version of polytechnics (see above)
Third Year: last year of undergraduate study at a university
Tutorial: a regular meeting between a student or a couple of students with the teacher, to go over student papers and be examined on them; the norm at Oxford and Cambridge, the system has been adopted at many other English universities; at Rummidge it seems to be like a seminar
UGC: University Grants Committee, the group that allocates government money to the different universities
VC: Vice-Chancellor; the equivalent of the president of the university
WEA: Workers' Educational Association; a program of continuing education
The Royal Family
The husband and children of the Queen are princes and princesses. The heir to the throne is the Prince of Wales; the oldest daughter is the Princess Royal. However, they also have titles as dukes. Prince Philip (the Queen's husband is the Duke of Edinburgh); the second oldest son (Prince Andrew) is traditionally the Duke of York. Other royal relatives are also dukes, such as the Duke and Duchess of Kent.
The Peerage
There are five ranks in the peerage. They are, from the highest down, duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron. A person can be promoted in the peerage, and many ducal families started with lower ranks. The peerage only attaches to the holder of the title. All children are considered commoners. The peerage is inherited by the eldest son; if there is none, it might be inherited laterally by the nearest male heir. Only the peer has the right to sit in the House of Lords. There are female equivalents to these ranks, but the most common are countess (the equivalent of an earl) and baroness. Since 1963, a peer has been able to renounce his peerage for his own life; the title remains in the family to pass down to the next heir.
Life Peers
Since 1958, the government has had the power to create life peers. These are peers whose title dies with the peer; it is not passed on to the oldest son. Now, virtually all new peerages created are life peerages. It is very rare that a new heriditary peerage is created.
Courtesy Titles
Several categories of commoners have what are called courtesy titles. A courtesy title makes the person appear to be a peer, but in fact, he has the title only as a "courtesy." He is a commoner, and can be elected to the House of Commons. There are three kinds of courtesy titles that you might come across in a history course.
Other Honors
Men who have a "Sir" in front of their name are either knights or baronets. The knight dates back to the Middle Ages. The title Baronet was created by James I in the early 17th century and sold to gentry as a way of raising money. It ranks higher than the knight on the hierarchy of titles. Women now can receive these titles in their own right; they are Dames.
In addition, there are a whole slew of other honors like Companion of the British Empire (CBE) or Order of the British Empire (OBE) -- more than anyone can keep track of. If you see two or three letters after anyone's name, it indicates such an honor. So many of these are created now that they hardly seem to have any meaning any more, though undoubtedly they do for the people who receive them.
Back-to-back Housing: two rows of houses built back to back, that is, so that their backs are against each other; built in the 19th century in the first phases of the Industrial Revolution and rapid urbanization
Bedsit: efficiency apartment (bedroom + sitting room in a single room); it can also be a room rented in a private house
Block: a Housing Block is an apartment building, an Office Block is an office building
Council Housing: houses built by local government (the City or Town Council)
Edwardian: housing of the early 20th century
Estates: Housing Estates are housing developments, subdivisions; Council Estates are public housing projects
Flat: apartment
Georgian: housing of the 18th century
High Street: Main Street
Maisonette: a small house, often a town house
Mews: a former set of stable buildings on an alleyway, now converted into apartments or town houses
Semi-detached House: double or duplex house
Terraces (Housing Terraces, Terraced Housing): row houses
Victorian: housing of roughly the period 1830-1900
Villa: single or stand-alone house
BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation; includes four public radio stations and two public television stations
Daily Express: one of the English tabloid newspapers, comparable to the Daily Mail
Daily Mail: the first of the English tabloid newspapers, founded in the 1890s by Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe) for a mass audience; not the worst
Desert Island Discs: popular radio show, in which celebrities discuss what records they would like to have if stranded on a desert island
Evening Standard: another of the English tabloids, popularlized by Max Aitken (later Lord Beaverbrook) between the wars; probably worse than the Daily Mail
Financial Times: the British equivalent of the Wall Street Journal; it has no relationship to The Times at all; one of the "quality" papers
Fleet Street: the center of the London newspaper industry
Forces Favourites: a radio program
The Guardian: formerly the Manchester Guardian, it became a national "quality" newspaper in the 1960s; made the voice of liberal England by the editor C. P. Scott between roughly1890 and 1930, it is the left's answer to The Times
ITV: Independent Television; there are now 3 stations
New Statesman: a left-wing political magazine
Observer: Sunday newspaper, and at one time a distinguished consevative voice under the editor J. L. Garvin; it is now owned by The Guardian
Page 3: page 3 of the tabloid newspapers, where it became traditional to have a picture of a bare-breasted woman
Quality Press: so-called because they are higher quality papers, aimed at a more educated market, but with much lower circulation than the tabloids
Radio 3: the BBC's classical music station
Reuters: Europe's largest news service, comparable to the Associated Press (AP) in the US
The Sun: Rupert Murdoch's tabloid paper; claims to determine who will be Prime Minister
Sunday Papers: originally, British newspapers did not publish on Sunday. So Sunday papers emerged as independent papers, separate from the dailies. Even the Sunday Times is a separate paper from The Times, with its own editor and staff, even though they are under the same ownership.
Tabloids: Britain's downscale, high circulation newspapers, aimed at a working-class and lower-middle-class audience; all except the Daily Mirror tend to be Conservative in politics
The Times: the oldest and most famous of the "quality" newspapers, with many famous owners and editors; traditionally representative of the English establishment, and in the 20th century Conservative in politics; since the 1980s, owned by Rupert Murdoch
Wireless: radio
AA: Automobile Association (like our AAA)
A Road: a major road prior to the building of the motorways, prefixed by an A (e.g., the principal road north from London was the A1); roughly comparable to our US road system, and, like many of the US roads, they tend to run through towns rather than around them; also like US roads, some stretches of the more important have been improved and made into limited access highways
Aerodrome: airport
Bonnet: hood of a car
Boot: trunk of a car
BR: British Rail, the nationalized railway corporation, broken up and privatized in the 1990s
British Airways (BA): the national airline, privatized in the 1980s
Bypass: a road built to circumvent the center of a town
Car Park: parking lot
Caravan: camper
Club Class: business class on British Airways
Coach: bus
Dual Carriageway: divided highway, with a median dividing the two roads
Euston: one of London's major train stations, serving the North and Scotland
Fly-over: overpass
King's Cross: one of London's major train stations, serving the North and Scotland
LNER: London and North-Eastern Railway (guess), before nationalization
Lorry: truck
Marylebone Station: one of London's minor train stations, serving the northern Home Counties
Minicab: car service (to drive you from one place to another, as an alternative to a taxi)
Motorway: super-highway; roughly equivalent to an Interstate; a specific Motorway is designated by M followed by the number (e.g., the M62 runs from Liverpool to Hull, through Lancashire and Yorkshire)
Paddington: one of London's major train stations, serving the Southwest
RAC: Royal Automobile Club; competitor of the AA (see above)
Ring Road: a road that goes around the center of a city; usually it is not an expressway, but consists of designated city streets
Roundabout: traffic circle
St. Pancras: one of London's major train stations, serving the North
Subway (not a mode of transportation; see American translations below)
Tram: streetcar
Underground: the London underground railway system, or (in American English) a subway
Victoria: one of London's major train stations, serving the South
Waterloo: one of London's major train stations, serving the South and (with the Channel Tunnel) the continent
I have tried to list here every term and abbreviation which strikes me as distinctly British -- or which I think a British author will assume that a British audience would understand, but which I think an American might not understand -- which does not fit into one of the categories above. It includes things like department stores, historical periods etc. When in doubt, I have included it, so some of the terms might seem so obvious as not to need to be included (e.g., pub, RAF, sweet); but one never knows, so I put them in. I have not included swear words or sexual terminology, which I leave to your imagination.
A4: British paper sizes are slightly different from ours; A4 is roughly the equivalent of a sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper
A to Z: a complete street map for a city, in book form, so that there are detailed maps of each area
Allotment: municipally owned land that is divided into plots which are rented to citizens to grow vegetables and flowers; greatly expanded during the war to increase the food supply
Anne of Green Gables: title character of a children's book
Balls-up: mess
Bangle: bracelet
Barmy: crazy (slang)
Barrister: a lawyer who is able to plead in court; a solicitor cannot plead in court, and traditionally carries lower status
Barrow Boy: one who sells goods from a cart; a street person
Beck: a mountain brook or stream
Bird: girl (slang)
Biscuit: a cracker or a cookie (means both); as a color, it would be the light tan of a wheat cracker
Bitter: ale
Bloke: guy (colloquial)
Bottom Drawer: bride's trousseau
Boxing Day: December 26, a holiday in Britain; supposedly the day that servants had off to give their Christmas boxes
Burberry: an expensive make of raincoat
Call box: telephone booth
Char: to clean (a charwoman is a maid)
Cheeky: impudent, insolent, smart-alecky
Cheers: a toast before drinking ("to your good health"); also, thanks
Chemist: pharmacist, druggist (as well as the scientist)
Chips: fried potatoes
Chit: a note (also an IOU)
Cloakroom (Men's or Women's): Men's Room or Ladies Room in a public building, where there will be multiple toilets; so-called because doubled as a place to leave coats, though that is rarely the case now
Close: the walled area around an Anglican cathedral, usually including other buildings associated with or belonging to the Church (of England)
Cockney: working-class person from the East End of London
Crisps: potato chips
Crumble: closest American equivalent is a cobbler
CS: Chartered Surveyor; a certification degree for certain government (often municipal) officials
Daft: silly, stupid, crazy
Dekko: a look, or peek (slang)
DFC: Distinguished Flying Cross
Digs: lodgings (slang)
Dock (in law): where an accused prisoner sits in the courtroom
Dodgy: deceitful, tricky, difficult
Dole, on the: unemployed (on unemployment benefit)
Doss: lay around (slang)
Dripping (used as a noun): fat dripping from a hot roast, used by working people instead of butter for bread
DSO: Distinguished Service Order
Duff: worthless, false, defective
Dustman: garbage collector
Earl Grey: a kind of tea
Edwardian: roughly the period 1900-1914
Electric Fire: electric heater
En Suite: when a separate bathroom is attached to the bedroom in a hotel
Enclosure: the process of fencing in common land, previously used by the whole village to graze animals and gather fuel and food, by the owner for his own use; last great period was 1760-1815
Engaged Tone: busy signal (of a telephone)
Estate Agent: real estate agent
Fell: a large hill or small mountain
Field Sports: hunting (especially fox hunting, but also rabbits, birds, etc. -- i.e., animals of the fields)
Fish Fingers: fish sticks
Flat: apartment
Folly: an 18th or 19th-century reproduction of a ruin (usually classical or Gothic in style), placed in a park, woods or the grounds of a private estate
Football: soccer
Four-Star Hotel: a very good, high-priced hotel, but not the most elite (which is a five-star)
Garbage (Rubbage) Bin: trash can
Georgian: 18th century
Gladstone Bag: a kind of briefcase, with two compartments
Gramophone: record player
Harrods: Britain's most famous department store, aimed at a richer group of customers than the chains
Heathcliff: hero of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, which takes place on the Yorkshire moors
Hire (hired): rent (rented)
Hunt Ball: ball given by the local fox-hunt, which means it will be for the rural elite of the county
International Home Stores: a national department store chain
Jacobean: the era of James I, roughly 1600-1625
Joint: a roast
Jumble Sale: rummage sale
Jumper: a woman's pullover; can be a blouse, sweater, shirt, or (less common) dress
Kipper: herring that has been salted and dried (or smoked); also, a child
Knickers: panties
Knobstick: strike-breaker (blackleg)
Lavatory: toilet
Let: to let is to rent
Liberty: a London specialty department store, known for its fabrics
Lift: elevator
Loo: toilet (slang)
Marks and Spencer: Britain's most popular department store chain; called Marks and Sparks, fondly
Mash: mashed potatoes
MC: Military Cross
MD: managing director
Mill: specifically refers to a textile factory (woolen in Yorkshire, cotton in Lancashire)
MM: Military Medal
Motor Mower: power lawn-mower
Moving Staircase: escalator
Muddle: confusion
Mutton: meat of a grown sheep (as opposed to a lamb), not much eaten any more
Nappy: diaper
National Service: the military draft, after the Second World War; ended in the late 1950s
Navvy: heavy laborer, who builds roads, railroads, canals
Niff: bad smell
PA: personal assistant
Pastille: lozenge
Petrol: gasoline
Pint (or half pint): a glass of beer of that quantity
Plimsoll Line: the line placed on the hull of a freight ship, marking the maximum load it is allowed to carry in terms of how low it can sink in the water before it is too heavy; defined by legislation in the late 1870s, and named after the man who pressed for such legislation
Ploughman's Lunch: a pub lunch of cheese, salad, and bread
Pontoon: blackjack, twenty-one (a game of poker)
Posh: fancy
Post Office Account: a savings account at the Post Office
Prawn: shrimp
Pre-Raphaelites: the most important group of painters of the Victorian era; Dante Gabriel Rossetti was one of them
Privy: outhouse
Pub: public house, i.e., a bar
Pudding: it can be a general term for dessert, or a general term for cake, as well as a pudding as we know it; but a Yorkshire pudding is not sweet at all
QC Queen's Counsel (or KC, King's Counsel): a senior barrister (see above) who has been given the special appointment as a sign of status
Queue: line of people waiting for something
RAF: Royal Air Force
Razzle (on the): on a spree, having a good time
Redundant: to be made redundant means to be laid off (from work)
Regency: the period when George III was mad, and his son (later George IV) acted as Prince Regent, 1810-1820
Restoration: the period after the Civil War, roughly 1660-80
Revise: study for an examination (i.e., reread)
Riff: a repeated phrase, in music
Ring Off: hang up (the telephone)
Rubbish: trash; when a reply to someone else's statement, it means nonsense
Scone: a biscuit (as we use the word), sometimes with raisins; often eaten at tea (see below)
Serviette: napkin
Shop Stewards: the trade union leaders in a particular factory
Slag: stone waste from the coal and iron mines
Sleeve (of a record): record jacket
Sloaney: bought at Sloane Square or on Sloane Street, which means high style for teens and twenties (guess)
Smart: fashionable
Snap: snack
Snooker: pool (the game)
Solicitor (see barrister)
Sponge: sponge cake
Squat: to occupy an unoccupied house illegally; a house occupied by squatters
Stalls: orchestra seats, in a theater
Starter: appetizer
Stilton: a sharp English cheese (like blue cheese)
Stone: 14 pounds weight (used in the singular, even when you say he weighed 10 stone)
Subway: a walkway passing under a road, railroad, etc.; not an underground railroad, which is called the underground
Surgeon: in addition to our usage, it used to mean a general practitioner; a surgery still means any doctor's office
Sweet: dessert, candy
Swot: study hard, cram
Tart: promiscuous woman, or a prostitute
Tea: not just a drink, but a meal around 4:00-5:00 p.m., which can be tea and cookies, or something more elaborate; also a break during the day, like our coffee break
Territorials: a volunteer, locally organized British army reserve
Tied Cottage: a cottage owned by the employer (historically, a laborer's cottage owned by the farmer, or a miner's cottage owned by the mine-owner), who would expel the tenant if he ceased to employ him, or his family if he died
Tin (tinned): can (canned)
Tip: dump (especially for slag from coal mines)
Torch: flashlight (as well as our usage)
Transportation: a sentence for criminals until the 1840s was to be transported to the colonies (first America, then Australia)
Trolley: cart (e.g., the drinks cart on an airplane, or the cart on which a maid carries her cleaning materials, or a shopping cart)
Victorian: roughly the period 1830-1900; Victoria's reign was 1837-1901
WAAF: Women's Auxiliary Air Force
Wallah: civil servant, bureaucrat (originally Anglo-Indian)
Wardrobe: a piece of furniture that serves as a closet, where you can hang your clothes
WC (water closet): toilet that is not part of a bathroom; toilet stall
Wellies: Wellington boots (a high rubber boot, to walk in the mud)
Wench: girl (now old-fashioned working-class usage)
Whiskey: Scotch (unless stated otherwise)
White Coffee: coffee with milk or cream
Wicket: the playing field in cricket, a turn at bat in cricket, or the sticks that the bowler (pitcher) aims at in cricket; batting a losing wicket means doing something that is hopeless
Woodbine: a brand of cigarette
Workhouse: under the old Poor Law (abolished in 1929), all people in receipt of government assistance in theory had to go into the workhouse, a strong deterrent to looking to government for aid
Yob: hooligan (slang)